Changing Arctic Ocean (CAO) is a £16 million, five year (2017-2022) research programme initially funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The aim of the CAO programme is to understand how change in the physical environment (ice and ocean) will affect the large-scale ecosystem structure and biogeochemical functioning of the Arctic Ocean, the potential major impacts and provide projections for future ecosystem services. In July 2018, additional projects were added to the programme that were jointly funded by NERC and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The Arctic Ocean is responding to global climate change in ways that are not yet fully understood and in some cases, not yet identified. The impacts of change in the Arctic are global in range and international in importance. To achieve the aim, the programme has two key research challenges:
- To develop quantified understanding of the structure and functioning of Arctic ecosystems.
- To understand the sensitivity of Arctic ecosystem structure, functioning and services to multiple stressors and the development of projections of the impacts of change.
The decision to fund the CAO project was both scientific and political and is the second largest research programme funded by NERC.
The programme involves 33 organisations, the majority of which are research institutions in the UK and Germany, and over 170 scientists. The programme consists of four large projects with an additional 12 research projects added in July 2018.
There are 33 organisations involved in the Changing Arctic Ocean project, these are:
- Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI)
- Bangor University
- British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)
- Durham University
- GEOMAR
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research
- Lancaster University
- Marine Biological Association (MBA)
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
- National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
- Newcastle University
- Northumbria University
- Ocean Atmosphere Systems GmbH
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
- Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
- Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC)
- Université Libre de Bruxelles
- University College London (UCL)
- University of Bristol
- University of East Anglia (UEA)
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Glasgow
- University of Huddersfield
- University of Leeds
- University of Liverpool
- University of Manchester
- University of Oldenburg
- University of Oxford
- University of Southampton
- University of St Andrews
- University of Stirling
- University of Strathclyde
In addition to the core organisation, there are a number of international collaborators.
Further information can be found on the Changing Arctic Ocean website.
The programme consists of seven core cruises that survey areas in the Barents Sea and the Fram Strait on board the NERC research vessel RRS James Clark Ross. Measurements will include temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, inorganic nutrients, oxygen and carbon isotopes and underway meteorological and surface ocean observations. In addition to ship based cruise datasets gliders, moorings and animal tags are part of the fieldwork. Further data ar | 