Long-term limnological monitoring in Revdalen (LongRevView)

Arctic ecosystems are strongly influenced by the effects of the ongoing climate change and high latitude lakes, as sentinels of that process, are of particular interest to environmental scientists and decision-makers. These pristine and remote aquatic habitats are used globally as models to understand past and forecast future changes of Arctic freshwaters under transition. Lakes on Svalbard represent particularly unique environments where the direct impact from human activities is still negligible but indirect effects of the changing meteorological forcing and connectivity with terrestrial and glacial components of the landscape can be well constrained and mechanistically characterized. However, despite this vast potential for using Svalbard lakes as sentinels of the recent global environmental change, there is relatively little continuous information on the meteorological, hydrological in catchments, and resulting limnological conditions in lakes themselves. The available datasets collected intermittently on different Svalbard lakes are invaluable for validation of assumptions, description, and parametrization of ecosystem-scale processes which, by all means, improve our understanding of natural lake evolution and its change under ongoing climatic shift. Following the aims of the SIOS, we will expand existing measurement networks into the new locations by initiating new long-term monitoring in the lake system of Revvatnet in the valley of Revdalen (Hornsund area). The monitoring on Revvatnet lake system will be second limnological monitoring following the effort commenced in 2003 at Linnévatnet near Isfjord Radio by UNIS. Monitoring in Revvatnet will consist of comprehensive hydrological, limnological, and meteorological measurements among others including continuous records of (1) water temperature; (2) water level; (3) pH; (4) conductivity; (5) dissolved O2 in surface and bottom waters; (6) dissolved CO2 at the water-atmosphere interface; and semi-continuous records of (7) sediment flux in the lake; (8) suspended sediment concentration (9) temperature, dissolved O2 and water turbidity in depths profiles; as well as continuous (10) meteorological measurements in the catchment including air temperature, precipitation, pressure, humidity; (11) time-lapse cameras for information about the freezing and melting of the lake ice and snow cover. This new long-term monitoring will be realized by Polish Polar Station Hornsund with the Department of Polar and Marine Research Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences as a part of environmental monitoring realized in the station.

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