Beneath the surface of Arctic fjords lies a dynamic world where suspended particles, seafloor habitats and buried sediments shape how carbon is stored. As glaciers melt, terrestrial sediments enter coastal waters and organic and mineral particles sink toward the seabed, providing an important source of nutrition for benthic communities and influencing how much carbon can ultimately be stored there.
Within the Carbon and Sediments research cluster, scientists study how these organic particles form, move and change as they travel from surface waters through the fjords to the seafloor. Using radionuclide tracers, particle-imaging tools and microbial analyses, they assess the efficiency of the biological carbon pump and measure how much organic matter reaches marine sediments.
Another focus of the group concerns how sediments and benthic organisms process, recycle and bury this incoming material. Through seafloor mapping, sediment coring and in-situ flux experiments, researchers analyse how fjord type, sediment characteristics and benthic communities influence carbon preservation or release, and how events such as landslides or turbidity currents affect long-term carbon storage.
These studies aim to clarify how carbon moves from the ocean surface to deep sediments, how much is retained or remineralised, and how rapid glacier melt is reshaping the Arctic’s capacity to store carbon.
Outcomes:
- Quantifying how carbon sinks to the seafloor: determining how particles form, travel and settle from surface waters into fjords.
- Understanding how sediments store or release carbon: identifying the physical, biological and chemical processes that govern carbon burial, remineralisation and long-term retention.
- Revealing how glacial change reshapes the seafloor: showing how meltwater and sediment plumes influence benthic habitats, carbon cycling and the stability of Arctic sediment systems.
Research Projects:
- CARAMBAR – Source-to-sink carbon transfer using carbonate system parameters, oxygen, and radium isotopes
- FjordOC – Tracing organic matter across Greenlandic fjords
- REMAP – Revealing marine particle dynamics in West Greenland
- TRACE-WGC – Tracing heat, nutrient and freshwater transfers and primary production along the West Greenland current
- Uncertain-Sinks – Benthic carbon cycling and storage in Arctic fjords