Researchers of Wageningen University & Research can regularly be found on and around Svalbard. For example, to do research on plastic waste, marine mammals and birds, alien species or climate change. Svalbard is also home to the ‘Svalbard Global Seed Vault’: a safe with genetic material from plant species.
– By: Tinka Murk – Socks with holes Life at research station Ny-Ålesund differs a lot from life in the Netherlands. I feel at home quite easily. Not only because everybody here speaks Norwegian to me (I guess I look quite Norwegian), but also because life is quite easy going…
– By: Martine van den Heuvel-Greve – VIP guests The research station of Ny-Ålesund is a popular place for visiting VIP s. Recently Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and our minister of Foreign Affairs, Bert Koenders, visited Ny-Ålesund. The place is popular because many nations have their own…
– By: Martine van den Heuvel-Greve – Resembling an oil spill We use small crustaceans to test their sensitivity to oil, when dissolved in water, resembling an oil spill at sea. We conducted similar tests in the Netherlands with related Dutch species. The results will tell us whether the tests…
– By: Tinka Murk – The sediment sampler During 2 sampling trips we had the opportunity to collect some deep (300 m) and shallow (30 m) sediment samples with a Van Veen – sampler. With its ‘big mouth’ opened the sampler is lowered. It closes as soon as it bumps…
– By: Isolde Puts – Lab with a view Making long nights in the lab under the nordic midnight sun is not as hard as it sounds. While monitoring our test every half hour throughout the night, we have a view over the harbour area and Kongsfjorden. A group of…
– By: Isolde Puts – Fieldwork; sampling water and dirt On a small research vessel, Teisten, we went out to sample algae and sediments. Surrounded by several sea-glaciers it is a pretty sight floating amidst many icebergs. Puffins are floating on the fjord on our way to the sampling station….
– By: Tinka Murk – Do Arctic algae make ‘sea snot’? We found out that in the tropical climate of the Gulf of Mexico (Deep Water Horizon blow out in 2010), and experimentally with Dutch algae (in temperate climate) marine algae make ‘sea snow’ and ‘sea snot’ in combination with oil…
– By: Martine van den Heuvel-Greve – Sampling gear For our test we need to catch small crustacean type invertebrates, gammarids. We hope to be able to catch these directly in the harbour next to the marine laboratory. Wearing a neoprene wading suit to keep us warm we enter the…
– By: Martine van den Heuvel-Greve – Arrival at Svalbard This year we have a 3-women’s team of the Wageningen University and Research Centre conducting fieldwork in Ny-Ålesund, the research station at northwest Svalbard: Tinka Murk (professor in Marine Animal Ecology at Wageningen University), Isolde Puts (former student of Wageningen…
Polar scientist Martine van den Heuvel-Greve will visit the Dutch Arctic station at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, again from 12 – 27 June 2016. This year she is accompanied for her research by Tinka Murk (professor in Marine Animal Ecology at Wageningen University) and Isolde Puts (former student of Wageningen University). Follow…