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The world in the Arctic
A willing coalition
of scientists searches for knowledge on the
Beaufort Sea
by Jodi Di Menna
Canada’s Beaufort Sea has long been a lure for foreign explorers. Last year, more than 100
years after Roald Amundsen left Norway to navigate the first ship through the Arctic
to the Beaufort, a research vessel named in his honour became home to scientists from around
the world while they studied the environment of this northern sea.
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For one year, including six months that the ship spent frozen in the ice, 225 scientists
from Canada, the United States, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom
conducted experiments in everything from shifting sea-ice cover to changing wildlife populations
to fluctuations in the arctic atmosphere. When the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen returned
to port in Quebec City on October 8, 2004 it carried a treasure chest of new knowledge about
the impact of climate change on the arctic ecosystem.
The project was a "good deal for Canada," says principal investigator Louis Fortier.
According to Fortier, developing international partnerships and recruiting foreign expertise
were key to enabling Canada to conduct a program of this calibre.
In the past, international researchers chartered Canadian ships to do arctic research without
bothering to invite Canadian scientists along. But "Canada, as a major Arctic country,
should take leadership of international research in the Arctic," Fortier says. One reason
for the research vessel Amundsen was to claim that role for Canada. Says Fortier: "It
shows the world that Canada is doing something in the Arctic."
Among the many findings made aboard the Amundsen is a prediction that Atlantic
cod could soon replace its smaller arctic cousin as sea ice is reduced and water temperatures
warm in the north. The possibility could mean a boon for cod fishing in Canada, but may be
detrimental to animals such as seals, whales and polar bears that feed on the arctic variety.
Also significant is the discovery, contrary to what scientists expected, that each square
metre of sea ice can store about 20 grams of carbon dioxide, resulting in lower levels of
the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere directly over the ice. This means that with less ice
forming each winter, less carbon dioxide will be taken out of the atmosphere, adding to the
problem of global warming.
Collaborating with international researchers was not only an efficient way to paint a more
complete picture of climate change in the Arctic; it also made for a dynamic social scene
on board the ship. "You see the differences in the way people do things in Japan or
the U.S., so there’s a lot of exchange of ideas," Fortier says. He notes that arctic
research has changed in other ways since Roald Amundsen visited the Arctic at the
beginning of the last century. "It’s not like in the old days when you had five or 10
scientists of rather mature age overwintering in a wooden ship and telling stories of polar
bears." With a younger constituency of graduate students, a gender ratio of nearly fifty-fifty
and a multicultural mix, the Amundsen was "more of a microcosm of modern society," Fortier
says. "It was always a cultural experience."
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