SEA-Quester at Arctic Science Summit Week 2025

SEA-Quester researchers were present at Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Boulder, Colorado. ASSW is organised annually by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and is the most important annual gathering of the Arctic research organisations.

• Claudia Schmidt and Helmuth Thomas from Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon have recently published research on ‘The Contrasting Role of Marine- and Land-Terminating Glaciers on Biogeochemical Cycles in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard’, as well as Biogeochemical cycles in Arctic Coastal Systems’ and ‘Influences on chemical distribution patterns across the west Greenland Shelf’.
• Sarina Niedzwiedz (Postdoctoral researcher in Marine Botany at University of Bremen) is the lead author of research recently published on ‘The Unforseen Effects of Melting Glaciers on Arctic Coastal Ecosystems’.

They participated in the EU Polar Cluster session ‘Enhancing the role of the EU Polar Cluster’ as panelists, and were available for Q&A at the EU Polar Cluster booth. Their research results were presented in a session entitled ‘Emerging Arctic ecosystems and their potential for carbon sequestration’. where there were 9 speakers. Claudia Schmidt writes

“We invited contributions that are planning or already conducting fundamental and applied research into carbon production, export and sequestration across the full range of existing and emerging Arctic ecosystems. We welcomed contributions focusing on observational studies (in situ, paleo-oceanography, or remote sensing) or modelling approaches that estimate carbon sequestration in the past, at the present-day and in the future. Our aim was to focus on quantifying the carbon sequestration potential of novel Arctic ecosystems associated with sea ice retreat and marginal ice zones and compare it to the paleo-oceanographic records of past sedimentation, productivity, ice cover and other environmental factors in coastal, fjord, shelf sea and open ocean ecosystems.”

Thanks to Eva Horovčáková for the booth photos and Maria Grigoratou for the panel discussion photos.