Preliminary Results of an Experimental Survey in Kongsfjorden Area (June 2017)

During the last years polar oceans showed the effects of global climate change, with important variations of physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Global warming causes a significant reduction in sea-ice thickness and in tidewater glaciers extension during late summer and autumn intensifying the input of freshwater and sediments, causing a reduction of water transparency as a consequence of increasing water turbidity. These processes have an impact on phytoplankton biomass life cycle, especially in the Kongsfjorden area, Svalbard Archipelago, that is relatively warmer than other Arctic areas. An oceanographic experimental survey was performed during June 2017 to study the ice melting of the tidewater glaciers in the Kongsfjord making use of traditional and innovative instrumentations. Two 'state of the art' probes, Idronaut 305 plus and Cyclops-7F(TM) Turner Design, and a new low-cost probe were installed onboard an innovative unmanned marine vehicle, PROTEUS (Portable RObotic TEchnology for Unmanned Surveys). The survey was carried out along Kronebreen and Blomstrandbreen glaciers, where a series of transects extending from a support boat up to the direct front of the glaciers allowed the acquisition of surface water temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, fluorescence and turbidity. This work shows the preliminary results of data acquired by the different probes, with a particular focus on the comparison between traditional and innovative ones.