Latvian researchers in the Arctic – 1st blog entry

Latvian researchers in the Arctic – 1st blog entry

The furthest and coldest expedition of this year for the LHEI microplastic pollution research group. We are on our way to Svalbard – an archipelago of islands belonging to Norway, one of the most remote inhabited places in the North. We will provide regular blog posts about how the research expedition is going

To give you an idea of the location, the archipelago is roughly halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Svalbard has been known to people for a long time – before it was discovered by the Dutch in 1596, Svalbard was called the land of the “pointy mountains” (hence the widely known name Spitzbergen), Icelanders had already managed to visit the “cold edge” or Svalbard in 1194. The archipelago is belongs to Norway, however, thanks to its history, there is an international agreement that allows other countries to use Svalbard’s resources by building research stations there, for instance. Thus Svalbard has become one of the best-studied places in the Arctic. In addition to Norwegian research stations, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, China, Taiwan and other countries also have research stations in Svalbard. Research on climate change is particularly important, as global warming and its associated consequences are particularly pronounced in Svalbard. As the air temperature rises, glaciers decrease rapidly, the amount of precipitation increases, stable sea ice occurs for a shorter period of time, the number of Svalbard’s iconic inhabitants – polar bears – decreases.

If so much has been studied there, why do we go there and ultimately who pays for it? This expedition takes place within the research cooperation project between Latvia, Lithuania and Taiwan. In 1997 cooperation in science began between the Latvian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Taiwan. Later, in 2000, cooperation was expanded by establishing a tripartite Latvia-Lithuania-Taiwan scientific cooperation support fund. Thus, all three countries share the funding. The purpose of the fund is to promote advanced cooperation in the fields of science and technology by supporting scientific research projects in which researchers from the three member states participate together.

Our topic of interest is microplastic pollution and related persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic meltwater ecosystems (project acronym “MP-ARCTIC”). The project is carried out by researchers from LHEI, Marine Research Institute of Klaipėda University (Lithuania) and Institute of Ocean Technology and Marine Affairs of National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan). We are a team of 7 smart people, where LHEI is represented by the only two ladies of the project consortium – Senior Researcher Inta Dimante-Deimantoviča and Research Assistant, PhD student Marta Barone.

Our goal is to investigate how fast and what types of microplastics accumulate in lagoons and freshwater ponds formed by melting glaciers in the recent past. In addition, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) bound to the surface of microplastic particles and how they can potentially affect Arctic ecosystems will be investigated. POPs are among the most dangerous pollutants that enter the environment as a result of anthropogenic activities. They are found in plant protection products, chemical products used in industry, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), furans, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and others. These compounds are toxic and carcinogenic, adversely affecting human health and other living organisms, damaging nervous system, immune system and hindering development of the body. In addition, these compounds are very stable and can persist in the environment for many decades, accumulating in the tissues of living organisms. Predatory fish and mammals, including humans, are the ones at the final stage of the food chain, so human tissues can accumulate the highest concentrations of POPs. These pollutants have also been found in organisms living in the Arctic, far from the sources of the pollution. Microplastics serve as a “vehicle” for pollutants. POPs are bound to their surface, which together with plastic particles can be moved from one place to another, from one organism to the next.

Team of each country has its own role and expertise in this project. Lithuanian colleagues study biodiversity of the Arctic, Latvian team is the most knowledgeable in the field of microplastic pollution research, while the Taiwanese colleagues are responsible for the research of POPs.

We are ready: from Riga with a heavy luggage containing everything necessary for the expedition – equipment, clothes, some food. We fly through Oslo and then our next stop is Longyearbyen – the largest settlement in Svalbard. Guess how much our expedition luggage weighs in total, if the weight of both researchers is 113 kg? Answer in next post!

Project “MP-ARCTIC” implemented with the support of Latvian Council of Science.