The IKKA project: Ikaite experiments at the IceLab
Short description
As the Arctic region is warming, this poses problems to Arctic ecosystems that are not adapted to an increase in e.g., temperature. One such example is the marine Ikka Fjord in Southwest Greenland, where around one thousand submarine mineral columns grow up from the bottom of the fjord. They are primarily made of the cold carbonate mineral ikaite (CaCO3•6H2O). This mineral is only stable up to around 6 degree C above which it will alter into other minerals and perhaps cause collapse of the columns. The experiments running in the IceLab at Natrium has the purpose to find out a) what is the upper stability temperature for the ikaite columns of Ikka Fjord, 2) for how long time is ikaite stable at different seawater temperatures, and 3) what alteration minerals are forming from the breakdown of ikaite when seawater is slowly heated.
Icelab experiments
The experiments running in the IceLab at Natrium has the purpose to find out
1. what is the upper stability temperature for the ikaite columns of Ikka Fjord
2. for how long time is ikaite stable at different seawater temperatures, and
3. what alteration minerals are forming from the breakdown of ikaite when seawater is slowly heated.
With these results at hand, we can predict what effect climate change will have on the delicate ikaite columns of Greenland. As these columns only exist in Ikka Fjord in Greenland and nowhere else on Earth and host a unique ecosystem of high biodiversity, the Government of Greenland has made the area into a protected nature reserve. However, climate change is difficult to protect against but knowledge of the fate of the columns in heated seawater can help the government with conservation and legislation.
The experiments in the IceLab take advantage of the special facilities available at Natrium, University of Gothenburg. In this lab, we are preparing the temperature-sensitive ikaite columns cutting off slices or cubes, which are then polished to create a smooth surface that can be easily analysed with m-Raman in the next-door laboratory. The cubes can be mounted in a container with seawater in a special designed cold stage that allows for contemporary Raman analysis to identify minerals. This cold stage has a temperature control of ±0.1°C and has been used to simulate an incremental heating of seawater.
Another type of experimental setup uses beakers, where larger pieces of columns are mounted in seawater together with temperature controllers of fixed temperature. The aim here is to record the time of transformation from ikaite to other minerals at 4, 6, 8 and 10°C, respectively.
IKKA project
In addition to experiments, fieldwork in Ikka Fjord is carried out. Currently, all activities are part of a 3-year project “The Ikaite columns - past and future, and prospects in a changing Arctic 2022-2025” funded by NAPA, a programme under the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The IKKA project itself has been running since 1995 and was initiated by a group of biologists and geologists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and geophysicists from Imperial College in London, UK. In the last decade, researchers from Stockholm University (SU), SGU, and the University of Gothenburg (GU) in Sweden have aided in this multidisciplinary research. From GU the following researchers are participating in fieldwork and research on biology, geology, and oceanography, respectively: Lina Rasmusson, Erik Sturkell and Bengt Liljebladh.
Fieldwork in June 2024 focused on the biodiversity of the columns and collecting seawater data. Further, two professional underwater photographers, Uli Kunz and Florian Huber aided in capturing the amazing column world in photos and videos, and making 3D scans of selected columns.