Scientific Research in Polar Seas – ERICON Science Perspective 2015-2030

Abstract

Polar sciences are a modern branch of the natural sciences involving large groups of researchers, and sophisticated instrumentation contributing indispensable data for a better understanding of the polar regions and their impact on the global environment. The fact that a lot of the necessary data can only be collected by dedicated research vessels, from permanently manned stations, or during expeditions involving many different disciplines and substantial logistic efforts, has resulted in complex and expensive interdisciplinary experiments. These can only be effectively coordinated within the framework of close international cooperation. The ERICON Science Perspective addresses the entire polar marine scientific community that requires a research vessel for carrying out their field and sea work throughout all seasons of the year. It also addresses the community that needs a deep-sea drilling facility, which would use the research platform, mainly during the summer months, to study the structure and properties of the oceanic crust and the history of the oceanic depositional environments in polar regions. Deep-sea drilling has only been done once in the ice-infested waters of the central Arctic during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) 302, aka, ACEX Coring Expedition. Around Antarctica substantial progress has been achieved by using the drilling platforms of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and the IODP, during the ice-free seasons, and by using a drill rig from the land fast sea ice very close to shore on the Cape Roberts Project (CRP), and from the ice shelf in the ANtarctic geological DRILLing project (ANDRILL). However, in Antarctica, neither the CRP-tools nor the conventional drilling vessels, which cannot enter iceinfested waters, are able to cover all desirable drilling locations. So far, mainly due to the lack of a suitable ice-capable drilling platform, it has not been possible to investigate many of these locations. These scientific targets will now receive renewed attention in this report (cf. Chapters 3 and 4). The ERICON scientific program focuses on the research disciplines and activities that require a platform with the unique capability of year-round operations in the central Arctic and Antarctic ice infested waters. This document is organized in six chapters. Chapters 1 to 5 are dedicated to five major Scientific Core Topics, each encompassing a number of high-priority key questions embracing the most important scientific challenges that should be targeted in the next fifteen years. Chapter 6 focuses on the technological requirements needed to successfully answer these scientific questions. The managerial, financial, and organizational structures for building and managing the vessel, as well as the technical designs of the research platform, are not included in the present document, but they have been elaborated on within the EU FP7 funded EUROPEAN ICEBREAKER CONSORTIUM “AURORA BOREALIS” (ERICON-AB) project, of which this Science Perspective is a component. The five research topics, around which this Science Perspective is structured, provide an umbrella under which technological and scientific research needs and strategies can be identified. The key questions proposed in each of the chapters have been intentionally kept general and of a nature that will require a strong effort to fulfil, while allowing shorter-term studies to be undertaken on more specific issues. The research topics targeted in this Science Perspective are: • The Changing Polar Oceans, Ice and Atmosphere • The Polar Marine Biosphere • The Polar Ocean’s Geological History • Polar Paleoclimate and Marine Paleoenvironments • Seafloor Processes and Natural Hazards A dedicated platform for polar research with drilling capacities will allow scientists of all polar disciplines to address the five research topics by establishing interdisciplinary campaigns with common goals.