Ice station documentation from expedition SAS, Arctic Ocean, 2021

Pauline Snoeijs-Leijonmalm, SAS-Oden 2021 Scientific Party

The dataset contains metadata and 353 files with photographs and field notes from the ice stations visited during the Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) 2021 expedition with the Swedish icebreaker Oden in summer 2021.

Altogether, 316 ice cores, as well as water samples (melt ponds, brackish brine, ice-seawater interface) and snow samples were taken at 16 ice stations during the expedition. These ice-station samples were used for measuring temperature (immediately after sampling in the field), salinity (on-board) and inorganic nutrients (on-board), and to later analyze particulate carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, stable isotopes (¹³C and ¹⁵N), chlorophyll-a, pigment composition (chlorophylls and carotenoids), meiofauna community composition (microscopy, DNA), microbial community composition (metagenomics, DNA), microbial gene expression (metatranscriptomics, RNA) and diversity of multicellular organisms (environmental DNA).

Each ice core was documented by a photograph that can be used to study the structure of the 85⁠ – 305 cm thick sea ice, which may help explain differences in chemical and biological parameters between ice cores. Additional photographs document ice views and the gear used for sampling ice cores, water and snow. Furthermore, scans of the original ice-station field notes are provided as they may include some extra information about field conditions that is not available elsewhere.

Citation

Pauline Snoeijs-Leijonmalm, SAS-Oden 2021 Scientific Party (2024) Ice station documentation from expedition SAS, Arctic Ocean, 2021. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/oden-sas-2021-ice-stations-1

References

Snoeijs-Leijonmalm Pauline, the SAS-Oden Scientific Party (2022) Expedition Report SWEDARCTIC: Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 with icebreaker Oden. Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, 300 pp, ISBN 978-91-519-3672-7

Snoeijs-Leijonmalm Pauline, SAS-Oden 2021 Scientific Party (2023) General metadata from expedition SAS, Arctic Ocean, 2021. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/oden-sas-2021-expedition-metadata-1

Data description

This dataset is provided in one zip file with three directories:

• metadata, containing one xlsx and one csv file with metadata
• photographs, containing 332 jpg files with photographs of ice cores
• field_notes, containing 21 pdf files with field notes from ice-stations and meiofauna sampling.

Total file size: 1.3 GB (compressed 830 MB).

These data complement the following items:

• Expedition report
• Expedition logbook
  • SO21-expedition-logbook-221106.xlsx in General metadata from expedition SAS
• Ice station logbook
  • SO21-icestation-logbook-221106.xlsx in General metadata from expedition SAS

Metadata

Metadata are provided in two files with the same content:

• SO21-ice-station-documentation-241023.xlsx
• SO21-ice-station-documentation-241023.csv

Both metadata files list the files with photographs and field notes with their file name, file contents, where to find sampling documentation and where to find field metadata (temperature, salinity, etc.) or samples. All file names include the device operation according to the expedition logbook so that it is possible to extract geographical positions and other sampling station parameters.

Photographs

• 278 photographs showing ice cores immediately after sampling. Next to each ice core is a cm scale showing the length of the core.
• 28 photographs showing the water volume (melted ice) from which the meiofauna samples were taken.
• 26 photographs made during the field work showing the sampling gear used and the ice conditions.

The size of most of the photographic files varies between 2⁠ – ⁠4 MB, but some are up to 12 MB.

Field notes

• 16 pdf files with scans of the original ice-station field notes, one from each of the 16 ice stations.
• 5 pdf files with scans of the original field notes on meiofauna sampling.

These field notes are provided as they may include some extra information about field conditions that is not available elsewhere. The size of the field-note files varies between 2 and 8 MB.

Comments

The data were collected in summer 2021 from Swedish icebreaker Oden during the Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) 2021 expedition organized by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.