Die Laptewsee im Wandel: Neue Seewege möglich

The Laptev Sea - chances for new sea routes: There is a growing concern about the rapidity and extent of climate changes in recent decades in the Arctic. The changes already evident in the Arctic, such as the cyclonic shift in the distribution of Atlantic/Pacific water masses, atmospheric pressure and winds, as well as the thinning and retreat of the sea-ice, will be felt first and most dramatically around the circum-Arctic shelves - nearly 50% of the area of the Arctic Ocean. In this context the Laptev Sea and its Siberian hinterland are of particular interest because of their distance both from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. River discharge into the Laptev Sea constitutes a key source for the Arctic freshwater input generating a shallow brackish layer on top of the halicline. The shallow Laptev Sea Shelf is a major area of sea-ice production, linking the Siberian shelves of the Arctic Ocean with the Nordic seas. During the last Glacial Maximum most of these shelves were above sea level and developed thick permafrost sequences which are today sub-marine after they experienced the post-Glacial late Pleistocene and Holocene transgression. The history of the sub-marine permafrost and its modern state of decay are largely unknown

Dynamics and history of the Laptev Sea and its continental hinterland: A summary

Russian and German scientists have investigated the extreme environmental system in and around the Laptev Sea in the Siberian Arctic. For the first time a major comprehensive research program combining the efforts of several projects addressed both oceanic and terrestrial processes, and their consequences for marine and terrestrial biota, landscape evolution as well as land-ocean interactions. The primary scientific goal of the multidisciplinary program was to decipher past climate variations and their impact on contemporary environmental changes. Extensive studies of the atmosphere, sea ice, water column, and sea-floor on the Laptev Sea Shelf, as well as of the vegetation, soil development, carbon cycle, permafrost behaviour and lake hydrology, and sedimentationon Taymyr Peninsula and Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago were performed during the past years under a framework of joint research activities. They included land and marine expeditions during spring (melting), summer (ice free), and autumn (freezing) seasons. The close bilateral cooperation between many institutions in Russia and Germany succeeded in drawing a picture of important processes shaping the marine and terrestrial environment in northern Central Siberia in Late Quaternary time. The success of the projects, which ended in late 1997, resulted in the definition and establishment of a new major research effort which will concentrate on establishing a better understanding of the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental record of the area. This is important because it allows to be able to judge rates and extremes of potential future environmental changes