Fram Centre

Five decades of terrestrial research in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard

For over 50 years, research has been conducted in Ny-Ålesund, to understand High Arctic ecosystems and their responses to environmental change. A “hot-spot” for long-term research and monitoring, Ny-Ålesund has been instrumental in documenting, understanding, and predicting anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems.
June 28, 2023

What should we do while waiting for environmental pollutants to be banned?

Back in 2014, several national newspapers had headlines like “Norwegians are the most toxic people in the world”. The news was based on a research study which showed that in 60 years, Norwegians had gone from having six or seven environmental pollutants in their bodies to having 200-300.
June 08, 2023

A deadly polar low – how to forecast it

Seventy years ago, a polar low led to one of the worst shipwrecks in Norwegian history. Seventy-nine men lost their lives. Fortunately, with today’s technology and methods, such storms have become easier to forecast.
May 30, 2023

To tame a polar bear

This year marks 150 years since the polar explorer Roald Amundsen was born. All of Norway knows he was the first to sail through the Northwest Passage in 1903-1906 and the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. Fewer are aware that he also sailed through the Northeast Passage in 1918-1925.
May 12, 2023

Researching white spaces on the map

Thirty years ago, glaciers and ice caps were seen as sterile, lifeless areas – white spaces on the map. Now the melting of the ice masses is accelerating, and recent research shows that they play an important role in the global carbon budget. Understanding that role is an urgent research task.
May 04, 2023

Aluminium buckets and 600 degrees help researchers find microplastics in air

Have you used the car lately? Or perhaps washed clothes? In any case, the chances are high that you have released microplastics to your immediate environment. And from you, the microplastics can fly all the way to Svalbard.
April 18, 2023

Adaptive monitoring of the arctic fox in the Norwegian low Arctic

Arctic species are currently under multiple pressures and several are red-listed. Adaptive ecosystem-based monitoring and management applied to the critically endangered arctic fox in Finnmark, illustrates how such pressures can be uncovered and potentially mitigated.
April 11, 2023

Developing new maps for the coastal zone

For the past three years, the Norwegian Mapping Authority, the Geological Survey of Norway, and the Institute of Marine Research have been at the helm of a pilot project which has developed new map and data products for the coastal zone. These initial results help chart the way for continued seabed mapping along the coast.
March 29, 2023

How will climate change affect Arctic agriculture?

With temperatures on the rise, new opportunities for Arctic food and fodder production emerge.
March 21, 2023

Exceptional temperature increase in Arctic hotspot

The Barents area is the fastest warming place on the planet. A new study shows that the warming is happening twice as fast as previously thought.
March 16, 2023

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