Fram Centre

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

The perfect spot for gatherings for 10,000 years

Exchange of knowledge and expertise, bartering and wooing. Kirkhellaren Cave on Sanna in Træna is Norway’s oldest meeting place, having first been used about 10,000 years ago.
February 16, 2023

Joining forces against radiation accidents

Along the Norwegian coast two degrees above the Arctic Circle, an icebreaker makes its way back from the North Pole. Suddenly, a fire breaks out. As nearby ships respond to the mayday, the icebreaker reports that its nuclear reactor is damaged. Radiation contaminates the crew and the environment.
October 24, 2022

Leaching of metals from mine tailings in Repparfjorden

For centuries, Norway has been using harbours and fjords as disposal sites for waste, including industrial waste, sewage sludge, wastewater, and mine tailings. The “out of sight out of mind” approach caught up with the practise in the 1970s, when the impacts on aquatic life became apparent.
October 12, 2022

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