Fram Centre

Kongsfjorden’s Wingman

Kongsfjorden. Our story begins there and it will end there, but Geir Wing Gabrielsen may never be finished with the fjord. Although he has probably spent more seasons doing fieldwork there than anyone else, he still has projects lined up.
May 04, 2022

The red king crab: a blacklisted but valuable fisheries resource

With climate change come changes in species distribution. Here in the High North, we expect to see many marine species move northwards. In addition, humans sometimes move species for commercial purposes with varying outcomes. One such species in the red king crab.
April 20, 2022

ArcticInfo ‒ A digital service for safer seaborne voyages in the Arctic

ArcticInfo provides important information on sailing conditions in the Arctic, supporting decisions for safer navigation in Arctic waters. Map-based and accessible to all, ArcticInfo covers large areas off the coasts of Norway, Iceland, Russia, Canada, and Greenland, plus the Barents and North Seas.
April 05, 2022

Ecological effects of Pacific pink salmon in a river system in Finnmark

Pacific pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) were introduced in the Kola Peninsula for their valuable eggs in the 1950s. Since then, the species has spread along the entire Norwegian coast and will probably remain. Scientists from several countries are trying to understand its ecological effects.
March 29, 2022

Dsolve: working to prevent plastic litter in the marine environment

Plastic waste is high on the environmental agenda. Unfortunately, much of the marine litter in Norwegian waters originates from the fishing and aquaculture industries. Researchers are now working with these and other industries to find ways to eliminate or reduce the problems plastics cause.
March 23, 2022

Initiation of environmental science cooperation between Norway and Russia in 1992

Retrospective: Norway’s relationship with its superpower neighbour to the east has often been tense. In this article, Salve Dahle and co-authors give an eyewitness account of the time just after the fall of the Soviet Union, when cross-border tensions began to ease.
March 18, 2022

Research in the Arctic, for those who live here

The Fram Centre launches five new research programs with a total budget of 250 million NOK over five years.
February 14, 2022

Fjord ice in Svalbard—an important kindergarten for seafloor animal babies

Ringed seals and polar bears are not the only Arctic organisms that depend on sea ice. Thousands of microscopic plants and animals also utilise sea ice, but they are poorly known and rarely described to the public. Recent findings suggest that sea ice is an important nursery ground for many of them.
October 18, 2021

What does the arctic fox eat?

In 2018 an arctic fox captured in a trap had a fishing net around its neck. In 2019 a picture was taken of arctic fox scat with a lot of brightly coloured pieces of plastic in it. These events persuaded us to investigate if ingestion of human litter is a problem for the arctic fox population.
June 23, 2021

Rockslides in the Arctic: Why do we care?

Global climate warming is most severe in the Arctic. One consequence is a widespread reduction in permafrost. Continuous, stable permafrost can act as a physical glue that helps anchor unstable slopes. Increasingly, scientists are reporting collapse of rock slopes in the High Arctic.
June 14, 2021

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