From the worm’s point of view. I: Environmental settings of benthic ecosystems in Arctic fjord (Hornsund,Spitsbergen)

As a consequence of ongoing climate warming, nearly all tidal glaciers in Arctic are retreating; hence, the seascape of glacial fjords is changing in many aspects. We took the example of Hornsund, the well-studied Svalbard fjord, with over 30 years of almost continuous observations of marine system. Recent data were collected during summer oceanographic surveys between 2001 and 2013 and compared with archival data from 1980s. As most of the phenomena connected with the warming happen at the sea surface (ice, wind, waves, surface currents, brackish water), we were interested, how the presumably stable, near-bottom waters in fjords behave, what are the environmental changes that are experienced directly by the worms living in the sediment. We have found that both the inner fjord basins (usually regarded as stable) and the outer fjord parts (exposed to the direct influence of shelf waters) has changed. Warming was documented in the inner basins, while cooling and warming episodes were recorded in the outer parts of the fjord. We demonstrate that following the increase melting and retreat of the glaciers, the area of shallows increased, salinity decreased and temperature increased—partly due to the advection of Atlantic waters from the shelf. Observed changes are in accordance with the model of arctic fjords evolution towards boreal ones associated with increased organic matter turnover. The observed changes are most likely typical for all cold water, glaciated fjords that are exposed to climate warming.