The DWARF sampling in West Spitsbergen fjords took place during one of the AREX2014 cruise on r/v Oceania. Materials were collected in two Spitsbergen fjords: Hornsund and Kongsfjorden. During this expedition, besides samples for DWARF project, materials for a number of other projects were collected, including two other Polish-Norwegian projects - POLNOR and GLAERE as well as routine IOPAS monitoring programme. The scientific program of the cruise was composed of numerous tasks and to be able to complete all of them the ship and the crew had to to work 24 hours per day. For the DWARF project samples of planktonic and benthic fauna were collected (WP 3, WP 4 and WP 5) along with the background environmental data as CTD measurements and sediment samples for geochemical analyses. Whole campaign lasted 17 days. We started in Longyearbyen and first sailed to Hornsund, where we spent one week, than we moved to Kongsfjorden, stopping on our way in Longyearbyen where part of the crew was changed. In every fjord 5 DWARF stations located in the central/outer basins were chosen for soft bottom and plankton surveys, and a lot of dredgings were conducted in search for Bryozoa and hard bottom fauna.

Localisations of Hornsund fjord and Kongsfjorden


Sampling stations in Hornsund

Sampling stations in Kongsfjorden

DWARF participants of the West Spitsbergen cruise: Piotr Kuklinski (chief scientist; hard bottom benthos), Maria Włodarska-Kowalczuk (droject leader; benthos), Łukasz Hoppe (LOPC), Marta Głuchowska (plankton), Kasia Błachowiak-Samołyk (plankton), Marcin Wichorowski (LOPC), Mikołaj Mazurkiewicz (benthos), supported by hydrologists - Dorota Gutowska and Piotr Markuszewski, marine optician - Marek Darecki (photographer) and scientific equipment specialists - Roman Grzybowski and Roman Obuchowski