Cryosphere-driven submarine groundwater inflows in the Arctic

This PhD project aims to investigate the submarine discharge of groundwater from northern Norwegian margin, Svalbard archipelago, and other continental slope/shelf regions in the Siberian Arctic Ocean. Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) delivers trace elements, nutrients, and dissolved carbon components from land to the ocean with potent consequences on productivity and carbon cycling. It has been proposed that the SGD occurred at great water depths (e.g., continental shelf and slope) from the polar regions is driven by the dynamics of cryosphere (e.g., ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, and permafrost). Such a hypothesis is however not being sufficiently examined with its impacts on ocean chemistry poorly investigated.

Through several international collaborative projects, we will survey a large area from the Arctic region where high SGD has been inferred from previous studies. A wide array of geochemical tools will be adopted to confirm the occurrence of SGD (e.g., d¹⁸O, dD, dissolved chloride concentrations), investigate the consequence of SGD (e.g., d^138/134Ba, d³⁴S, etc), and determine the ages of SGD (e.g., C-14, U-Th). A state-of-the-art geochemical model will be applied to quantitatively interpret the obtained results.

The successful candidate will attend several (2-3) cruises to the Arctic region over the coming years and perform geochemical analyses on pore fluid and sediment samples in collaborations with a group of international experts. It is also expected for the selected candidate to present the results from international/national conferences as well as peer-reviewed scientific journals.