Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) with a field station in Kobbefjord (KB)

Station name and owner

Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) is owned by the Government of Greenland.

Location

The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources with its main buildings, laboratories, and living quarters is located in Nuuk, Greenland (64°11’ N, 51°41’ W). A research/field station is located in Kobbefjord (64°08’ N, 51°23’ W), c. 25 km southeast of Nuuk.

Climate data

Grey colours are WMO Climate Normals including maximum and minimum values. Blue colours are individual years.

Climate data for the stations where extracted via Copernicus Climate Data Store, from the global gridded reanalysis product: ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present. Description and source code: Roemer J.K. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214922 Data Source: Hersbach et al. 2023. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS), https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

Biodiversity and natural environment

GINR and the Kobbefjord field station provide access to a low arctic ecosystem in West Greenland with different biotopes such as dwarf-shrub heaths, fens, grasslands, and lakes. Monitoring of a variety of parameters on vegetation, arthropods, mammals (both terrestrial and marine), birds, freshwater lakes, and the marine environment has been carried out at GINR for several years.

History and facilities

GINR was founded in 1995 (preceded by Greenland Fisheries Research; established in 1946), and the main building was inaugurated in 1998. The main building houses c. 3000 m2 of facilities necessary for the Institute’s activities, i.e. offices, laboratories, deep-freeze rooms, storage, conference room, and meeting rooms. Adjacent to the main building is an 850 m2 annex with a large multi-room used for meetings and seminars. Furthermore, the annex has five apartments and eight rooms for visiting researchers, as well as a garage/storage room. GINR has a third building near the city centre of Nuuk with furnished guest rooms for students and visiting scientists. In addition to the buildings in Nuuk, GINR owns two field stations, one in Kobbe­fjord, near Nuuk, and another in Niaqornat, in the Uummannaq area, Northwest Greenland. These field stations function as bases for small research teams and accommodates four people each. GINR owns two research vessels, Sanna and Tarajoq, which are used for scientific investigations in both sheltered and open waters. Also, the institute has several small boats and aluminium dinghies. For transport on land, GINR owns four cars and several snowmobiles.

General research and databases

Research and monitoring activities focus on living marine resources (fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds), land-based resources (land mammals and vegetation), as well as physical and chemical processes in the environment in relation to Climate Change and its impact on society. Population assessments and management advice are produced and reviewed in scientific committees under various international bodies where GINR is represented. GINR takes part in the monitoring programme Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (www.g-e-m.dk). The objective is to provide long-term data series of the natural innate oscillations and plasticity of arctic ecosystems. This is accomplished through monitoring of selected biotic parameters and elements throughout the year on a long-term basis. Data from the monitoring is provided free of charge.

Link to data: https://dataportal.eu-interact.org/stations

Station Monitoring

• Climate
  • Meteorology
    • Air temperature
    • Air humidity
    • Air pressure
    • Wind velocity
    • Wind direction
    • Precipitation
  • Energy balance and radiation
    • Short wave incoming
    • Short wave outgoing
    • Long wave incoming
    • Long wave outgoing
    • Net radiation
    • UV-B
• Geo
  • Sub-surface characteristics
    • Ground surface temperature
    • Soil temperature
    • Soil moisture
    • Soil water chemistry
  • Snow characteristics
    • Snow depth
    • Snow density
    • Snow temperature
  • Greenhouse gas exchange
    • CO₂ exchange
    • CH₄ exchange
  • Energy budget
    • Sensible heat flux
    • Latent heat flux
    • Soil heat flux
  • Hydrology/Limnology
    • River water discharge/water level
    • Lake water level
    • Water temperature
    • Lake ice cover (formation/breakup/thickness)
    • Water chemistry
• Glacier
  • Mass balace
    • Mass balance
  • Climate
    • Climate measurements
  • Microbiology of snow, ice and water
    • Microbiology of snow, ice and water
• Bio
  • Vegetation
    • Flowering phenology
    • Amount of flowering
    • NDVI (plot/transect)
    • Vascular plant community composition
    • Bryophyte community composition
    • Lichen community composition
    • Species list (community composition)
  • Arthropods
    • Abundance
    • Emergence phenology
    • Species list (community composition)
  • Birds
    • Phenology
    • Species list (community composition)
  • Lake ecology
    • Phytoplankton (including chlorophyll)
    • Zooplankton
    • Vegetation
    • Fish
    • Species list (community composition)
  • Socio-ecological issues (disturbance)
    • Number of visitors
    • Surface activities (e.g. removal of vegetation, organisms, soil samples, ATV traffic, manipulations)
    • Aircraft activities

Human dimension

GINR is located in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, with c. 19000 inhabitants. GINR actively communicates with users of the environment (fishermen, hunters, and recreational users) and with direct recipients of scientific advice (e.g. politicians). Users of the environment and their comprehensive knowledge of the natural environment are included during planning and implementation of the institute’s activities. Fishing and hunting is part of the traditional culture and is still practiced professionally and for recreational purposes.

Access

Nuuk can be reached by air either via Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland (www.airgreenland.com) or via Reykjavik, Iceland (www.icelandair.com). Transportation to the field station in Kobbefjord is by one of GINR’s own smaller boats carrying up to 10 people.