Study site
Kongsfjorden is located on
western Spitzbergen which is part of the Svalbard archipelago.
Blomstrand is its largest island and situated in the center of the
Arctic fjord. Until the early 1990s it was a peninsula and connected to
the coast of Kongsfjorden by the retreating tidal glacier
Blomstrandbreen (Burton et al., 2016; Svendsen et al., 2002). Our study
site Hansneset (78°59.101’N, 11°57.793’E, for map see Figure 2) is
located on the western side of Blomstrand island. It is a moderately
exposed hard-bottom location and consists of steep bedrock with scant
sediment cover (Voronkov et al., 2013). Since 2007, the site has
remained ice free in winter and is relatively sheltered from occasional
drift icebergs from the calving glaciers of the fjord (Lippert et al.,
2001; Paar et al., 2016).