SCANNET

Contact Details

The Zackenberg Secretariat
Danish Polar Center
Strandgade 100H
DK-1401 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Phone: 32880100
Fax: 32880101
E-mail:
Webpage: www.zackenberg.dk

 

Location

Zackenberg Station is located on the north side of the Young Sund - Tyrolerfjord fiord complex in Northeast Greenland (74º30' N, 21º00' W). The station is situated in the southern part of the National Park of North and East Greenland, the largest national park in the world (c. 1 mio. km2). Nearest settlement is the military outpost Daneborg, 20 km east of the station, and nearest town is Ittoqqortoormiit, 450 km south of the station.

Climate

Mean annual temperature: -9.2 ºC
Mean temperature in February: -20.1 ºC
Mean temperature in July: 5.2 ºC
Mean annual precipitation: 200 mm

Biodiversity

Zackenberg is situated in the High Arctic. A great variety of biotopes like ponds, fens, heaths, fellfield plateaus and grasslands occur within the core study area.

Human Dimension

Nearest town is Ittoqqortoormiit, 450 km to the south. The population in Ittoqqortoormiit is c. 503 people, mainly Inuits. Zackenberg Station cooperates with other field stations in Greenland, and two Greenlandic research institutes, Asiaq (Greenland Field Investigations) and Pinngortitalerifik (Greenland Institute of Natural Ressources), are involved in the Zackenberg work.

Species Performance

Biological monitoring of species performance on a great variety of plant, arthropod and mammal species has been carried out at Zackenberg since 1995.

General Research

The study area comprises the entire catchment of the river Zackenberg, totalling about 500 km2. It provides facilities for specific but comprehensive research projects, and for long-term monitoring grouped around three systematic programmes (ClimateBasis, GeoBasis, BioBasis). ClimateBasis is monitoring of the climate, GeoBasis is monitoring of the physical landscape processes and Biobasis is the monitoring of the living nature. At the station there are approximately ten ongoing projects per year, of which approximately two thirds are Danish projects with focus on climate change feedbacks. Results from the research and monitoring at Zackenberg are reported in the ZERO Annual Reports published by Danish Polar Center. PDF-versions of the annual reports can be found on www.zackenberg.dk

Existing Data Bases

Databases from the monitoring at Zackenberg are kept at the different institutions that are responsible for the individual monitoring programmes (BioBasis: Danish National Environmental Research Institut, GeoBasis: Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, ClimateBasis: ASIAQ, Greenland Field Investigations). All data from the monitoring is available for research projects free of charge. Details about how to order monitoring data from Zackenberg can be found on www.zackenberg.dk.

History and Facilities

In 1974, a national park was established in NE Greenland. Later this park became a UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve. In 1991, the first expeditions under the research programme Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations was made to Zackenberg, in 1995 a temporary field station was established and in 1997 the Zackenberg Station was officially opened. Each year, the station is manned from the 1 June to 31 August. In the remaining part of the year, the station is only in use if needed by specific research projects. The station has 20 beds, two laboratories, a workshop, mess with cook, and satellite based telephone, fax and email is available. An annex to the station for marine research is located in the settelement Daneborg. This facility accommodates 15 sceintist, and has a small and primitive laboratory.

Transportation

Transport to and from Zackenberg Station is handled by Danish Polar Centre. The only aircraft type in use is the Twin Otter. Local transportation is based on hiking, skiing, boating or use of all terrain vehicles.