The BioBasis programme in Nuuk was initiated in 2007 and is operated by the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University and Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen in cooperation with Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Nuuk. It is funded by the environmental protection Agency as part of the environmental programme DANCEA.

The overall aim of the biological monitoring programme is to establish long and simultaneous data series on all trophic levels in a low arctic ecosystem. The programme is unique by its close cooperation and coordination with simultaneous monitoring of geo- and climate components. Emphasis is on populations, phenology, reproduction and predation. The monitoring season is from late May until September.

The biological programme includes a large number of parameters related to terrestrial plants, arthropods, birds and mammal dynamics, and lake ecology. Key elements in the biological programme are vegetation transects documenting zonation and species composition, studies of plant phenology for selected species, number of arthropods, breeding phenology of birds, number and distribution of mammals and monitoring of ecological parameters in lakes. The programme also includes studies of the effects of experimental warming and shading on carbon flux in study plots.

The consistent and large data-sets, which cover a wide range of ecological components, offer a great opportunity to document climate effects and to extrapolate predictions at greater scale. At longer sight it is an important subsidiary goal to establish local anchorage in the Greenland population, community, and institutions. Data will available to local institutions and this will contribute to building up local knowledge about climate effects in relation to local research, education, and exploitation of local resources.

BioBasis manual 

For further information please contact the BioBasis manager Peter Aastrup pja@dmu.dk