Improved surface and bedrock DEMs have been produced for the Belcher Glacier using data from different sources, including in situ measurements, airborne soundings, and satellite images. Surface elevation is based on 2007 (late summer) SPOT5 HRS images. Bed elevation values are derived from surface-based ground penetrating radar soundings conducted during the 2007 and 2008 summer field seasons. Airborne radar surveys in 2000 and 2005 by the Scott Polar Research Institute and the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, respectively, provide ice thickness data. By subtracting ice thickness from surface elevation using the surface DEM, bedrock elevation values are derived. Additional bedrock elevation data for the seafloor in front of the terminus of Belcher Glacier were obtained from a bathymetric survey in 2006 by workers from Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of New Brunswick working off the CCGS Amundsen. A 40-m grid is used as a map base. Bed elevation values were found for each point on the grid by applying a kernel that weighted values of surrounding points by distance. After finding a suitable semivariogram model, statistical interpolation (kriging) was performed to fill in the rest of the grid points to produce the bedrock DEM. As a check, a 1999 Landsat panchromatic image was used to force bedrock elevation to equal surface elevation within the boundaries of rock outcrops and thus ensure that ice thickness is zero throughout.

An incubation experiment was conducted on board of the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen between 6 and 15 August 2015. The water was collected near the nitracline at 38 m depth in Baffin Bay using 12-L Niskin-type bottles deployed on a CTD rosette system. A natural Arctic plankton community in a pre-bloom stage (initial high nutrient-low Chl a concentrations) was exposed over 9 days to reduced pH conditions under two contrasting light regimes. The two light regimes were designed to simulate the mean irradiance in an ice-free 5-m thick surface mixed layer (HL, marginal ice bloom conditions) and the mean irradiance at 5 m depth under a melting ponded ice pack (LL, under-ice bloom/ subsurface chlorophyll maximum conditions). The pH gradient comprised 6 levels covering the range of pH expected between the present and the year 2300. During the incubation, a phytoplankton bloom developed in every incubation bag and diatoms dominated the biomass (Chaetoceros spp.). Temporal variations of pH, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, chlorophyll a, macronutrients, DMS(P), flow cytometry (nano- and pico-phytoplankton, bacteria, virus), taxonomy, salinity and incubator's temperature are available.

Our sampling program took place from August 27, 2009 through September 12, 2009. It was part of Leg 3a of the 2009 CCGS Amundsen Expedition in the Arctic Ocean (ArcticNet 0903). Sampling started in the Mackenzie River delta and continued into the Beaufort Sea (Shelf, slope and deep Canada Basin). Various measurements (temperature, salinity, nutrients, alkalinity, pH, primary production, bacterial production) and sampling (seawater, marine particles) were conducted at 10 stations. Underway measurements (temperature, salinity, trace gases) and sampling (marine particles) were also conducted along the cruise track. Sampling tools on stations were the ship's CTD/rosette (ArcticNet), a Trace-Metal CTD/rosette system (UVic / UBC) and large volume in-situ pumps (UBC). We conducted measurements and collected samples to document a suite of key physical (temperature, salinity, ice cover, light penetration), chemical (nutrients, trace metals, trace gases, radioisotopes, stable isotopes) and biological (phytoplankton and microbial assemblages, primary and microbial productivity, trace metal phytoplankton quotas) parameters in relation to proximity to the Mackenzie River delta, seafloor bathymetry and ice cover to elucidate the processes influencing phytoplankton growth and carbon cycling in the Arctic Ocean. In particular, we collected samples to study the processes which supply and remove trace metals, nutrients and carbon to and from the upper ocean, and conducted ship-board experiments to study how biological productivity is affected by various chemical and physical conditions. Through a combination of on-board measurements, experiments and subsequent laboratory analysis, our research program aims at: (i) documenting the pathways of addition, removal and cycling of key trace elements which act as biological micronutrients or tracers of carbon and nutrient cycles in the Arctic Ocean; (ii) elucidating the potential effects of changing ice cover and river discharge on productivity, carbon sequestration and trace gas emission in the Arctic Ocean; (iii) developing chemical tracers to establish a historical sedimentary record of Arctic Ocean productivity in relation to long term natural climate change.