Arctic Research Group Expedition 2025: Tempelfjord, Svalbard

A Return to the Arctic Frontier — Four Decades Later

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In July 2025, the Arctic Research Group (ARG) returned to the land of polar bears and 24-hour daylight, embarking on a new environmental research expedition to the Tempelfjord region of Svalbard, retracing the path of a scientific journey first taken more than forty years ago.

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Honouring the Past, Studying the Future​

 

Forty-two years earlier, in 1983, a research expedition organised by the Polar Exploration Group ventured into the Tempelfjord area. The team conducted studies on snow accumulation across the Fimbulisen icecap and the head of the Burnmurdoch glacier in Bünsow Land, as well as detailed surveys of the flora and fauna in two of Svalbard’s major valleys, Sassendalen and Gipsdalen.
 

Among that pioneering team were three members who would later go on to found the Arctic Research Group in 1988.

 

Now, in 2025,  the United Nations’ International Year of Glacier Preservation — two of those original explorers have returned to the Arctic frontier.

Group Leader Dr Stephen Staley and Expedition Leader Mike Haynes led a new team of volunteer ‘citizen science’ researchers, combining decades of polar experience with fresh curiosity and modern methods.

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Repeat Research

The 2025 expedition set out to replicate the core studies from 1983, using comparable equipment and methodology to reveal how the region has changed over four decades of rapid climate transformation in the High Arctic.

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Focus Areas Included:

• Measuring snow accumulation on the Fimbulisen icecap and Burnmurdoch glacier

• Conducting flora and fauna surveys in Sassendalen and Gipsdalen

 

By revisiting these original datasets, the team aimed to uncover new insights into:

• Variations in snow volume and accumulation patterns

• Shifts in Arctic biodiversity

• Broader indicators of climate change and its impact on polar ecosystems

 

New Research

 

Nitrous oxide is a known potent climate change gas and existing research by The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) Norway, has been studying glacial water outflows to help understand nitrogen subglacial biogeochemistry and the potential impacts for the environment. Previous work has focussed on small glaciers and the new work is looking at the much larger glaciers in Svalbard. 

The 2025 expedition to Tempelfjord provided opportunity to gather more samples from the area and during the summer period, where previously, samples have been collected in winter.
 

The work involves repeated sampling of water from different water sources at key locations and having these analysed in the UNIS laboratories.  The sampling work is a very precise process to secure uncontaminated samples of the water when operating out in field conditions.  Twenty samples were recovered at ten different sites of water sources, including four different glaciers.  These hard-won samples will undergo laboratory analysis which will add to the data for the overall research project.
 

Plastic Waste

 

In addition to the Research Projects, the expedition team spent hours collecting visible plastic waste along the beaches, including at Kapp Schoultz and at each of the locations where the field research took place and the boat team needed to remain near the boat while project work was being carried out. 

The accumulated waste was catalogued, conforming to previous research projects carried out by the ARG, and everything that was collected was returned to Longyearbyen for processing at the recycling centre. 

Data captured about the waste plastic is to be offered to the researchers as additional information from a new research area.
 

The 2025 Tempelfjord Expedition stands as both a tribute to the pioneering scientists of 1983 and a vital continuation of their work — linking past discoveries to the urgent questions of our warming and polluted planet.