42 Years Later: Tracking Environmental Change in Svalbard

In the summer of 2025, our team returned to the remote valleys of Gipsdalen and Sassendalen to repeat a natural history study first carried out in 1983, among other projects. That earlier expedition laid down a rare ecological baseline: plant communities mapped metre by metre, wildlife sightings recorded by hand, and environmental conditions noted using the best instruments of that era.

With the Arctic now warming nearly four times faster than the global average, revisiting those same sites offered a unique chance to witness how this landscape has responded to more than four decades of environmental change.

Replicating the original methods required careful planning long before we set foot in the field. Using the bearings, notes and sketches recorded in 1983, we reconstructed the precise locations of transects, stream surveys and nesting cliffs.

Each field visit was designed to echo the original study as closely as possible. We stretched tapes across raised beaches, laid quadrats across moss and gravel, took pH and soil temperature readings, and photographed every identifiable species. In some places, like the coastal transects of Gipsdalen, the continuity was striking: hardy pioneers such as Purple Saxifrage and Mountain Avens still dominate the ridges just as they did in 1983. In others, like the Peg Breen outwash plain, the changes were unmistakable. The river’s course had partly shifted tens of metres, partly disappeared totally, leaving old riverbanks stranded above the current flow and forcing us to adjust our measurements while still following the original transect path.

Even with a shorter field season in 2025, the repeated methodology allowed us to build a continuous ecological narrative. The familiar elements of the Arctic were still there: Svalbard poppies anchoring themselves to lateral moraines, dense carpets of moss absorbing meltwater along coastal ridges, and reindeer antlers scattered across the valley floors. Yet subtle differences emerged everywhere. Ground temperatures were slightly warmer, certain flowering species appeared less frequently, and an unexpected abundance of mosquitoes was observed in Sassendalen.

The Arctic we encountered in 2025 was still recognisable, still resilient, still starkly beautiful, but undeniably altered by a changing climate. By retracing the footsteps of the 1983 expedition, we were able to document not only what has endured, but also what is transforming in one of the fastest-warming places on the planet.

This repeat study offers a rare long-term window into ecological change, grounding global climate trends in the lived detail of field observations. It reminds us how valuable consistent, careful natural history work can be, and how much the Arctic still has to teach us, if we continue to return.

By Natalia Sarmanto & Joseph Ricketts