Abisko Scientific Research Station

Station name and owner

The Abisko Scientific Research Station is owned by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. test

Location

The station is located about 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and approximately 385 m a.s.l., on the south shore of the lake Torne­träsk. It is situated in a 46-hectare nature reserve bordering the Abisko National Park, which covers 75 km2. The station is located in birch forest and the nearby area offers a great variety in topo­graphy, geomorphology, geology, and climate, as well as flora and fauna. The highest mountain in the area reaches 1991 m a.s.l.

Climate data

Grey colours are WMO Climate Normals including maximum and minimum values. Blue colours are individual years.

Export to PDF

Climate data for the stations where extracted via Copernicus Climate Data Store, from the global gridded reanalysis product:
ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present. Description and source code: Roemer J.K. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214922 Data Source: Hersbach et al. 2023. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS), https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

Biodiversity and natural environment

The average annual temperature is approximately 0°C. Annual precipitation for the lake varies greatly over an east west gradient with 1000 mm in the west to 400 mm in the east. Mean annual temperature and the length of the growing season have been increasing over the last decades. The vegetation is extremely varied, ranging from the simple communities that follow retreating glaciers to more complex mountain birch forest ecosystems. About 40% of the surroundings are above the treeline. The area is sparsely populated and land use is minimal being dominated by reindeer husbandry, hunting, fishing, tourism, and research.

History and facilities

The Abisko Scientific Research Station was established in 1913. The station can host almost 100 visitors. Accommodation is available in 28 double rooms, seven 4-bed-rooms and four family apartments. In addition, there are also laboratories, offices, workshops and lecture theatres. Meals are either prepared by the visiting scientists themselves in one of the self-catering kitchens available at the station or, during the tourist season, obtainable at tourist hotels and guest houses within 15 minutes walk. In the nearby village Abisko there is a well equipped grocery store.

General research and databases

Research focuses on plant ecology, geomorphology, and meteorology. The main objectives of the ecological studies are the dynamics of plant populations, identification of the controlling factors at species latitudinal and altitudinal limits, understanding of ecosystem structure and function, and prediction of impacts of global environmental change. The meteorological projects deal with recent Climate Change in the region and local variations in the microclimate. The geomorphology research focuses on the mass-wasting of mountains and sediment transport. Existing databases includes bibliography of publications arising from research at the station, climate records, biological, and physical parameters modelling.

Link to data: https://dataportal.eu-interact.org/stations

Station Monitoring

• Climate
  • Meteorology
    • Air temperature
    • Air humidity
    • Wind direction
    • Precipitation
  • Energy balance and radiation
    • Energy balance
• Geo
  • Geophysics and Geodesy
    • Gravity
  • Greenhouse gas exchange
    • CO₂ exchange
    • CH₄ exchange
• Glacier
  • Climate
    • Climate measurements
• Bio
  • Vegetation
    • Flowering phenology
  • Arthropods
    • Species list (community composition)

Human dimension

The nearest settlement is the village Abisko which lies about 1 km from the station. The main occupations of the approximately 180 inhabitants are within tourism, transports, and trade. In Abisko there is also both a kindergarden and a school up to the ninth grade. There are a number of tourist hotels in the area, providing a base for both summer and winter tourism. The area is also inhabited by the Sami people who use the area for reindeer husbandry.

Access

The Abisko Scientific Research Station is easily accessible by train, car, bus, and airplane. There are direct trains from the Swedish capital Stockholm to Abisko. The closest railway station is situated less than 1 km away. The resarch station is located just along the main road between Kiruna (Sweden) and Narvik (Norway). Both in Kiruna (100 km away) and Narvik (75 km away) there are airports with several daily flight connections to Oslo and Stockholm. During the tourist season there are bus connections from Kiruna airport to Abisko.