Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve ( no, Nordaust-Svalbard naturreservat) is located in the north-eastern part of the

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group rang ...

archipelago in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. The

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological o ...

covers all of Nordaustlandet,

Kong Karls Land Kong Karls Land or King Charles Land is an island group in the Svalbard archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean. The island group covers an area of and is made up of the islands of Kongsøya, Svenskøya, Abel Island, Helgoland Island, and Tirpitz ...

, Kvitøya,

Sjuøyane Sjuøyane (English: ''Seven Islands'') is the northernmost part of the Svalbard archipelago north of mainland Norway, and some 20 km north of the eastern major island Nordaustlandet. The islands are the northernmost landmass reachable by normal ...

Storøya Storøya is an island in the Svalbard archipelago. It is located east of Nordaustlandet, separated from Nordaustlandet by the strait of Storøysundet. The southern part of the island is covered by the glacier Storøyjøkulen. Storøya is include ...

Lågøya Lågøya ( en, Low Island) is an island in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated north west of Nordaustlandet. The area is 103.5 km2. The island has rarely been visited. Lågøya was first marked on the Muscovy Company's map (1625) as ''Purchas ...

Wilhelm Island Wilhelm Island ( no, Wilhelmøya) is an island in the Svalbard archipelago. It is situated northeast of Olav V Land on Spitsbergen, in Hinlopen Strait. Its area is 120 km². About 33.5 % of the island is covered with ice. The island was nam ...

, Wahlbergøya and a small section of the north-east corner of

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Nor ...

. The reserve is , of which is on land and is on water—making it the largest preserved area in Norway (including

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

s). It includes the largest glacier in Norway,

Austfonna Austfonna is an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Covering an area of 7,800 km2, it is Europe's third-largest glacier by area and volume, after the Severny Island ice cap of Novaya Zemlya, Russia, and V ...

, as well as

Vestfonna Vestfonna is an ice cap located on the western part Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. The glacier covers an area of about 2,500 km2. It is the third largest ice cap in Svalbard and Norway by area, after Austfonna and Olav V La ...

and parts of

Olav V Land Olav V Land is a peninsula in eastern Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard named after Olav V of Norway. It is covered by the Olav V Icefield, measuring about .''Glacier Atlas of Svalbard and Jan Mayen''. 1993. Oslo: Norsk polarinstitutt, p. 32. The on ...

. The reserve has been protected since 1 July 1973 and borders in the south to Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve.

Description

Three-quarters of Nordaustlandet is covered by glaciers, the largest being Austfonna at . The landscape has low, rounded hills and plains, created by glaciation during former

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

s. Most of the reserve has little or no vegetation, and the reserve belongs to the

polar desert Polar deserts are the regions of Earth that fall under an ice cap climate (''EF'' under the Köppen classification). Despite rainfall totals low enough to normally classify as a desert, polar deserts are distinguished from true deserts (' or ' un ...

. The nature reserve is used by scientists and tourists, the latter commonly sailing eastwards along

Hinlopen Strait The Hinlopen Strait ( no, Hinlopenstretet) is the strait between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet in Svalbard, Norway. It is long and wide. The strait is difficult to pass because of pack ice. It is believed to have been named after Thijmen Jacob ...

or round Nordaustlandet. The most popular places to visit are Sjuøyane,

Alkefjellet Alkefjellet is a cliff in Lomfjordhalvøya in Ny-Friesland at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Alkefjellet is a bird cliff facing towards Hinlopen Strait The Hinlopen Strait ( no, Hinlopenstretet) is the strait between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet i ...

, Bråsvellbreen and Kvitøya. There are some cultural heritage sites within the reserve, including a Russian Orthodox cross on

Krossøya Krossøya is an island at the northwestern side of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard. It is located in the outer part of Murchisonfjorden, separated by Nordre Russøysundet from Søre Russøya, further east, and south of Depotøya. The name Krossøya or ...

, and

Andréeneset Andréeneset is headland at the southwestern point of the island of Kvitøya in the Svalbard archipelago. It is named after engineer and Arctic explorer Salomon August Andrée Salomon August Andrée (18 October 1854, in Gränna, Småland – ...

on Kvitøya, the starting point for the S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. There is also a winter camp at the shores of

Sorgfjorden Sorgfjorden is a fjord at the northeastern coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It cuts into Ny-Friesland, from the northern part of Hinlopen Strait The Hinlopen Strait ( no, Hinlopenstretet) is the strait between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet i ...

, which hosted an 1899–1900 Swedish-Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition to measure the

meridian arc In geodesy and navigation, a meridian arc is the curve between two points on the Earth's surface having the same longitude. The term may refer either to a segment of the meridian, or to its length. The purpose of measuring meridian arcs is to ...

. In Rijpfjorden there is a German meteorological station from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Fauna

The Kong Karls Land archipelago serves as the most important breeding ground for polar bears in Svalbard and

Franz Josef Land , native_name = , image_name = Map of Franz Josef Land-en.svg , image_caption = Map of Franz Josef Land , image_size = , map_image = Franz Josef Land location-en.svg , map_caption = Location of Franz Josef ...

; therefore, the archipelago is completely off limit to all visitors.

Walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...

es have resting places in the reserve. At Alkefjleet,

Brünnich's guillemot The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' i ...

s have a nesting ground, and also

brent geese The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after ...

can be found breeding in the reserve, as can Sabine's and

ivory gull The ivory gull (''Pagophila eburnea'') is a small gull, the only species in the genus ''Pagophila''. It breeds in the high Arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. Taxonomy The ivory ...

s. Other important breeding areas for

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envir ...

s include Sjuøyane, Lågøya and Hinlopen Strait. Common animals within the nature reserve is

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in ...

and Svalbard

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subs ...

. A large part of the reserve, including the sea-cliffs, has been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it supports a breeding population of 80–90 pairs of ivory gulls.

References

{{reflist Nature reserves in Svalbard Protected areas established in 1973 1973 establishments in Norway Important Bird Areas of Svalbard Seabird colonies Nordaustlandet Kvitøya Storøya Kongsøya Kong Karls Land