Species are likely to segregate their ecological niches to minimize competition for resources, but for centrally foraging predators that breed on sub-Antarctic islands in the Southern Ocean the possibility of niche segregation may be minimal. This study is the first to examine the spatial and trophic aspects of the foraging niche of sympatrically breeding macaroni and chinstrap penguins at the ...

Salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) is a parasitic copepod that causes significant damage to Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and incurs significant costs to the salmonid aquaculture industry. In Norway, the industry has been coping with salmon lice issues with various methods such as chemical treatments, but it has resulted in an acquisition of resistance in salmon lice towards the existing delousing ...

A very diverse group of fungi capable of forming endophytic associations may have profound consequences for natural ecosystems as well as for cultivated plants. Fungal endophytes may benefit their host plants by producing secondary metabolites, and may be an important source for bioactive antimicrobial compounds, used in agriculture, commercial industry, and in medicine. Earlier studies on endophytes ...

Det ble gjennomført klimakammerforsøk på arten Papaver dahlianum, for å undersøke i hvilken grad klima påvirker frøspiring og blomstring hos avkommet. Høsten 2005 ble frø av Papaver dahlianum polare samlet rundt Longyearbyen og i Arktisk-alpin botanisk hage i Tromsø. Plantene i botanisk hage stammet også fra Svalbard, men ble sådd i Tromsø i 2002. Forsøkene ble utført ved Biologisk klimalaboratorium ...

Harmonization of methods in microplastics research is lacking; this is affecting the comparability of results and hindering reproducibility. Investigating microplastics in snow is a relatively new field of research, and it can be used to answer questions about long-range atmospheric transport of microplastics. In this thesis, snow sampling methods were combined with the dye, Nile Red, to develop a ...

Life history strategies of polymorphic Arctic charr in two sub-arctic lakes (Tårnvatn and Skøvatn) with similar environmental- and physiochemical conditions were studied. Disparities in life history traits may reflect ecological adaptations and is suggested an important factor in the incipient speciation process. In this region several lakes have polymorphic charr, and the designation of a fish to ...

Global warming has especially detrimental effects on Arctic regions. One major issue is permafrost thaw and sub-permafrost methane escape via surface seeps. While the mitigation potential of methane-consuming bacteria on marine pingo-like methane seeps is well described, terrestrial methane seeps are still understudied. Recently, open system pingos have gained attention as terrestrial methane seeps. ...

Calanus copepods C. finmarchicus, C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus are keystone species in the Arctic marine ecosystem, constituting 70-90% of the zooplankton biomass. In high latitudes, the growing season is short and unpredictable, and the winter long and unproductive. These species have adapted flexible life histories, lipid accumulation, and a state of deep-water diapause to survive. Winter ...

Currently there is a lack of spring phenology studies covering small-scale altitudinal gradients of mountain birch in coastal northern Fennoscandia, a region characterized by exceptionally high precipitation of snow, which gives reason to investigate the influence of snow cover on birch budburst in this area. Furthermore, ground phenology studies are today increasingly replaced by satellite data ...

The long-term dynamics of predator populations may be driven by fluctuations in resource availability and reflect ecosystem changes in response to climate change. The Icelandic arctic fox population has known major fluctuations in size since the 1950s, starting with a decreasing period until late 1970s, followed by a six-fold increase until 2008 when the population dropped to half its size within ...