Anthropogenic and natural stressors can affect ecosystems negatively and it is therefore important to have a clear understanding of the responses of organisms to stressors. The Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) is a common raptor species of the boreal forest ecosystem and its location at the top of its food chain makes it a special target for two important stressors; endoparasitism and environmental ...

Predator aversion is an important adaptation that can significantly lower the mortality rate among prey animals, but avoiding a predator requires knowing and recognizing them. The predator aversion of Common gulls and Mallard ducks at Prestvannet Lake, Tromsø, Northern Norway was tested in an experiment by placing differing objects resembling snakes next to bread during the summer and autumn of 2017. ...

The red king crab, Paralithodes camtchaticus, is a new generalist predator in the Barents Sea and may have negative effects upon the commercially fished lumpfish eggs (Cyclopterus lumpus), sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) and scallops (Chlamys islandica). Generalist predators consume an array of prey types, but have been shown to select certain prey over others. To obtain knowledge ...

Marine copepods of the genus Pseudocalanus (Calanoida) are common in Svalbard waters as well as throughout the northern hemisphere. They contribute considerably to plankton biomass in addition to Calanus spp. and play an important role in the marine food web as a link between planktivores, such as fish larvae, and microalgae. Pseudocalanus consists of several sibling species, and two of them, ...

Arctic peatlands act as important sources and sinks of carbon. Microbial decomposition takes place in these soils, producing the greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide and methane as end-products. A variety of aerobic and anaerobic microbial pathways are involved in the decomposition of organic material in peat soil. In anoxic soil layers, methane and carbon dioxide is often produced through syntropic ...

The substantial increase of the migratory Svalbard population of Barnacle geese Branta leucopsis during the past 50 years has been attributed to a warming climate, changes in agricultural land use, and conservation measures. The geese are likely to continue to forage and reproduce in Arctic wetlands in increasing numbers. This project revisited the experimental plots from an earlier experiment ...

Climatic and anthropogenic factors are increasingly affecting reindeer husbandry in Norway and Sweden. The potential health risks associated with a warming climate, and the necessity to avoid starvation by providing supplementary feed to semi-domesticated reindeer, need to be explored and identified. A questionnaire-based survey among reindeer herders was conducted, containing questions about the ...

There is a correlation between the vegetation coverage and the abundance of 0-group cod. The highest abundance was found between 50 – 70 %, which is consistent with previous studied and imply that there is a nonlinear relationship between vegetation coverage and abundance of 0-group cod. There was found a difference in diet between the three habitats, with the intertidal zones of Balsfjord and ...

The snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio, O. Fabricius 1788) relatively recently (first reports in 1996) established a population in the Barents Sea. Both the populations size and distribution area have drastically increased since then, and the species is now distributed over large parts of the northern and eastern Barents Sea, and further expansion northward and westward has been predicted. Despite an ...

Fjords are the interface between land and ocean, and processes happening on land have implication for the coastal areas. In addition, differences in fjord characteristics, such as morphology, sedimentation and water circulation, can drive differences in fjord ecology, including benthic community composition (Syvitsky et al. 1986). Soft-bottom macro-fauna was collected in August 2018 using a Van-Veen ...