<p>Background: Consistent individual differences in behaviour, known as animal personalities, have been demonstrated within and across species. In fish, studies applying an animal personality approach have been used to resolve variation in physiological and molecular data suggesting a linkage, genotype-phenotype, between behaviour and transcriptome regulation. In this study, using three fish species ...

Solar light/dark cycles and seasonal photoperiods underpin daily and annual rhythms of life on Earth. Yet, the Arctic is characterized by several months of permanent illumination (“midnight sun”). To determine the persistence of 24h rhythms during the midnight sun, we investigated transcriptomic dynamics in the copepod <i>Calanus finmarchicus</i> during the summer solstice period in the Arctic, with ...

Organisms use circadian rhythms to anticipate and exploit daily environmental oscillations. While circadian rhythms are of clear importance for inhabitants of tropic and temperate latitudes, its role for permanent residents of the polar regions is less well understood. The high Arctic Svalbard ptarmigan shows behavioral rhythmicity in presence of light-dark cycles but is arrhythmic during the polar ...

Optical constituents in the ocean are often categorized as water, phytoplankton, sediments and dissolved matter. However, the optical properties of seawater are influenced, to some degree, by scattering and absorption by all particles in the water column. Here we assess the relevant size ranges for determining the optical properties of the ocean. We present a theoretical basis supporting the hypothesis ...

Subglacial upwelling of nutrient-rich bottom water is known to sustain elevated summer primary production in tidewater-glacier-influenced fjord systems. However, the importance of subglacial upwelling during the early spring season has not been considered yet. We hypothesized that subglacial discharge under sea ice is present in early spring and that its flux is sufficient to increase phytoplankton ...

<p>In the Arctic, seasonal patterns in seawater biochemical conditions are shaped by physical, chemical, and biological processes related to the alternation of seasons, i.e. winter polar night and summer midnight sun. In summertime, CO₂ concentration is driven by photosynthetic activity of autotrophs which raises seawater pH and carbonate saturation state (Ω). In addition, restriction of ...

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 ...

Historically, anadromous salmonids provided a necessary provisioning service for Norwegian coastal settlements that has transitioned into the socio-cultural service that they provide today. Over the past decades, human impact has caused anadromous salmonid populations to decline. A recent assessment found many Norwegian sea trout populations to be in poor condition. Reference point management has ...

Hibernation is a physiological and behavioural adaptation that permits survival during seasonal periods of energy shortage via a combination of pre-hibernal energy storage and hibernal metabolic depression, i.e. torpor. The central mechanisms in the brain that control torpor expression and arousal from it has been under investigation since the dawn of hibernation research but remains unknown. Recent ...

Benthic communities change drastically in both biomass and community structure with increasing water depth on a global scale, attributed to a combination of food supply, environmental drivers, as well as physiological and competitive capacities. In the Arctic, benthic biogeographic patterns are additionally thought to be a result of the region’s glaciation history. Here, we investigate gross epibenthic ...