The heating and moistening of inhaled air, and the cooling and moisture removal from exhaled air, are crucial for the survival of animals under severe environmental conditions. Arctic mammals have evolved specific adaptive mechanisms to retain warmth and water and restrict heat loss during breathing. Here, the role of the porous turbinates of the nasal cavities of Arctic and subtropical seals is ...

This work summarizes ice algal studies, presented as biomass and species temporal and spatial distribution, during 11 cruises conducted between 1986 and 2012. The majority of the biomass was found as loosely attached sub-ice algal layers, and sampling required diving. A maximum of 40 mg chlorophyll m⁻² and 15.4 × 10⁹ cells m⁻² was measured in May. The species ...

The substantial productivity of the northern Norwegian Sea is closely related to its strong mesoscale eddy activity, but how eddies affect phytoplankton biomass levels in the upper ocean through horizontal and vertical transportmixing has not been well quantified. To assess mesoscale eddy induced ocean surface chlorophyll-a concentration (CHL) anomalies and modulation of eddywind interactions in ...

There is a push for transition to sustainable blue food systems in the High North. An interdisciplinary group of Fram Centre researchers have looked closer at the drivers motivating the transition and identified a set of barriers to sustainable blue food systems in northern Norway.

The effects of harvest and fluctuating environment on inter-dependent predators and prey are complex and not well-known. We define a stochastic model where the predators and prey dynamically interact. The novelty of the model holds on the fact that predators and prey dynamics are simultaneously affected by correlated environmental noises. Interacting predators and prey are harvested using a proportional ...

Calanoid copepods dominate mesozooplankton communities in temperate and Nordic seas. The ability of copepods to remain and feed in productive surface waters depends on their ability to overcome downward flows. In this study, we assessed the swimming performance of subarctic Calanus spp. and tested how the copepods can retain their vertical position in a representative range of downward currents ...

In adaptive radiations, ecological opportunity (i.e. niche availability) is considered to be an important driver to increase phenotypic variation, but diversity may also be constrained by historical factors related to colonization events. How do ecological opportunity and post-glacial colonization history affect the phenotypic diversity in a young species lineage? We quantified phenotypic diversity ...

Increasing temperatures, with pronounced effects at high latitudes, have raised questions about potential changes in species composition, as well as possible increased importance of small-celled phytoplankton in marine systems. In this study, we mapped out one of the smallest and globally most widespread primary producers, the picocyanobacterium Synechococcus, within the Atlantic inflow to ...

Sustainable global energy production is back-stopped by hydropower which is responsible for a significant share of the green energy produced worldwide. Hydropower, however, does not come without some environmental impacts but has worked to reduce those impacts. Here, we discuss the historical, legislative, and design configurations of hydropower facilities located in three of the world’s ...