Vaccinium myrtillus L., commonly known as European blueberry or bilberry, has been used as food and medicine since ancient times. Bilberries are highly valued in European and Asian markets. Sugar accumulation is responsible for the sweet taste of fruit, which is one of the main determinants of fruit quality. However, sugar metabolism in bilberry has not been studied before. This study was aimed to ...

Fjords are important high latitudes ecosystems, many have beside planctonic ones, a unique ecosystem associated with seasonal ice cover. During the development of the spring season conditions, two major type of primary producers contribute highly to the biomass production: sea-ice algae inhabiting brine channels and bottom surface of the ice (sympagic algae) and phytoplankton, living in the water ...

Philopatry influences the distribution of animals and can lead to the formation of kinship-based population structures when relatedness among individuals is tightly linked to their proximity. Two different polar bear ecotypes exist in the Barents Sea sub-population: “coastal” bears and “offshore” bears. Coastal bears remain year-round within the Svalbard archipelago whereas offshore bears follow the ...

World’s population growth and rise in food consumption per capita have led to increased food demand and overexploitation of natural resources in recent decades. Such increase has threatened the global feeding schemes to maintain a balance between food supply and demand. Although “The Blue Revolution” promised to fill such gap and simultaneously alleviate the overexploitation of the oceans, deterioration ...

Aquaculture worldwide is under constant scrutiny and financial pressure to maintain fish health, while providing an essential food source to a growing populace. To assist in monitoring mariculture sites and preventing harmful diseases, we tested a recently proposed method of trace pathogen detection using eDNA metabarcoding. The target pathogen, Paramoeba perurans, is the etiological agent of AGD, ...

Vestfjorden is an area of great ecological relevance since it is one of the main spawning areas of North East Atlantic cod. The survival rate of the cod larvae depends greatly on the abundance of zooplankton, which in turn depends on phytoplankton. Due to the extreme seasonality of high latitude fjords with a short productive season, understanding the phytoplankton distribution in spring is crucial. ...

Grafting is a widely used technique for propagation of plants in both agriculture and horticulture worldwide and involves combining two or more plants into one chimeric plant, ultimately with a shared vascular system. Benefits of grafting such as pathogen resistance, increase in fruit yield and abiotic stress tolerance have long been known, but the biological mechanisms of how plants graft are still ...

The coastal shrimp (Pandalus borealis) represent an important income for a small-scale fishery. The more economical important fishery of shrimp is located offshore. There is sparse information and literature regarding the coastal shrimp, and it is a lot we do not know about the species that inhabits our coast and fjords. Genetic research will provide more information on the species in these areas. ...

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 ...

The dwafshrub Empetrum nigrum uses phenolic compounds exuded by its leaves to depress the germination and growth of its surroundings. The allelopathic effect has, only been studied in areas immediately surrounding the plant (autochthonous allelopathy) but not in an open system apptoach that takes into account that a multitude of EMpetrum nigrum leaves get introduced into new environments through ...