The diel vertical migration (DVM) of Calanus (Calanus finmarchicus, Calanus glacialis and Calanus hyperboreus) and Metridia longa was investigated in August 2008 at six locations to the north and northwest of Svalbard (Rijpfjorden, Ice, Marginal Ice Zone, Shelf break, Shelf and Kongsfjorden). Despite midnight sun conditions, a diel light cycle was clearly observed at all stations. We collected data ...

To ensure economic viability over time, any efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals need to reconcile conservation with development interventions. Particularly, in marginal and risk prone areas erosion of resilience could make production systems more susceptible to environmental risks that compromise the economic security. By longitudinal analyses of long-term data records we investigated the ...

Carnivorous zooplankton is a key element to the energy transfer through the arctic food web, linking lipid rich herbivores to the top predators. We investigated the growth and lipid dynamic of the Arctic pelagic amphipod Themisto libellula in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard, 79°N) from May to October 2007. Additional samplings were performed in spring and summer 2006 and further north in Rijpfjorden (80°N), ...

Two groups of migrating wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts caught within a 1 week interval in the River Alta, northern Norway, were tagged with acoustic transmitters and measured for gill Na+, K+ -ATPase activity in order to compare their smolt status with timing of sea entry. The first group of smolts had low levels of gill Na+, K+ -ATPase activity and resided in the lower part of the river ...

Sites at various distances from eutrophic and mesotrophic lakes and fens on the island Öland in southern Sweden were systematically surveyed in summer (May–August) and autumn (late September–October) to elucidate the hibernation sites of wetland carabid beetles. Thirty-five of 47 wetland species were found in their winter quarters. In areas ≤50 m from the lakes and fens, the observed as well as the ...

Despite concerns about rapid changes in Arctic Ocean physical forcing and ecosystem function, quantitative knowledge and time series are scarce. The number of reliable physical-biological coupled models and models based on remote sensing is small. To improve our comprehension of carbon flux in the most prominent Arctic Ocean feature, the seasonal ice zone, a possible first step is to evaluate how ...

The areal extent and conWguration of thickets of willow shrubs are currently changing in the Arctic both as an eVect of global warming and changed browsing pressure of reindeer. These changes have been predicted to impact the distribution and abundance of wildlife species relying on willow thickets as habitat. We assessed the relation between variables quantifying willow thicket configuration and ...

In general, biodiversity and species richness follow the latitudinal diversity gradient and decrease from the tropics towards the poles. Exceptions have however been recorded, as for deep coldwater coral reefs at high latitudes, which comprise biodiversity hotspots. Here we assess and characterise the high-latitude (69 degrees N) species richness and diversity of a local shallow-water fauna ...