Small rodents are key herbivores of arctic ecosystems, where their cyclic population dynamics have important implications for vegetation dynamics. The role of vegetation for shaping small rodent population dynamics remains, however, unclear. Evaluation of this interaction has been greatly hampered by the rather fragmentary knowledge of small rodents feeding ecology, which in turn is due to methodological ...

Across Arctic charr’s Holearctic distribution we see repeated patterns where multiple ecotypes diverge along ecological resource gradients. Arctic charr occur in both anadromous and lacustrine forms. Furthermore, lacustrine ecotypes are seen repeatedly specializing their morphology, trophic ecology, and life history along a benthic pelagic axis and along the depth gradient. Typically, a pelagic ...

To improve local economy, the red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) was introduced to the Barents Sea by Soviet scientists in the 1960s. Adapting well to the new environment, the growing population gradually invaded new areas along the coast of northern Norway. The red king crab has become a valuable marine resource but as an introduced species, it is also a potential threat to the ecosystem. ...

Marine ecosystems are under pressures of human activities that have altered their dynamics and structure during the last five decades, but there can also vary due to internal dynamics or chance. Managers focus on human activities and often ignore the contribution of internal dynamics and chance to ecosystem dynamics in the decision-making process. In this thesis, I use food-web modelling based on ...

The list of achievements in developing pharmaceuticals and other useful products originating from Nature is long, and it continues to extend. Marine bioprospecting alone has generated three novel drugs in the last four years. The continued success motivates further bioprospecting efforts in the search for utilisable products from natural sources. In this thesis, extracts of Arctic marine organisms ...

Price and quantity numbers, which we are observing in a market place, occur because of an interaction between supply and demand. An understanding of what drives supply and demand is therefore important in order to understand the market in itself. This dissertation focuses on determining the impact of exogenous factors on salmon biomass growth and how producers respond to price changes. Furthermore, ...

Climate change driven increases in temperature are enhancing land-ocean connectivity in the coastal Arctic, with a range of implications for coastal food-webs and contaminant cycling. Terrestrial inputs are a direct source of carbon and legacy contaminants to coastal areas, but as a source of freshwater, nutrients and suspended inorganic sediments, they can also affect coastal food-webs and contaminant ...

The overall aim of this study has been to provide information on how environmental conditions in Norway might affect the life history and distribution of the edible crab (<i>Cancer pagurus</i>). The results show that the size at which female crabs reach physiological maturity vary little, and just randomly, across northern Europe, and among latitudinally separated areas within Norway. Analysis of ...

The manuscripts of the dissertation presented here encompass several aspects of adaptations in ice-associated amphipods, focussing mainly on their ability to cope with increased light levels, including the ultraviolet radiation (UVR), under thinner or more dispersed sea ice. A decrease in multi-year ice (MYI) in the Arctic, and a concurrent reduction in stable habitat for ice-associated species, is ...

Fordeling av rettigheter til ressurser og rettferdig fordeling av ressursene er sentrale forhold ved ressursforvaltningen. Spennet mellom hvordan naturressursene faktisk forvaltes, og synspunkter på hvordan de bør forvaltes, kan være stort og tidvis konfliktfylt. Dette er det også ulike meninger om, avhengig av hvem som blir spurt, og hvem sine interesser som får gjennomslag i ressursforvaltningen. ...