Rates of ice mass loss at the calving margins of tidewater glaciers (frontal ablation rates) are a key uncertainty in sea level rise projections. Measurements are difficult because mass lost is replaced by ice flow at variable rates, and frontal ablation incorporates sub-aerial calving, and submarine melt and calving. Here we derive frontal ablation rates for three dynamically contrasting glaciers ...

The changing Arctic environment is affecting zooplankton that support its abundant wildlife. We examined how these changes are influencing a key zooplankton species, Calanus finmarchicus, principally found in the North Atlantic but expatriated to the Arctic. Close to the ice-edge in the Fram Strait, we identified areas that, since the 1980s, are increasingly favourable to C. finmarchicus. Field-sampling ...

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 ...

The relative contribution of bryophytes to plant diversity, primary productivity, and ecosystem functioning increases towards colder climates. Bryophytes respond to environmental changes at the species level, but because bryophyte species are relatively difficult to identify, they are often lumped into one functional group. Consequently, bryophyte function remains poorly resolved. Here, we explore ...

Abstract The way energy is used and acquired are fundamental questions in animal biology and figure greatly into conservation of a species. Accurate estimates of energy expenditure are critical in understanding how successful animals are throughout their lifespan and in quantifying population energy budgets and their role and impact on an ecosystem. Two methods have been commonly used to estimate ...

Copepods of the genus <i>Calanus</i> play a key role in marine food webs as consumers of primary producers and as prey for many commercially important marine species. Within the genus, <i>Calanus glacialis</i> and <i>Calanus finmarchicus</i> are considered indicator species for Arctic and Atlantic waters, respectively, and changes in their distributions are frequently used as a tool to track climate ...

<p>1.The boreal biome exhibits distinct alternative ecosystem states with high and low levels of tree cover. Insect outbreaks facilitated by climate warming could potentially drive transitions from high to low tree cover states. We investigated whether two key premises for such outbreak‐induced transitions – critical thresholds (tipping points) and positive feedbacks that could maintain alternative ...

The purpose of the thesis is to support the initial stage of the Climate Smart Forestry Norway (CSFN) undertaken by a consortium between NMBU, NIBIO, LUKE (Finland), and Wageningen University & Research, which is a five-year project aimed to assess how Norway’s forests are best managed in order to adapt to climate change. As part of the CSFN project a framework for quantifying probability and effects ...

From video recordings of spawning events, we quantified protective and cannibalistic behavior of Arctic charr occurring immediately after spawning. The number of fish cannibalizing on stray eggs was examined regarding (a) whether more than one male shed milt during the spawning event, that is, whether sperm competition occurred, (b) whether the sperm competition included few or many males, that is, ...

Phytoplankton blooms in the Arctic Ocean's seasonal sea ice zone are expected to start earlier and occur further north with retreating and thinning sea ice cover. The current study is the first compilation of phytoplankton bloom development and fate in the seasonally variable sea ice zone north of Svalbard from winter to late summer, using short-term sediment trap deployments. Clear seasonal patterns ...