The mammalian brain is characterized by high energy expenditure and small energy reserves, making it dependent on continuous vascular oxygen and nutritional supply. The brain is therefore extremely vulnerable to hypoxia. While neurons of most terrestrial mammals suffer from irreversible damage after only short periods of hypoxia, neurons of the deep-diving hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) show ...

Methane (CH₄) is a sustainable carbon feedstock for value-added chemical production in aerobic CH₄-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs). Under substrate-limited (e.g., oxygen and nitrogen) conditions, CH₄ oxidation results in the production of various short-chain organic acids and platform chemicals. These CH₄-derived products could be broadened by ...

To understand the exposure and potential sources of emerging brominated flame retardants (EBFR) and organophosphate esters (OPEs) in marine wildlife from the Norwegian Arctic, we investigated concentrations of EBFRs in 157 tissue samples from nine species of marine vertebrates and OPEs in 34 samples from three whale species. The samples, collected from a wide range of species with contrasting ...

In the Arctic, sea ice loss has already transformed the dominant sources and periodicity of primary production in some areas, raising concerns over climate change impacts on benthic communities. Considered to be excellent indicators of environmental changes, benthic invertebrates play important roles in nutrient cycling, sediment oxygenation and decomposition. However, this biological component ...

Temporal variability in abundance and composition of species in marine ecosystems results from a combination of internal processes, external drivers, and stochasticity. One way to explore the temporal variability in an ecosystem is through temporal stability, measured using the inverse of the coefficient of variation for biomass of single species. The effect of temperature and fisheries on the ...

The Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard has recently experienced large sea ice losses and the increasing prominence of Atlantic water (AW) advection. To investigate the impact of these ongoing changes on annual particle export, two moorings with sequential sediment traps were deployed in ice-free and seasonally ice-covered waters on the shelf north (NSv) and east (ESv) of Svalbard, collecting sinking ...

Parasitism is a successful life strategy that has evolved independently in several families of vascular plants. The genera Cuscuta and Orobanche represent examples of the two profoundly different groups of parasites: one parasitizing host shoots and the other infecting host roots. In this study, we sequenced and described the overall repertoire of small RNAs from Cuscuta campestris and Orobanche ...

Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. is host to more than 120 parasite species. Background abundance of these parasite species on adjacent wild hosts determines the infection pressure on cod farmed in open pens. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, 343 cod were collected from 4 locations along the coast of Norway: Øksfjord, Kvarøy, Brønnøysund and Ålesund. Freshly killed wild local cod, wild migratory cod, hatchery-reared ...

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on most of society. The most effective measure to prevent the spread has been reducing mobility, which is especially problematic for pastoralists relying on mobility to follow the movement of their livestock. We investigated to what degree Norwegian reindeer husbandry and the reindeer husbandry management system are affected by COVID-19 and government ...

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 ...