"Interdisciplinary" research projects

MicroFun

MicroFun is a UNIS-based project, where the biodiversity and function of terrestrial and marine microbial eukaryotes in Svalbard are investigated. The microbes are critically important to all ecosystems on Earth, as primary producers and decomposers, yet their minute size and our inability to culture most of them has made them difficult to study.

UNIS has established a molecular laboratory where we utilize the recent progress in metagenomics to investigate microbial eukaryotic organisms and symbiotic fungi, and refine metatranscriptome methods in order to study their function in the Arctic ecosystem.

MicroFun is a collaboration between scientists working in the Arctic terrestrial and marine environments.

Principle investigators: Associate Professor Pernille Bronken Eidesen (terrestrial biology), Associate Professor Tove M. Gabrielsen and Post Doc Anna Vader (marine biology).

Arctic Marine Biology

The research within this group is on Arctic marine ecology in general. Current projects involve studies of pelagos, benthos and sympagos, and the main focus is on invertebrates at lower trophic levels.

CLEOPATRA: Climate effects on planktonic food quality and trophic transfer in Arctic Marginal Ice Zones

This Norwegian IPY-project, led by UNIS, studies the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ), which is the key productive area of Arctic shelf seas. The ongoing warming of Arctic regions will lead to a northward retreat of the MIZ, and to an earlier opening of huge areas in spring. This may result in a temporal mismatch between the phytoplankton spring bloom and zooplankton reproduction.

Less ice will also reduce the ice algae production that may be an important food source for spawning zooplankton prior to the phytoplankton spring bloom. Quantity and quality of primary production in seasonally ice-covered seas is primarily regulated by light and nutrients. Excess light, however, is potentially detrimental for algae and can reduce algal food quality. A decrease in the relative amount of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in algae due to excess light may affect the reproductive success and growth of zooplankton, and thereby the transport of energy to higher trophic levels, such as fish, birds, and mammals.

For more information, contact Janne Søreide, Post Doc in Marine Biology

Arctic Terrestrial Biology

The terrestrial group works on a variety of zoological, botanical and microbiological projects related to the Arctic. Topics include plant population and community processes, genetic variation in plants, climate impact and plant-animal interactions, as well as general ecology, dispersal and cold tolerance in invertebrates.

The project will involve recreating the conditions (temperature, humidity and pressure) and determine the survival period for a range of suitable invertebrates. 

For more information, contact Steve Coulson, Associate Professor in Terrestrial Biology.  More information about Coulsons current projects can be found here.

Invertebrate biogeography of Svalbard

SPIDER - Svalbard Photographic Invertebrate Database and Educational Resource

Here you will find an information source concerning the terrestrial and freshwater invertebrate fauna of Svalbard. What is an 'invertebrate'? Invertebrate is a general term for all animals without backbones, for example insects, spiders and worms.

There are some 1,100 species of invertebrate recorded from the archipelago including 230 species of insect and 19 species of spider but they are often hard to observe.  The aim of this webpage is to provide information about this fascinating group of animals, for example, what is here?  How did it get here? How does it survive here?

This is an ongoing project and the site will be continually developed.  It is hoped these pages will be of interest to both locals and visitors to Svalbard.

Extended survival of invertebrates on sea water immersion
It is known that invertebrates have a high tolerance to immersion in sea water or freezing in ice. However, the limits of this response and variation between species and individuals are unknown.  This will be characterized using a variety of long term experiments.

For more information, contact Steve Coulson, Associate Professor in Terrestrial Biology. More information about Coulsons current projects can be found here.

Aerial dispersal of invertebrates
It is appreciated that in Polar regions the dispersal of flightless invertebrates may be importance. The aerial rain of invertebrates will be determined using a variety of water and sticky traps and will be undertaken in collaboration with the botanists at UNIS studying seed dispersal.  Sites will be located in a variety of locations and close to meteorological stations to enable the effect of wind speed and direction to be determined.

For more information, contact Steve Coulson, Associate Professor in Terrestrial Biology. More information about Coulsons current projects can be found here.

Establishment
The controls of the establishment of invertebrate species on Svalbard
Although many species of invertebrate may be able to successfully disperse to Svalbard, fewer may be able to establish.  Invertebrates and plants must be pre-adapted to the physical environment (extreme variation in day length, short cool summer and long cold winter).  Species must have the ability to tolerate the environment in order to survive and adapt to the conditions.  The ability of a range of mainland Norway plant and invertebrate species to establish on Svalbard will be tested using ventilated greenhouses to enable the effect of the natural environment (e.g. day length and light wavelength) on the flora and fauna to be determined.
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For more information, contact Steve Coulson, Associate Professor in Terrestrial Biology. More information about Coulsons current projects can be found here.

The effect of multiple freeze thaw cycles on the survival of an overwintering freeze tolerance insect
It is often stated that freeze avoiding species dominate in central Europe as these species can survive the multiple freeze thaw events characteristic of such regions better than freeze avoiding species.  Recent evidence for one freeze tolerant species from Svalbard suggests that this species has a very high tolerance of multiple freeze – thaw cycles.  This will be investigated in collaboration with Drs Peter Convey and Roger Worland at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge and other hypotheses for the restricted distribution of freeze tolerance invertebrates explored.

For more information, contact Steve Coulson, Associate Professor in Terrestrial Biology. More information about Coulsons current projects can be found here.