While we wait for the light – part 3
23 February 2020
While we wait for the light, we are still struggling to define how “dark” or “bright” it really is in the polar night. We know that organisms out there are able to respond to light we cannot see, and we know that polar night is not just a continuous darkness. But it is incredibly much more difficult to measure light in the dark than you might think.
While we wait for the light – part 2
21 February 2020
While we wait for the light, not everything goes as we intended. Sometimes the world is simply not as we thought. And sometimes you are lucky and are in the right place at the right time without any plan behind it. This year’s polar night cruise is a good example of this.
While we wait for the light – part 1
19 February 2020
While most of us at this time are waiting for the light to return, there are many animals and algae out there that thrive in the dark. For many of the marine organisms, the moonlight and mareel (morild) are more than enough to meet their primary needs – find a partner (or two) and food!
Summer/autumn courses 2020 open for application
21 January 2020
Apply now for our summer semester courses! The application deadline is 15 February 2020.
Ice in sight!
20 January 2020
We are on a polar night cruise and measurements we have taken show that both Isfjorden and Kongsfjorden are almost five degrees colder now in 2020 than it was at the same time in 2017, and the fjords are simply freezing around us!
We measure the temperature of Isfjorden
17 December 2019
We have been out again to take measurements in Isfjorden, this time with our good colleagues from the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute (MMBI).
Fate of copepods in a warming Arctic dependent on the algae season
14 November 2019
The duration of the productive season is crucial for the Arctic copepod Calanus glacialis to have higher success than its Atlantic sibling C. finmarchicus in a changing Arctic, concludes PhD candidate Maja Hatlebakk in her doctoral thesis. Hatlebakk will defend her thesis on Wednesday 20 November at UNIS.
Marine drones on Svalbard
11 November 2019
Mini-research ship lands safely in Longyearbyen after two month drift west of Svalbard.
Atlantification of the marine ecosystem in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard
8 October 2019
Climate warming is rapidly altering the physical marine environment in fjords on the west coast of Svalbard towards a more temperate state. Reductions in sea ice cover and increased ocean temperatures are evident, resulting in changes of ice-associated and pelagic ecosystems.