We simulate the combined natural and pollutant-induced survival of early life stages of NEA cod and haddock, and the impact on the adult populations in response to the time of a major oil spill in a single year. Our simulations reveal how dynamic ocean processes, controlling both oil transport and fate and the frequency of interactions of oil with drifting fish eggs and larvae, mediate the magnitude ...

We investigated benthic foraminiferal assemblages in contaminated sediments in a subarctic harbor of northern Norway to assess their utility as indicators of anthropogenic impacts. Sediments in the harbor are repositories for POPs and heavy metals supplied through discharges from industry and shipping activities. Sediment contaminant concentrations are at moderate to poor ecological quality ...

Cold seeps are locations where seafloor communities are influenced by the seepage of methane and other reduced compounds from the seabed. We examined macro-infaunal benthos through community analysis and trophic structure using stable isotope analysis at 3 seep locations in the Barents Sea. These seeps were characterized by high densities of the chemosymbiotic polychaetes Siboglinidae, clade Frenulata ...

Cold-seep megafaunal communities around gas hydrate mounds (pingos) in the western Barents Sea (76°N, 16°E,  ∼ 400 m depth) were investigated with high-resolution, geographically referenced images acquired with an ROV and towed camera. Four pingos associated with seabed methane release hosted diverse biological communities of mainly nonseep (background) species including commercially important fish ...

Cold seeps can support unique faunal communities via chemosynthetic interactions fueled by seabed emissions of hydrocarbons. Additionally, cold seeps can enhance habitat complexity at the deep seafloor through the accretion of methane derived authigenic carbonates (MDAC). We examined infaunal and megafaunal community structure at high-Arctic cold seeps through analyses of benthic samples and ...

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being recognized as potentially useful for detection of marine mammals in their natural habitats, but an important consideration is the associated uncertainties in animal detection. We present a study based on field trials using UAVs to carry out image‐based monitoring of cetaceans in two fjords in northern Norway. We conducted 12 missions to assess ...

By combining an ocean model, a nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton-detritus-model and an individual-based model for early life stages of Northeast Arctic cod we systematically investigate food limitations and growth performance for individual cod larvae drifting along the Norwegian coast from spawning grounds toward nursery areas in the Barents Sea. We hypothesize that there is food shortage for ...

Seafloor methane release due to the thermal dissociation of gas hydrates is pervasive across the continental margins of the Arctic Ocean. Furthermore, there is increasing awareness that shallow hydrate-related methane seeps have appeared due to enhanced warming of Arctic Ocean bottom water during the last century. Although it has been argued that a gas hydrate gun could trigger abrupt climate ...

Arctic gas hydrate reservoirs located in shallow water and proximal to the sediment-water interface are thought to be sensitive to bottom water warming that may trigger gas hydrate dissociation and the release of methane. Here, we evaluate bottom water temperature as a potential driver for hydrate dissociation and methane release from a recently discovered, gas-hydrate-bearing system south of ...

Numerical models of ecological systems are increasingly used to address complex environmental and resource management questions. One challenge for scientists, managers, and stakeholders is to appraise how well suited these models are to answer questions of scientific or societal relevance, that is, to perform, communicate, or access transparent evaluations of ecological models. While there have been ...