Scavenging amphipods are important for the circulation and dispersal of organic material in the marine environment. Despite their dominance in the scavenging guild and importance in the food web, little is known about Arctic amphipods and their feeding preferences. We studied the amphipod scavenging guild using baited traps for one full year to increase our understanding of its seasonal variations. ...

The Arctic is greatly impacted by climate change. The increase in air temperature drives the thawing of permafrost and an increase in coastal erosion and river discharge. This leads to a greater input of sediment and organic matter into coastal waters, which substantially impacts the ecosystems by reducing light transmission through the water column and altering the biogeochemistry, but also the ...

The Barents Sea is undergoing rapid ocean warming with less sea ice and increased Atlantic inflow, shifting the pelagic ecosystem towards a more boreal one, a process referred to as Atlantification. While such changes have already been documented in the southern and central Barents Sea, less is known about the degree of Atlantification in the northern Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean. In this seasonal ...

The calanoid copepod Calanus glacialis dominates the mesozooplankton biomass in the Arctic shelf seas, but its smaller North Atlantic sibling Calanus finmarchicus is expanding northwards and may potentially replace it if the climate continues to warm. Here we studied the population structure, overwintering strategies, gonad maturation and egg production of C. glacialis and C. finmarchicus over ...

Zooplankton vertical migration enhances the efficiency of the ocean biological pump by translocating carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) below the mixed layer through respiration and excretion at depth. We measured C and N active transport due to diel vertical migration (DVM) in a Svalbard fjord at 79°N. Multifrequency analysis of backscatter data from an Acoustic Zooplankton Fish Profiler moored from January ...

Several recent lines of evidence indicate that the polar night is key to understanding Arctic marine ecosystems. First, the polar night is not a period void of biological activity even though primary production is close to zero, but is rather characterized by a number of processes and interactions yet to be fully understood, including unanticipated high levels of feeding and reproduction in a ...

We present an accurate, fast, simple and non-destructive photographic method to estimate wax ester and lipid content in single individuals of the calanoid copepod genus Calanus and test this method against gas-chromatographic lipid measurements.

Adult males of <i>Calanus</i> copepods in the Arctic are mainly observed between late autumn and late spring, and are seldom recorded during summer. Due to logistical constraints, there are still relatively few studies on zooplankton in high-latitude regions during the winter, and subsequently, little is known about <i>Calanus</i> males. Here, we present data on abundance, spatial distribution, ...

Arctic marine ecosystems support fisheries of significant and increasing economic and nutritional value. Commercial stocks are sustained by pelagic food webs with relatively few keystone taxa mediating energy transfer to higher trophic levels, and it remains largely unknown how these taxa will be affected by changing climate and the influx of boreal taxa. <i>Calanus</i> species store large quantities ...

Calanoid copepods of the genus Calanus represent an important, nutrient-rich food source for a multitude of Arctic marine organisms. Although morphologically very similar, their life histories and ecological roles differ. Because the distribution of Calanus glacialis and C. finmarchicus corresponds to Arctic and Atlantic water masses, respectively, they are regularly used as climate indicators. A ...