 Climate
and ecosystems research
We aim to improve the understanding of how physical forcing
mechanisms influence arctic trophic structure and linkages, and
associated impacts for organisms, populations and communities. Important
issues are:
The current attention to ‘climate change’ can overshadow the fact
that the marine environment is inherently variable, and that ecosystem
components are adapted to certain ranges of environmental variability.
Akvaplan-niva’s Climate and Ecosystems group focuses on understanding
how natural variability influences the structure and functioning of the
marine ecosystem by examining how different species respond and interact
to the influence of local manifestations of the large-scale climate
variability.
Our research activities in this arena generally target Arctic marine
benthic communities as the central component, but extend to overlying
pelagic and ice-associated systems and processes as well as the
biogeochemistry of sediments, in order to understand how change is
manifested through both top-down and bottom-up control of ecosystem
components. These studies provide greater understanding of the potential
for climate-driven changes in the bio-physical coupling mechanisms and
the related consequences for organisms, populations and ecosystems.
Project Highlights
Main collaborators for the Climate and Ecosystems research group:
- ARCTOS Network
- Bjerkenes Center for Climate Research (Bergen)
- Bates College (Maine, USA)
- East Carolina University, (North
Carolina, USA)
- StonyBrook University (New York, USA)
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Massachusetts, USA)
- University of Georgia (USA)
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- University of Connecticut (USA)
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (USA)
- University of Saskatchewan (Canada)
- Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Science (St.
Petersburg, Russia)
- Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Russian Academy of Science
(Murmansk, Russia)
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Contact for more information:
Mike Carroll or
Jolynn Carroll
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