ARCTOS network

ARCTOS, a pan-arctic network centred in Tromsø, Bodø and Longyearbyen, experienced a very successful year in 2011. Building bridges between senior and young scientists, national and international research, science and industry, science and culture, ARCTOS added momentum to polar marine ecological research and the comprehension of the High North in 2011.

ARCTOS success with research funding

In completion with some of the best research groups in Norway, ARCTOS scientist have got several large applications funded from the Research Council of Norway (RCN). Further, ARCTOS is negotiating with the industry for new research programs of more than 30 million NOK, making 2012 a record year for ARCTOS research funding.   ARCTOS is very pleased that it was the young and promising scientist that succeeded with their application, the Drs Janne Søreide, UNIS, Jasmine Nahrgang and Tobias Tamelander, University of Tromsø, Heli Routti, Norwegian Polar Institute, and professor Jørgen Berge, UNIS.

 RCN funded project from RCN headed by ARCTOS scientists.

• CLEOPATRA II: Climate effects on planktonic food quality and trophic transfer in Arctic Marginal Ice Zones II. Project leader: Janne Søreide UNIS. NORKLIMA
• Circadian rhythms of Arctic zooplankton from polar twilight to polar night; patterns, processes, and ecosystem implications (CircA). Project leader Jørgen Berge (UNIS/ARCTOS). FRIMEDBIO
• To be negotiated in early 2012: Polar cod, lipid metabolism and disruption by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (POLARISATION). Project leader Jasmine Nahrgang (UoT/ARCTOS) + Universitetsløftet

 Funded project from RCN that ARCTOS scientist are participating in:

• Calanus in the North Atlantic: species distribution and genetic population structure in space and time. Project leader Galice Hoarau UoN, ARCTOS participants Sünnje Basedow and Stig Falk-Petersen. HAVKYST-MAROKO
• Synergistic effects of sea ice-free periods and contaminant exposure on energy metabolism in polar bears. Project leader Heli Routti NP, ARCTOS participant Geir Wing Gabrielsen. NORKLIMA
• Unveiling the hidden communities of the Arctic – new methodology opens a black box of knowledge about arctic microorganisms; their diversity, function, and potential use (MicroFUN).  Principal investigators: Pernille Bronken Eidesen (UNIS) and Tove M. Gabrielsen (UNIS/ARCTOS). NORKLIMA

 First EU Marie Curie grant to ARCTOS participant

•     Tobias Tamelander obtained Marie Curie FP7 grant for a stay at the University of Barcelona. Bacterial degradation of marine particles:  colonisation, dispersal, and impact on vertical export in the ocean (TBacPac).

 A New PhD position funded by UoT

•    Profs. Marit Reigstad and Paul Wassmann were provided with a PhD grant by UoT.  M.Sci. Ingrid Wiedmann is employd at the Institute for Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics with thesis project with the preliminary title Mini but mighty? – The contribution of pico- and nanoplanktonic cells to the carbon flux in (sub)arctic marine systems.  Supervisors are Profs. Reigstad and Wassmann and senior scientist Sünnje L. Basedow, Faculty of Bioscience and Aquaculture, University of Nordland.

EWMA

ARCTOS is strongly involved in the UiT project EWMA, Environmental Waste Management.  The main objectives for the project is are to develop a distinct Northern Norwegian competence cluster in waste handling in the Arctic oil industry and shipping. Through research and education, the project will build new knowledge on how to handle waste from this industry in a more proper manner in the high north region and cold environment.  Within the frame of ARCTOS and placed at Institute for Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, three ecotoxicology post docs, Jasmine Nahrgang, Lisa Bjørnsdatter Helgason and Carmen Cassado were employed in 2011.  The main goal is a) tproduce research findings, and educate the problem solvers of the future when it comes to overall environmentally adapted solutions for the handling of waste products from the petroleum industry and shipping in the Arctic and the Sub-Arctic and b) to establish educational programmes in ecotoxicology at master and PhD. The total budget over 4 years is 16 million NOK.

Excellent evaluation of ARCTOS research group

ARCTOS biologists also obtained an excellent rating in an evaluation from the research Council of Norway. The node of the ARCTOS network is in northern Norway with scientists from the Department for Arctic and Marine Biology (University of Tromsø), Norwegian Polar Institute, Akvaplan-niva, UNIS, Institute of Marine Research and University of Nordland. The partners obtained a grading of scientific quality of very good to excellent, good to excellent and very good.  Thus the ARCTOS partner institutes can be counted among the finest biological research institutions in Norway.  The successes of the ARCTOS network both in scientific excellence and external funding is thus not only based upon individual quality, but also upon the synergy that develops among ecosystem groups at these institutes.  That all involved ARCTOS institutes belong to the best in Norway suggests that cooperation between them can provide even better results.

Record high number of ARCTOS PhD-students defend

ARCTOS has also been successful in educating students.  A record of 8 ARCTOS PhD students defended their PhDs in 2011 (picture gallery in the same order as list below). Click on the names for more information and a download option.

• Lisa Bjørnsdatter Helgason: Levels and effects of halogenated organic contaminants in arctic animals
• Kriss Rokkan Iversen: The microbial food web in a changing Arctic Ocean: Seasonal structure and function, regulatory mechanisms and carbon dynamics in Svalbard waters
• Henrik Nygård: Scavenging amphipods in the high Arctic; Studies of benthic and sympagic amphipods in the genera Onisimus and Anonyx
• Louise Kiel Jensen: Acute and long-term effects from petroleum discharges on temperate and Arctic Calanus species
• Marit Nøst Hegseth: Cellular responses induced by environmental stress factors in arctic seabird chicks
• Helene Hodal Lødemel: Primary production and the relevance of small autotrophic and heterotrophic cells in arctic marine ecosystems
• Lena Seuthe: Planktonic food webs in the Arctic Ocean: Structure and function in contrasting seasons and physical settings across Fram Strait
• Anne Helene Solberg Tandberg: Studies on the amphipod genus Metopa (Stenothoidae) – Taxonomy, Ecology, Phylogeny.

High publication frequency

 

 

 High outreach activity and visibility of ARCTOS partners in media

 ARCTOS has as a policy to contribute to outreach activity connected to arctic marine systems and has over the last years contributed with Scientific knowledge for national and international news papers and TV production in many countries also outside Norway as UK (BBC), France (France 2), Korea and more.

Research by ARCTOS scientist was highly visible also in other media in 2011.  There were major reportages in the leading Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, contributions to the journal KLIMA and the web site forskning.no, as well as reportages/interviews in Norges Fiskerinæring and Svalbardposten.  There was 30 minutes long reportage about our research on Svalbard in Swedish Public broadcasting.

ARCTOS is a part of the development of the internationally renowned High North Conference, the Arctic Frontiers (http://arcticfrontiers.com/) and was responsible for the science conference in 2011. Some of the main speakers as well as addition senior scientist are soon producing the volume The Arctic in the Earth System perspective: the role of tipping points in the multidisciplinary, renowned journal AMBIO, to be published in February.  ARCTOS is developing also a meeting place for young scientists and artist, the Young Scientist Forum (http://ysf.arctic-frontiers.com/), under Arctic Frontiers, including the PolArt art exhibition  (http://www.tromsokunstforening.no/).

ARCTOS was also involved in the production of the beautifully illustrated, 190 pages long outreach book Arctic Tipping Points (http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/microsites/artic/ATPweb.html). A total of 25 scientists, photographers, poets and journalists exchanged cameras and pens to capture and describe the images making up Arctic Tipping Points.  The left page with its high quality photographs talks to the imaginative mind and the book communicates what Arctic tipping points are in an ingenious manner.  The right page talks to the intellect.

High North Academy established

ARCTOS took the initiative to establish the High North Academy (HNA) several years ago. HNA is an initiative to establish a joint platform for higher education and research in the High North. The aims of HNA are to develop and coordinate PhD courses in transferable skills (e.g. philosophy, research communication, and career development) at the University of Tromsø (UoT) and research institutes affiliated to the FRAM Centre (FRAM). The overall aim is to increase the quality of PhD-studies at UoT and connected to FRAM, to stimulate research output and communication, and - in the long run – to improve recruitment to higher education in the High North. HNA was established in 2011 and already gives several courses and actively profiles the University and the Fram center internationally and nationally.

New “power centre” for ARCTOS-inspired activities at Hyperboreum

Since January 2012 the secretariat function of three ARCTOS supported endeavours are joined at the Hyperboreum, the focal point of ARCTOS activities situated behind the Norwegian College of Fisher Science building.  Here the administrative personnel of ARCTOS, HNA and APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists), presented by Daniel Vogedes, Elina Haltunen and Jenny Baseman, are centred.  In the largest office at Hyperboreum a new power centre for outreach and organisational issue connected to networking, outreach, students and candidates has seen the day of light.

Camilla Svensen, Paul Wassmann, Stig Falk-Petersen

Drs. Nathalie Morata and Fanny Narcy, who have worked as a post doc at the ARCTOS network and educated by the ARCTOS PhD school, respectively, have established a new Arctic research project at the University of Brest, France: n.  ARCTOS congratulates and looks forward to close interaction and collaboration in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard!  The project will take place at the French/German research station in Ny Ålesund, Svalbard, which will provide adequate set up and background data insuring its success.

ARCTOS members are not only working in the planktonic realms - also the larger marine organisms are being studied. Arve Lynghammar, PhD student of the ARCTOS PhD school, is working on fish and produced this poster, which he presented both on the European Elasmobranch Association Annual Meeting 2011 i Berlin, Germany (28.- 30.) and at the annual meeting of the Norwegian Marine Researchers Association (Norske Havforskerforening), 16-17/11 in Trondheim. At the latter, Arves poster won the Best Poster Award. Congratulations! The hi-res version of the poster can be downloaded as PDF.

Just six days after the last PhD celebration we had every reason to celebrate again: ARCTOS PhD student Lena Seuthe successfully defended her dissertation with the title: "Planktonic food webs in the Arctic Ocean: Structure and function in contrasting seasons and physical settings across Fram Strait" on 08/12/2011. The main focus of Lenas work was on the smallest creatures in the oceans, the bacteria, and the bacteria based food web. Supervisors of the project were ARCTOS researchers Paul Wassmann (UiT – AMB) and Marit Reigstad (UiT – AMB).

The four papers included in the dissertation, all of them published, are:

1. Seasonal microbial processes in a high-latitude fjord (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard): I. Heterotrophic bacteria, picoplankton and nanoflagellates
2. Microbial processes in a high-latitude fjord (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard): II. Ciliates and dinoflagellates
3. Microbial communities and processes in ice-covered Arctic waters of the northwestern Fram Strait (75 to 80 degrees N) during the vernal pre-bloom phase
4. Zooplankton communities across Fram Strait in autumn: are small copepods and protozooplankton important? (in press)

For details on the publications and download links please see Lena Seuthes personal page at ARCTOS. Lena will continue to work at AMB for some more months.

Photos: Rudi Caeyers / UiT

On 02/12/2012 ARCTOS could celebrate another successful PhD defence: Helene Hodal Lødemel defended her thesis entitled: "Primary production and the relevance of small autotrophic and heterotrophic cells in arctic marine ecosystems" at the University of Tromsø. The main focus of this thesis was on primary production and the relevance of small autotrophic and heterotrophic cells in Arctic marine ecosystems.  Some of the main results of this study are the fact that small cells are an important component of Arctic food webs and need to be considered important primary producers and that bacteria need to be studied on a single cell level to understand community level processes. Helenes supervisors have been the ARCTOS researchers Svein Kristiansen (AMB) and Marit Reigstad (AMB).

The papers included in this dissertation are:

1. Spring bloom dynamics in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard: nutrients, phytoplankton, protozoans and primary production (published)
2. The importance of small-celled phytoplankton in spring blooms at the marginal ice zone in the northern Barents Sea (published)
3. Autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial biomass across the Arctic Ocean (manuscript)
4. Bacteria diversity and single-cell activity in a cold high latitude fjord (Balsfjord) from winter to late summer 2009 (manuscript) 

For details on the publications and download links please see Helene Hodal Lødemels personal page at ARCTOS.

Photos: Rudi Caeyers  / UiT

The project titled “Circadian rhythms of Arctic zooplankton from polar twilight to polar night - patterns, processes, and ecosystem implications (CircA)” with project leader Jørgen Berge, UNIS/UiT, was successful in the call for proposals of the Norwegian research council in the FRIMEDBIO programme (Results PDF). It has a budget of about 17 MNOK over a project period of 4 years from 2012-2015. This funding includes one new PhD and PostDoc position at UNIS, as well as some funding for APN and SAMS for both researchers and a marine observatory. The project focuses on newly discovered active and synchronized diel vertical migration of zooplankton during the polar night/twilight.

You can find the complete abstract with links to some relevant publications in the “Full abstract and references” link below.

On 29/11/2011, ARCTOS PhD student Marit Nøst Hegseth successfully defended her PhD thesis with the title: “Cellular responses induced by environmental stress factors in arctic seabird chicks – Antioxidant defense system dynamics and autophagic lysosomal processes related to contaminant exposure and food restriction”. The thesis work was a cooperation between Akvaplan-NIVA and UiT.

In her thesis, Dr. Hegseth analysed effects of two common stress factors in the Arctic (starvation and exposure to halogenated organic compounds) on to important cellular defence mechanisms in three common sea birds.  The project supervisors were Lionel Camus (APN), Even Jørgensen (UIT/AMB) and Francesco Regoli (UNIVPM).

The papers included in the dissertation are:

1. Hepatic antioxidant responses related to levels of PCBs and metals in chicks of three Arctic seabird species (published)
2. Effects of exposure to halogenated organic compounds combined with dietary restrictions on the antioxidant defense system in herring gull chicks (published)
3. Impact of halogenated organic contaminant exposure and fasting on antioxidant defence system on the kidney of herring gull chicks (manuscript)
4. Lysosomal and lipid-associated parameters in the livers of three species of arctic seabird chicks: Species differences and relationships with contaminant levels (published)
5. Effects of contaminant exposure and food restriction on hepatic lysosomal and lipid associated parameters in Herring gull chicks (submitted)

 For detailes on the publications and download links please see Marit Nøst Hegseths personal page at ARCTOS. Marit is now working as a toxicologist at the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN).

Photos: Rudi Caeyers / UiT

Not only in nano-technology are structures that are smaller than what the human eye can see important. Also biologist have been using microscopes since they have been invented to take a closer look a tiny structures.

"MIKROGLIMT" invites you to take a trip into the beauty of the small - It is the name of the open air dark season exhibition of the university museum in Tromsø. Microscope pictures taken by researchers of UiT, several of them from ARCTOS, will be projected on the outside wall of the museum in a gigantic 11 m diameter and show microscopic structure in a scale you have never seen before. 

Opening sunday 27/11 at 15:00 with some warm food and beverages. The show will be on throughout the dark season from 07:00-10:00 and 14:00-24:00.