Engaging tomorrow's scientists
How are high-arctic plants affected by winter basal-ice encasement? Are they trade-offs in plant fitness traits and above-ground biomass production? Project description: Winter rain-on-snow events are increasing frequency, locking the tundra in a thick ice layer. A first experiment, located in Adventdalen, test for effects of warmer winters and summers in a fully factorial study Read More …
Investigation of nest predation of the purple sandpiper Calidris maritima; this work is part of a joint circumpolar project to measure and predict the cascading impacts of “Indirect Trophic Interactions” in arctic terrestrial vertebrate communities. Project description Temperature loggers will be placed in nests of incubating purple sandpipers in Adventdalen. Should these eggs be lost Read More …
Bryophytes, i.e. mosses and liverworts, dominate the vegetation in wide areas of the Arctic. Especially on Svalbard where dwarf shrubs are scarce, they form a dominant component of the vegetation. With current climate warming ongoing on Svalbard, we expect shifts in vegetation, from moss-dominated to vascular plant-dominated communities as well as species shifts within these Read More …
Project description The AB department at UNIS undertakes marine sampling at many different locations around Spitsbergen, usually with the aim of studying phytoplankton and zooplankton ecology. Various abiotic factors are measured and sampled for in addition to the animals themselves. These factors include water temperature and salinity, and concentrations of nutrients present. This data is Read More …