| 1. |
- Hylander, Samuel, et al.
(författare)
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Concentrations of sunscreens and antioxidant pigments in Arctic Calanus spp. in relation to ice cover, ultraviolet radiation, and the phytoplankton spring bloom
- 2015
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Ingår i: Limnology and Oceanography. - : Wiley. - 0024-3590 .- 1939-5590. ; 60, s. 2197-2206
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Arctic zooplankton ascend to shallow depths during spring to graze on the yearly occurring phytoplankton bloom. However, in surface waters they are exposed to detrimental ultraviolet radiation (UVR) levels. Here, we quantified concentrations of substances known to have UVR-protective functions, namely mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) and the carotenoid astaxanthin, from March to May in Calanus finmarchicus, Calanus glacialis and Calanus hyperboreus. Ice cover was 100% in the beginning of March, started to break up during April and was gone by the end of May. UVR-exposure in the water column was tightly linked to the ice conditions and water UVR-transparency was up to 6 m (depth where 1% radiation remains). Concentrations of MAAs in C. finmarchicus and C. glacialis increased sharply during ice break-up and peaked concurrently with maximum chlorophyll a (Chl a) levels. MAA-concentrations in C. hyperboreus increased later in accordance with its later arrival to the surface. The concentration of astaxanthin increased in all three species over time but there was no synchrony with ice conditions or the phytoplankton bloom. Even though only the upper 6 m of the water column was affected by UV-radiation, MAAs in the copepods were tightly correlated to the UV-threat. Hence, changes in ice cover are projected to have a large impact on the UVR-exposure of zooplankton emphasizing the importance of the timing of zooplankton ascent from deep waters in relation to the phytoplankton bloom and the ice break-up.
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| 2. |
- Linnebjerg, Jannie Fries, et al.
(författare)
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Deciphering the structure of the West Greenland marine food web using stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N)
- 2016
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Ingår i: Marine Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0025-3162 .- 1432-1793. ; 163:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Arctic is facing major environmental changes impacting marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. One way of assessing the responses of an ecosystem to these changes is to quantitatively study food web dynamics. Here, we used stable isotope (δ15N and δ13C) analyses of 39 Arctic marine species to investigate trophic relationships and isotopic niches of the West Greenland food web in 2000–2004. The lowest δ15N values were found for suspension feeding blue mussel (Mytilus edulis; 6.1 ‰) and the highest for polar bear (Ursus maritimus; 20.2 ‰). For δ13C, copepods (Calanus spp.) had the lowest values (−20.4 ‰) and snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) the highest values (−15.8 ‰). Our results show that the three trophic enrichment factor (TEF) approaches used to quantify species trophic positions (fixed TEF of 3.8 and 3.4 ‰ or scaled TEF) did not generally affect trophic modelling and provided similar conclusions. Overall, the findings in this study are in good agreement with previous investigations of other Arctic marine ecosystems. Interestingly, we found little overlap of core isotopic niches used by the four investigated functional groups (mammals, seabirds, fish and invertebrates), except for seabirds and fish where an overlap of 24 % was found. These results provide new insights into species and functional group interactions, as well as into the food web structure and ecosystem functioning of an important Arctic region that can be used as a template to guide future modelling of carbon, energy and contaminant flow in the region.
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