Alexander Vetrov
Evgeny Romankevich
Опубликована Март 29, 2019
Dissolved organic carbon, from marine biota excretions and decomposing detritus, is one of the main components of the carbon cycle in the ocean. In this study, an attempt was made to construct maps of the distribution and fluxes of DOC in the Arctic Ocean and the exchanges with the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Because of the limited data available a multiple linear regression technique was performed to identify significant relationships between DOC (2200 samples) and hydrologic parameters (temperature and salinity), as well as depth, horizon, latitude and offshore distance. Mapping of the DOC distribution and its fluxes was carried out …
Michał Hubert Węgrzyn
Beata Cykowska-Marzencka
Monica Alterskjær Sundset
Paulina Wietrzyk-Pełka
Agnieszka Galanty
Опубликована Янв. 22, 2019
Previous studies of Eurasian tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in Norway indicate that their rumen microbiota play a key role in degrading lichen secondary metabolites. We investigated the presence of usnic acid and atranorin in faecal samples from Svalbard reindeer (R. tarandus platyrhynchus). Samples were collected in Bolterdalen valley together with vegetation samples from the study site. The mesic tundra in this area was dominated by vascular plants (59% of vegetation cover). Bryophytes (16%) and lichens (25%) were also present. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of usnic acid and atranorin in lichen and faeces samples were performed using high-performance liquid chromatography. …
Eva Fuglei
Arnaud Tarroux
Опубликована Июнь 24, 2019
We report the first satellite tracking of natal dispersal by an Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) between continents and High-Arctic ecosystems. A young female left Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago, Norway) on 26 March 2018 and reached Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, 76 days later, after travelling a cumulative distance of 3506 km, bringing her ca. 1789 km away (straight-line distance) from her natal area. The total cumulative distance travelled during the entire tracking period, starting when she left her natal area on 1 March 2018 and ending when she settled on Ellesmere Island on 1 July 2018, was 4415 km. This is among …
Morten Frederiksen
Jannie F. Linnebjerg
Flemming R. Merkel
Sabina I. Wilhelm
Gregory J. Robertson
Опубликована Авг. 6, 2019
Brünnich’s guillemot (Uria lomvia), or thick-billed murre, is an abundant pan-Arctic seabird, but several Atlantic breeding populations are declining. The species is subject to traditional harvest in the important wintering areas off west Greenland and Newfoundland, and has been subject to chronic oil pollution on the east coast of Canada. Until recently, knowledge of winter distribution has been insufficient to assess the impact of these mortality sources on specific breeding populations. We collate existing information on mortality from bag statistics in Greenland and Canada and studies of oiling off Newfoundland, as well as new data on age distribution in the …
Audrey Simon
Amy Hurford
Nicolas Lecomte
Denise Bélanger
Patrick Leighton
Olivia Tardy
Опубликована Июнь 5, 2019
Rabies is a major issue for human and animal health in the Arctic, yet little is known about its epidemiology. In particular, there is an ongoing debate regarding how Arctic rabies persists in its primary reservoir host, the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), which exists in the ecosystem at very low population densities. To shed light on the mechanisms of rabies persistence in the Arctic, we built a susceptible–exposed–infectious–recovered (SEIR) epidemiological model of rabies virus transmission in an Arctic fox population interacting with red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), a rabies host that is increasingly present in the Arctic. The model suggests that …
Heidi Ahonen
Kathleen M. Stafford
Christian Lydersen
Laura de Steur
Kit M. Kovacs
Опубликована Март 6, 2019
Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has proven to be an efficient method for studying vocally active marine mammals in areas that are difficult to access on a year-round basis. In this study, a PAM recorder was deployed on an oceanographic mooring in western Fram Strait (78°50'N, 5°W) to record the acoustic presence of narwhals (Monodon monoceros) over a 3-yr period. Acoustic data were recorded for 14–17 min at the start of each hour from 25 September 2010 to 26 August 2011, from 2 September 2012 to 11 April 2013 and from 8 September 2013 to 27 April 2014. Pulsed and tonal …
Sarah L. Newell
Nancy C. Doubleday
Community of Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut
Опубликована Дек. 23, 2020
Food security is a complex topic defined not just by having enough nutritious food to eat but also by cost, safety and cultural considerations. In Arctic Inuit communities, food security is intimately connected to culture through traditional methods of harvesting country food. In Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, community-based research was conducted in collaboration with Chesterfield Inlet community members using interviews and community engagement. Community members were consulted about the design of the interview guide, recruitment of participants, analysis and validation of results. This study aims to develop a theoretical framework of how food security, cultural continuity and community health and well-being …
Mattia Greco
Tine L. Rasmussen
Michal Kucera
Julie Meilland
Kasia Zamelczyk
Опубликована Авг. 27, 2020
Chemical signatures in the calcite of shells of polar and subpolar planktonic foraminifera have been frequently used to trace and quantify past meltwater discharge events. This approach assumes that the foraminifera can tolerate low salinity under extended periods. To obtain a first experimental constraint on salinity tolerance of Subarctic foraminifera, we carried out a culturing experiment with specimens of the subpolar species Neogloboquadrina incompta collected in the northern Norwegian Sea off Tromsø in October 2018. The foraminifera were exposed to a gradient of salinities between 35 and 25 PSU. Survival was monitored over 26 days by measuring the extent of …
Jair Putzke
Flávia Ramos Ferrari
Carlos E.G.R. Schaefer
Опубликована Июнь 8, 2020
In February 2019, during fieldwork at Harmony Point, Nelson Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, a large population of the rare liverwort Hygrolembidium isophyllum (Lepidoziaceae) was discovered. The occurrence of this rare species reinforces the need to preserve Antarctic Specially Protected Area 133.
Piotr Jadwiszczak
Опубликована Июнь 11, 2020
Humeri have been useful bones in taxonomic determinations of extinct penguins. In the context of neontological taxonomic studies, however, their potential remains unsatisfactorily explored. Here, the variation of the overall closed-outline shape of 60 humeri, assignable to five genera of extant penguins, was investigated. A set of normalized outlines was quantified via elliptical Fourier analysis and subjected to linear discriminant analysis on principal component scores extracted from harmonic coefficients. These geometric representations proved to be a source of easily extractable genus-level taxonomic information. The constructed model provided meaningful discrimination between taxa: the first two linear discriminants captured almost 90% of …