Acronym LOST
Category
Fisheries
Title Impact of Climate-driven habitat LOss in Norwegian fjords on ecosystem STructure and functional ecology of cartilaginous fishes Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Knut Wiik Vollset Coordinator email knvo@norceresearch.no
Coordinator institution
NORCE - Norwegian Research Centre (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - Carleton University (Canada) ,
FSU - Florida State University (United States of America) ,
Start year 2021 End year 2025 Funding (€) € 1,199,500 Website https://prosjektbanken.forskningsradet.no/en/project/FORISS/325840?Kilde=FORISS&distribution=Ar&chart=bar&calcType=funding&Sprak=no&sortBy=date&sortOrder=desc&resultCount=30&offset=0&Organisasjon.2=Milj%C3%B8institutter Summary The LOST project aims to establish new knowledge about the urgent challenge of habitat compression caused by urbanization of the fjord environment and climate change. Coastal fjords in Norway are vulnerable to hypoxia because of prolonged residence times of water in the fjords and discharge of rivers that are increasingly productive due to climate change and eutrophication. In several fjords of western Norway, we have recorded increasing hypoxia and a progressively shallower oxygen minimum layer, with unknown consequences for at-risk shark species that are important predators of the deep water ecosystems. Indeed, the deep water habitat of this fjord complex is relatively unique given that the ocean shelf extending off Norway to Shetland is relatively shallow (mostly ~150 m deep). The fjord habitat is therefore an important topic for research given the relatively rare habitat that it provides. This is particularly urgent given that Nordhordland was recently declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Area. Our project will build on historical sampling in the Hordaland fjords from the 1990s that sampled the shark community by longline fishing. Repeating this sampling in WP1 will provide novel insights into the changes the shark populations demography have undergone with increasing hypoxia in the decades since, and simultaneously allow us to sample sharks to resolve their genetic population structure by comparing it to baseline samples available from outside the fjords. Novel research on the behaviour of deep water species will capitalize on the Bergen Telemetry Network, a network of acoustic receivers in the Hordaland fjords in place for tracking fish that can be used for observing the vertical behavior of sharks in response to the changing oxygen minimum layer of the fjord. Finally, WP3 will utilize state-of-the art activity sensors to describe the energy landscape of sharks outside and inside the oxygen minimum layers.
Keywords
Climate change;
Impacts;
Population dynamic;
Sharks;
Genetic;
Tagging;
Marine Region
13
Northern North Sea (27.IVa)
1
Marine Region Map
