Carbon stocks in Norwegian eelgrass meadows across environmental gradients.

Seagrass meadows are well-known for their capacity to capture and store blue carbon in sediments. However carbon stocks vary significantly between meadows, spanning more than three orders of magnitude on both local and global scales. Understanding the drivers of seagrass carbon stocks could help improve strategies for incorporating blue carbon into management plans.

Levelling-up rhodolith-bed science to address global-scale conservation challenges.

Global marine conservation remains fractured by an imbalance in research efforts and policy actions, limiting progression towards sustainability. Rhodolith beds represent a prime example, as they have ecological importance on a global scale, provide a wealth of ecosystem functions and services, including biodiversity provision and potential climate change mitigation, but remain disproportionately understudied, compared to other coastal ecosystems (tropical coral reefs, kelp forests, mangroves, seagrasses). Although rhodolith beds have gained some recognition, as important and sensitive habitats at national/regional levels during the last decade, there is still a notable lack of information and, consequently, specific conservation efforts.

Variation in Phenolic Chemistry in Seagrass Along Environmental Gradients.

Chemical ecology has been suggested as a less time-consuming and more cost-efficient monitoring tool of seagrass ecosystems than traditional methods. Phenolic chemistry in samples was analyzed against latitude, sea depth, sample position within a seagrass meadow (periphery or center) and wave exposure. Multivariate data analysis showed that rosmarinic acid correlated moderately positively with depth, while the flavonoids had an overall strong negative correlation with increasing depth-possibly reflecting lack of stress-induced conditions with increasing depth, rather than a different response to light conditions.

Carbon export is facilitated by sea urchins transforming kelp detritus.

With the increasing imperative for societies to act to curb climate change by increasing carbon stores and sinks, it has become critical to understand how organic carbon is produced, released, transformed, transported, and sequestered within and across ecosystems. In freshwater and open-ocean systems, shredders play a significant and well-known role in transforming and mobilizing carbon, but their role in the carbon cycle of coastal ecosystems is largely unknown. Marine plants such as kelps produce vast amounts of detritus, which can be captured and consumed by shedders as it traverses the seafloor.

Can multitrophic interactions and ocean warming influence large-scale kelp recovery?

Ongoing changes along the northeastern Atlantic coastline provide an opportunity to explore the influence of climate change and multitrophic interactions on the recovery of kelp. Here, vast areas of sea urchin-dominated barren grounds have shifted back to kelp forests, in parallel with changes in sea temperature and predator abundances. We have compiled data from studies covering more than 1,500-km coastline in northern Norway.

Efficient coralline algal psbA mini barcoding and High Resolution Melt (HRM) analysis using a simple custom DNA preparation.

Coralline algae form extensive maerl and rhodolith habitats that support a rich biodiversity. Calcium carbonate harvesting as well as trawling activities threatens this ecosystem. Eleven species were recorded so far as maerl-forming in NE Atlantic, but identification based on morphological characters is unreliable.

Rapid expansion of the invasive oyster Crassostrea gigas at its northern distribution limit in Europe: Naturally dispersed or introduced?

The Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, was introduced to Europe for aquaculture purposes, and has had a rapid and unforeseen northward expansion in northern Europe. The recent dramatic increase in number of C. gigas populations along the species' northern distribution limit has questioned the efficiency of Skagerrak as a dispersal barrier for transport and survival of larvae.

A snap shot of the short-term response of crustaceans to macrophyte detritus in the deep Oslofjord.

A test deployment of a time-lapse camera lander in the deep Oslofjord (431 m) was used to obtain initial information on the response of benthic fauna to macroalgal debris. Three macroalgal species were used on the lander baited plate: Fucus serratus, Saccharina latissima and Laminaria hyperborea and observed during 41.5 hours.

Distribution, structure and function of Nordic eelgrass ecosystems: implications for coastal management and conservation.

This paper focuses on the marine foundation eelgrass species, , along a gradient from the northern Baltic Sea to the north-east Atlantic. This vast region supports a minimum of 1480 km eelgrass (maximum >2100 km), which corresponds to more than four times the previously quantified area of eelgrass in Western Europe.Eelgrass meadows in the low salinity Baltic Sea support the highest diversity (4-6 spp.

The influence of physical factors on kelp and sea urchin distribution in previously and still grazed areas in the NE Atlantic.

The spatial distribution of kelp (Laminaria hyperborea) and sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) in the NE Atlantic are highly related to physical factors and to temporal changes in temperature. On a large scale, we identified borders for kelp recovery and sea urchin persistence along the north-south gradient. Sea urchin persistence was also related to the coast-ocean gradient.

Mapping biological resources in the coastal zone: an evaluation of methods in a pioneering study from Norway.

For many years, the planning and management of terrestrial areas has been supported by a detailed knowledge of the distribution of habitats and their associated species. However, the detailed mapping of biological resources in extent coastal areas, such as the Norwegian coastal zone, is unrealistic due to its enormous coastline. Here, we present a useful and feasible approach and a set of simple, cost-effective methods which are suitable for providing a broad-scale overview of marine habitats and fish resources.