Since more than 12 years we are following benthic life in the fjord basins. Every year in spring we come back to the same six stations in the sub-Arctic Saltfjord and Skjerstadfjord and sample the fauna living in the cold mud. This week we are doing this on board of the research vessel ‘Prinsesse Ingrid Alexandra’. The NORD PhD student Erin Villanueva-Coronado is going to analyse the time series data to find out more about the effects of climate change on communities that are used to relatively constant environmental conditions.
We have almost completed the annual sampling. We now take additional samples to understand whether the benthic animals in the deep change their food source over time. We do that by measuring the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio in the animals. But first we need to pick out all the different species. All on board are helping with that: Lydia, Sofia, Beatrice, Erin and Henning.
