Your research area
- Marine biology
- Meroplankton, i.e. larvae of benthic organisms, community analysis and their role in the diet of young fish larvae in Vestfjord (sub-Arctic)
Why is your research important?
Meroplankton is not only an understudied component of the zooplankton community, but also potential prey for fish larvae during their first-feeding event after exhausting their egg yolk. Young fish larvae normally eat copepods, extremely abundant crustaceans (approx. 90% of the zooplankton community), which ascend from their deep overwintering habitats in spring. The right timing/match between peak copepod abundance and the fish larvae’s first-feeding event is very important for the survival of the young fish larvae. Climate change can potentially lead to timing-shifts and create a mismatch in copepod-ascending and fish larvae’s first-feeding event, resulting in high mortality rates for the fish. Meroplankton represents a potential alternative prey.
What are your personal motivations?
This cruise represents a great opportunity to expand my sampling locations and add an additional spatial component to my project.
What are you going to do during the cruise onboard r/v Oceanograf?
I would like to collect meroplankton samples to analyze the community composition along the coast from Bergen to Bodø and compare it to the two main fjords in Nordland, Saltfjorden and Vestfjorden.