MSc thesis project advertisement
Names of the supervisors: Alexander Eiler, Isolde Callisto Puts
Collaborators: as defined by the project
Preferred project period: September 2025 – June 2027
Background
At northern latitudes, climate change increases transport of freshwater rich in particulate and dissolved organic matter into seas and oceans. These land-marine connections are particularly strong in the Arctic Ocean and Baltic Sea, which are undergoing significant changes in coastal biogeochemistry and stratification related to increasing amounts of freshwater inputs. These can carry significant amounts of organic matter, sediments, and toxic compounds from land. As organic matter is often colored and complexed with nutrients and trace minerals, it is considered a major factor affecting coastal biogeochemistry and production. While in boreal systems such as the Oslofjord the water entering the coasts is often organic-rich and colored, in Arctic systems the water is rather sediment-rich and organic poor. Hence, large differences are expected along northern coastlines.
Project description
The project investigates patterns in biogeochemistry, and zooplankton communities and toxic levels across northern coasts. The project can leverage on collected samples taken along a transect from river-to-sea across Greenland (2023), Iceland and the Baltic Sea (2024), and will add new samples from the Oslofjord (2026; see figure below). The students will collect these latter samples on joint-field trips. There is also previous data from the Oslofjord available that can be used. There is potential for cross learning with parallel ongoing projects.
Project 1: Zooplankton communities along river-to-fjords systems across boreal-Arctic coasts
The student will analyze zooplankton communities, taken from trawls from the bottom to top of the water column through DNA metabarcoding.
Project 2: Toxins in zooplankton across boreal-Arctic coasts
The student will analyze toxins in the acquired zooplankton samples and discuss patterns across the coastlines (Baltic Sea, Oslofjord and Arctic waters).
Project 3: Effects of coastal freshening on water and lower-foodweb stoichiometry
The student will take water chemistry samples and analyze the stoichiometry of water, particulate organic material, and zooplankton. In addition, an experiment will be set up that investigates how marine basal producers (primary and bacterial producers) in the Oslo fjord respond to additions of brown river water.
Learning outcomes
In addition to critical thinking and report writing, the student will develop skills in experimental design and laboratory work, particularly, DNA metabarcoding and bioinformatics (project 1), analyses and interpretation of toxic compounds (project 2), elemental and water chemistry analyses (project 3), and well as statistical analysis (all projects). The project includes laboratory work at UiO, and the experiment can be carried out at Drobak. The project will include occasional sampling cruises in Oslofjord, to collect samples.