Names of the supervisors: Olli Hyv?rinen (UiO), Alexander Eiler (UiO).
Collaborators: Esben Moland (IMR), Angela Martin (UiA).
Preferred project period: September 2023 – June 2025
Background
This master’s project will be integrated into the cross-disciplinary “Coastal Ecosystems under anthropogenic pressures” research project.
Reaching carbon neutral society requires that steep reductions in carbon emissions are accompanied by draw down of atmospheric carbon1. Conservation and restoration actions that promote ecosystem carbon storage i.e. “Natural Climate Solutions” (NCS) have recently gained traction as cost-effective and low-risk alternatives to” Carbon Capture and Storage”, with co-benefits to ecosystems and people 2. While today’s NCSs have mostly focused on the conservation and restoration of plants and vegetation cover e.g. tropical rainforests and seagrass meadows, recent perspectives highlight the importance of animals in regulating ecosystem processes responsible for carbon sequestration3-5. This calls for expanding NCSs to include the conservation and restoration of relevant animal populations across ecosystems4.
Fishes are the most diverse group of vertebrate animals, accounting for ~60% of all vertebrate diversity and supporting several important ecosystem services6. However, fish contributions to the oceanic carbon export have commonly been assumed to be negligible compared to those of zooplankton. Recent studies have challenged this assumption, suggesting that the fast-sinking fecal material of fish, among other mechanisms, can export up to ~1.2 GT C yr-1 to the deep sea where it will be sequestered for hundreds to thousands of years7,8. This is, in fact, comparable to the ~6.5 GT C yr-1 export by zooplankton9. Given the “over exploited” status of a third of world’s fisheries, and roughly 80 million tons of fish extracted from the oceans globally in 202010, conserving and restoring the “fish carbon” service constitutes a substantial and previously untapped opportunity for NCSs.
Due to the paucity of empirical data, the first step towards developing NCSs as part of fisheries management is to quantify the carbon export potential of commercially important fish species.
Project description
In this project, the student will carry out experiments to characterize the carbon export potential of three model species (e.g. herring, saithe and sprat). The student will further investigate whether and how fish fecal characteristics and microbial community composition (through DNA metabarcoding) together with different environmental variables influence the sinking speed and dissolution rates of the fecal material.
Learning outcomes
In addition to critical thinking and report writing, the student will develop skills in experimental design and work, DNA metabarcoding work, bioinformatics and multivariate analysis. The project includes laboratory work at UiO and a field component at the IMR research station at Fl?devigen and on a research vessel in southern Norway.
What we offer
We offer an inclusive and stimulating research environment where the student is encouraged to join the research group activities and engage with other students and researchers in the group.
If you are interested
Please send us a brief description of yourself and of your motivation for this project (max 500 words).
References
[1]Malhi et al. 2022. Current Biology 32(4), R181-R196. [2]Griscom et al. 2017.PNAS 114(44), 11645-11650. [3]Schmitz et al. 2018. Science, 362(6419), eaar3213.[4]Schmitz et al. 2023.Nature Clim. Chang 1-10. [5]Cromsigt et al. 2018. PHILOS T R SOC B 373(1761), 20170440.[6]Holmlund et al. 1999. Ecolog. econ. 29(2), 253-268. [7] Saba et al. 2021. L&O 66(5), 1639-1664.[8]Martin et al. 2921. One Earth 4(5), 680-693.10.[9]Archibald et al. 2019. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 33(2), 181-199.[10]FAO. 2022. Opportunities and challenges. FAO UN.