The aim of the project was to check the scale of changes that may occur in the eulitorall zone of Isfjorden over last 20 years. 11 locations among stations from early 90s (the AKUP project) were revisited. The key organisms that make the difference are crustaceans (Gammarus oceanicus as boreal zone indicator and G. setosus as Arctic species), barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides), periwinkles and macroalgae. We were especially focused on the new species that are likely to colonise Svalbard intertidal with ongoing warming - e.g. blue shell Mytilus edulis and kelp Ascophyllum nodosum - none of those were found. Preliminary results shows, that region occupied by brown algae Fucus distychus with associated fauna expanded, and places barren in early 90s were vegetated in 2008.

From left to right:

Józef Wiktor jr. - phd student at IO PAS.
Main interest: coastal ecology
email: wiktor_jriopan.gda.pl

Jakub Wiktor - field asistent, Msc student at UG/GUMed, faculty of biotechnology.
Main interest: some irrelevant stuff and brazilian ju-jitsu

Józef Wiktor - head of family, phD at IO PAS.
Main interest: taxonomy and ecology of arctic marine protists
email: wiktoriopan.gda.pl


People who helped: Jan Marcin Weslawski, Janne Søreide, Mateusz Baczewski, Kamila Sztybor, Katarzyna Kaminska, Jørgen Berge, Daniel Vogedes

Please find more detailed maps with more colors and higher resolution (and no sea monsters), in one word - more legible here.