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Scientific background
The Arctic has recently become a centre of attention with increasing human activities and warming of the climate affecting the marine ecosystem. As Arctic sea ice extent has decreased due to warming temperatures, shipping has increased along the Siberian shelf, and boreal species have extended their distributions further north. At the same time, the oil and gas industry is constantly pushing the boundaries of resource exploration northward within the Arctic shelf seas, enhancing the risk of pollution. Therefore, with increasing anthropogenic pressure in an ecosystem considered fragile and pristine, there is a need to study the basic biology of Arctic key species and their sensitivities to combined human and environmental pressures through a holistic approach. Coastal and shelf areas are considered the most valuable, but at the same time most sensitive parts of the Arctic, with their high biodiversity, unique ecology and economic value. It is therefore important to better characterize these ecosystems in a changing environment and under additional pollutant stress.
Bivalves are playing an important role in the ecosystems and have been used as reliable indicators for changes in the ocean climate. Growth rings of living bivalves are used (e.g. Carroll et al. 20xx) to document climatic conditions of the relative near past, whereas fossil deposits in elevated seabeds on Svalbard have been used as indicators of Holocene and Pleistocene climate regimes (eg. Lønne and Nemec 2004). Today, and in the Arctic in particular, bivalves play a crucial role in the "pelagic-benthic" coupling and are studied in relation to their function and response to climate related impacts (acidification, nutrient cycling etc.). Bivalves also play a central in monitoring of pollutants due to their high capacity for pollutant bioaccumulation. For instance, blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) has shown high sensitivity to trace metals and oil (Curtis et al. 2000, Bakhmet et al. 2009, 2012) and is commonly used as sentinel species by several monitoring programmes, from the coast of Spain to Norway (Hylland et al. 2008, ICES 2010, Brooks et al. 2011). Today, this species is also established in Svalbard waters (Berge et al. 2005), and are currently the focal point of several research projects along the west coast of Spitsbergen and Barents Sea in general (Nahrgang et al., 2012). Finally, Arctic bivalves are used in the development of new technologies (biosensors) for environmental monitoring. On Svalbard, this first of all includes work on the Icelandic scallop (Chlamys islandica).
In this context, several research projects have been initiated on Svalbard aiming at key Arctic bivalves (eg. Mytilus edulis, Chlamys islandica, Serripes groenlandica, Hiatella arctica) and their biology and responses to environmental (climate change, acidification) and anthropogenic disturbances (petroleum development). On-going projects include among others the Norwegian (COOPENOR, Talking Clams), French (ECOTAB), and German (Dynamics of benthic bivalve communities in polar environments) initiatives which we will bring together in the BIVARC workshop for an enhanced cooperation and integration of research on Arctic bivalves.
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