JellyFarm Meeting 2018

A big thank you to Elisabeth Alve and her team, at the University of Oslo, for hosting the JellyFarm meeting 2018. 

Jelly Farm at the Fritt Fram, 2018 Tromsø

Video footage from the JellyFarm project was used at the Fritt Fram event in the Fram Centre, Tromsø, to communicate information about the use of underwater cameras in marine research. 

JellyFarm at the Deep Sea Biology Symposium 2018, Monterey

Results from the JellyFarm project were presented at the Deep Sea Biology Symposium in Monterey, September 2018, hosted by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Lightening talk for the poster entitled (Scavenging Processes on Jellyfish Carcasses Across a Fjord Depth Gradient. Dunlop, K.M., Jones, D.O.B. and Sweetman, A.K)

Kathy Dunlop at the Monterey Conference Centre

Sediment Trap Retrieval Kaldfjorden

Two sediment traps were successfully retrieved from Kaldfjorden, Troms this Summer on the 17th July. The traps have spent approximately 10 months in Kaldfjorden measuring the flux of organic material to the seafloor. An ADCP was also attached to each trap to measure current flow as part of the Fram Centre Flagship Project; WHALE (led by Angelika Renner from IMR), examining seasonal variation in fjord water column chemistry and flow circulation. 

Samples from the sediment traps are presently being analysed at the Laval University, Quebec City, Canada.

Retrieval of the ADCP and acoustic release (in picture Carl Ballantine) 

Removal of sediment trap samples by Catherine Lalande (Laval University, Canada) and Ingrid Wiedmann (University of Tromsø)

Steaming around Kvaløya to unload at TMY, Kraknes

Preliminary results from the 2017 JellyFarm incubation experiment presented at FORAMS2018, Edinburgh

Figure 1: Foraminiferal assemblage from the inner most site Kaldfjord, JellyFarm 2017 incubation experiment.

The International Symposium on Foraminifera in 2018 (FORAMS2018, Edinburgh) is a conference specifically for foraminifera specialists from around the world. Foraminifera are single celled protists with a calcite shell that are known to reflect both natural and human induced environmental changes  (Figure 1, picture of foraminifera from the experiment). They are therefore a useful tool to assess the response of the benthic ecosystem to changing carbon sources like jelly-fish blooms.

During the FORAMS 2018 symposium preliminary results from the JellyFarm 2017 experiment where presented. At the moment the focus has been on the inner and outer part of the fjord as these two locations showed a great difference in Total Organic Matter (TOC) and water depth. The two factors seem to have produced markedly different foraminiferal assemblages (the various species that exist in a particular habitat) with slightly lower diversities (number of different species that are represented in a given community) at the outer most location.

For each location 4 box cores where collected from which 3 incubation chambers where collected for the different jelly-fish concentrations; respectively no jelly-fish, low concentration of jellyfish and a high concentration of jelly-fish. The diversities calculated for each jelly concentration showed that when no jelly-fish was added but only food for the foraminifera the diversities where highest, i.e. a high number of species within the community.  The diversities dropped once a concentration of jelly-fish was added to the chambers, the concentration of jelly-fish detritus does not seem to play a role. The next step is to see if these underlying factors affected the uptake of food by foraminifera, i.e. how jelly-fish detritus affects their ability to process organic material.

New JellyFarm Paper: Scavenging processes on jellyfish carcasses across a fjord depth gradient.

http://rdcu.be/Eoju

This is the accompanying paper to the recent publication in Nature Scientific Reports. The results described in both papers are from field work in June 2016 in Sognefjorden conducted as part of JellyFarm wkp 5. 

EFFECTS Cruise December 2017

EFFECTS (Examining the Role of Fish-Falls on Ecosystem processes)

The EFFECTS Cruise took place in December 2017 with Andrew Sweetman and Robert Harbour (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh), Kathy Dunlop and Paul Renaud (Akvaplan-Niva, Tromsø) and Daniel Jones (National Oceanography Center, Southampton).

The team boarded the RV Johan Hjort (Institute of Marine Research). The destination was Kaldfjorden, a fjord system off the island of Kvaløya, close to Tromsø, Northern Norway.

RV Johan Hjort in Kaldfjorden, Troms

In recent years, Kaldfjorden has been a winter stopover site for a large proportion of the migrating Norwegian spawning herring stock.  The herring have been followed to Kvaløya and Kaldfjorden by killer and humpback whales, made famous in the recent BBC Blue Planet II documentary.

Killer whales in Kladfjorden.(image from bbc.co.uk)

Feeding by whales are suspected to result in high herring mortality and the occurrence of high numbers of herring carcasses on the seafloor. Such a large input of organic material to the seafloor has the potential to significantly impact benthic community functioning.  However, carcasses can be removed by the local scavenging community, reducing the effect of  herring decomposition on seafloor processes.  Knowledge of the scavenging communities in Kaldfjorden is very limited and one of the aims of the EFFECTS project was to assess scavenging rates on herring carcasses.

The Anonyx baited camera lander and a yo-yo camera system were used on the cruise to examine what scavenging communities were feeding on herring carcasses and how quickly.  The yo-yo camera system was used to collect images of the seafloor habitat and to quantify the density of herring carcasses on the seafloor. 

Images of the "Anonyx" camera lander being deployed in the dark waters of Kaldfjorden and the Yo-Yo camera being prepared for deployment.  

5 baited lander camera deployments were made in the Kaldfjorden (3 in the outer fjord and 2 in the inner fjord region).  2 yo-yo camera transects were also conducted in each of the outer and inner fjord regions.  

Ships track during EFFECTS cruise. 

http://rdcu.be/A7wk

Nature Scientific Reports publishes work by the JellyFarm team, that provides the first empirical evidence of a energy pathway between jellyfish carcasses and a commercially exploited shellfish species (Nephrops norvegicus).  

WHALE

The EFFECTS project is in collaboration with WHALE, another Fram Centre Flagship project under the Fjord and Coast Research Area (Effects of climate change on sea and coastal ecology in the north).  

WHALE is led by Angelika Renner from IMR and investigates the impacts of massive winter herring abundances on the Kaldfjorden environment. 

Zoe Walker works on the WHALE project and has contributed the following blog post to describe her work in Kaldfjorden.  

Zoe Walker in action in the field for the WHALE project

I'm a Canadian student on exchange in Tromsø (UiT) from the University Centre of the Westfjords in Isafjörður, Iceland. I am working on my Masters thesis as part of the WHALE project, specifically looking to improve the conceptual understanding of how the migratory shift in Norwegian Spring Spawning Herring to Kaldefjord and the presence of whales is influencing pelagic-benthic coupling and biogeochemistry in the fjord ecosystem during polar night. I am utilizing sediment traps, suspended water samples, zooplankton nets, CTD profiles, and local hydrography to create a baseline for the vertical suspended biomass flux in the area during polar night. I began sampling in early October 2017 and will continue through to early February 2018 to explore how the high abundance of animals affects sedimenting matter in the absence of solar radiation, and what impacts that may have for local fisheries and aquaculture.

EFFECTS. Examining the Role of Fish-Falls on Ecosystem processes.

The EFFECTS project is investigating the role of herring carcasses, arriving in Kaldfjorden (close to Tromsø) due to recent shifts in migration patterns of herring in northern Norway on seafloor processes. Input from herring carcasses will be compared with the effects of inputs from aquaculture and jellyfish blooms studied in JellyFarm. 

This research is important to achieve the sustainable management of economic activities in coastal areas that requires a strong understanding of natural and anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystems.  EFFECTS will combine the use of underwater technology, hydrography and biogeochemical modeling and field sampling.

 Underwater camera technology (Anonyx camera lander) and yo-yo drop camera. 

EFFECTS is in collaboration with two other Fram Centre Flagship proposals weShare (Martin Buiw, IMR) and WHALE (Angelika Renner, IMR).  The project involves research collaborartion from Akvaplan-niva, Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Heriot-Watt University (UK), Norsk Institutt for vannforskning (NIVA) and the National Oceanography Center (UK). 

JellyFarm Project presented in PhD presentation at the annual Norske Havforskeres Forening meeting 18-20th of October 2017.

 Introducing the audience to the JellyFarm project.

 Where our samples for the 2017 experiment come from.

 Explaining the experimental set up.

 The treatment the chambers received.

 What we will hopefully gain from the 2016 and 2017 experiment.

I would like to thank Norges Havforskeres Forening on behalf of the JellyFarm project group for the opportunity to present our research.

Jelly Farm Incubation Experiments

Jellyfish (Periphylla periphylla) weighed to be added to benthic cores

Cores transported to microprofiling climate controlled room 

Microprofiling is conducted right before core processing begins

Elisabeth ready for the next core!  

Hege and Elisabeth core slicing

Anouk removes samples for microbiology analysis

The Jelly Farm team enjoying the beautiful views from the Akvaplan niva Barents Sea Lab, Kvaløya. 

JellyFarm Field Work Kaldfjorden, Troms

Monday 4th to Thursday 7th of September the JellyFarm team were out in Kaldfjorden to collect box core sediment samples for benthic core incubation experiments. 

 The boat on its way to location.

 Hector and Carl working hard to open the box core.

Experiment chambers were carefully pushed into the sediment in box core and sent over to the lab for further incubation experiments.

Silvia and Anouk slicing sediment cores for further chemical, foraminifera, 13C and nematode analysis.

Despite some difficulties with coarse and rocky seabed several Gemini cores were also collected in Kaldfjorden.

Kaldfjorden Sediment Trap Deployment

Sediment traps were deployed in the Arctic fjord Kaldfjorden, Kvaløya, Tromsø on the 8th September 2017 by Andrew Sweetman (Heriot Watt University), Marta Cecchetto (Heriot Watt University), Hege Vågen (University of Oslo) and Carl Ballantine (Akvaplan Niva).  

Traps will remain in the fjord for 10 months were they will measure the flux of organic material to the seafloor close to a fish farm and in a control site in the center of the fjord.  

Andrew, Carl and Marta heading out to deploy the first sediment trap

Preparing the trap mooring 

Preparing the acoustic releases for the sediment trap mooring deployment

JellyFarm in Svalbard Posten.

Looking back at the lab experiment performed at IRIS (Stavanger) in September 2016, looking forward to work with this team on the next experiment in September 2017

WP2: Quantifying interactions between  aquaculture and jelly-falls on organic matter cycling in fjord sediments. 

Sediments collected in Hardanger fjord at two different depths, in the vicinity and at a distance from a fish farm were collected and incubated in the lab at IRIS.

Periphylla periphylla being thawed, weighed and cut before addition to the sediment cores.

Sediment cores incubated in the lab. Andrew Sweetman adding 13C labelled algae before the addition of P. periphylla.

 Andrew Sweetman measuring oxygen profiles in the sediment of experimental cores.

Slicing, measuring, mixing, subsampling and sieving sediments at the end of the experiment.

Team work at its best!

JellyFarm Meeting, Oslo, 22nd to 24th May

The JellyFarm Project team in Oslo for the 2017 JellyFarm Meeting. 

The JellyFarm Project team in Oslo for the 2017 JellyFarm Meeting.

Dr Siliva Hess (University of Oslo) presents results on foraminifera communities in a jellyfish dominated and a fish-dominated fjord in Western Norway

Lars Birkeland Sjetne (University of Olso) presented results from his masters thesis examining organic carbon accumulation from fish farms in Hardangerfjorden, using a micro paleontological and geochemical study.  

Dr Dan Jones (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) presented results from work package 5 examining depth effects on jellyfall scavenging dynamics. 

Dr Paul Renaud (Akvaplan Niva) coordinates planning for experiments in the Fall to examine the combined effect of organic input from aquaculture and jellyfalls on benthic biogeochemistry in Kaldfjorden, North Norway.