Assessing the resource overlap between juvenile Arctic fish and gelatinous zooplankton in the Canadian Arctic and Barents Sea

The Arctic Ocean is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, which is negatively impacting Arctic fishes in their early life stages. The influx of boreal species, known as borealization, introduces more species from the Atlantic, including gelatinous organisms (e.g., scyphozoan jellyfish) that can compete with young fish for food or prey on them directly. This project uses DNA metabarcoding to extract and identify DNA fragments in the stomachs of three families of Arctic fish (Gadidae, Liparidae, and Cottidae) and scyphozoan jellyfish. The aim is to determine whether these groups feed on the same prey and to assess if the increase in species from the Atlantic has greater impacts in certain regions compared to others. The intern will work entirely on this project at the Arctic University of Norway (UiT), where she will dissect the stomachs of juvenile fish and jellyfish, perform DNA extractions, and analyze the genetic data using bioinformatics. The novelty of this project lies in its integration of samples from both Canadian and Norwegian waters, which is rarely done in a single project. This project will strengthen scientific collaboration through shared research goals and data integration, and demonstrate effective partnership across the circumpolar Arctic.

Faculty Supervisor:

Maxime Geoffroy

Student:

Partner:

Universitetet i Tromsø – Norges arktiske universitet

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Education

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program: