Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr?
Lakes in the High Arctic are characterized by their low water temperature, long-term ice cover, low levels of nutrients, and low biodiversity. These conditions mean that minor climatic changes may be of great importance to Arctic freshwater organisms, including fish, by influencing vital life histor...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32654 https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9010008 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/32654 2024-02-11T09:59:50+01:00 Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr? Svenning, Martin Bjørvik, Eigil T. Godiksen, Jane Aanestad Hammar, Johan Kohler, Jack Borgstrøm, Reidar Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles 2023-12-23 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32654 https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9010008 eng eng MDPI Fishes FRIDAID 2219706 doi:10.3390/fishes9010008 2410-3888 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32654 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2023 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9010008 2024-01-25T00:08:04Z Lakes in the High Arctic are characterized by their low water temperature, long-term ice cover, low levels of nutrients, and low biodiversity. These conditions mean that minor climatic changes may be of great importance to Arctic freshwater organisms, including fish, by influencing vital life history parameters such as individual growth rates. In this study, Arctic charr sampled from two Svalbard lakes (78–79◦ N) over the period 1960–2008 provided back-calculated length-at age information extending over six decades, covering both warm and cold spells. The estimated annual growth in young-of-the-year (YOY) Arctic charr correlated positively with an increasing air temperature in summer. This increase is likely due to the higher water temperature during the ice-free period, and also to some extent, due to the winter air temperature; this is probably due to thinner ice being formed in mild winters and the subsequent earlier ice break-up. However, years with higher snow accumulation correlated with slower growth rates, which may be due to delayed ice break-up and thus a shorter summer growing season. More than 30% of the growth in YOY charr could be explained specifically by air temperature and snow accumulation in the two Arctic charr populations. This indicated that juvenile Svalbard Arctic charr may experience increased growth rates in a future warmer climate, although future increases in precipitation may contradict the positive effects of higher temperatures to some extent. In the longer term, a warmer climate may lead to the complete loss of many glaciers in western Svalbard; therefore, rivers may dry out, thus hindering migration between salt water and fresh water for migratory fish. In the worst-case scenario, the highly valuable and attractive anadromous Arctic charr populations could eventually disappear from the Svalbard lake systems. High Arctic; Svalbard lake systems; climate impact; Arctic charr; growth rate; anadromy Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic charr Arctic Climate change Svalbard University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Svalbard Fishes 9 1 8 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 Svenning, Martin Bjørvik, Eigil T. Godiksen, Jane Aanestad Hammar, Johan Kohler, Jack Borgstrøm, Reidar Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr? |
topic_facet |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 |
description |
Lakes in the High Arctic are characterized by their low water temperature, long-term ice cover, low levels of nutrients, and low biodiversity. These conditions mean that minor climatic changes may be of great importance to Arctic freshwater organisms, including fish, by influencing vital life history parameters such as individual growth rates. In this study, Arctic charr sampled from two Svalbard lakes (78–79◦ N) over the period 1960–2008 provided back-calculated length-at age information extending over six decades, covering both warm and cold spells. The estimated annual growth in young-of-the-year (YOY) Arctic charr correlated positively with an increasing air temperature in summer. This increase is likely due to the higher water temperature during the ice-free period, and also to some extent, due to the winter air temperature; this is probably due to thinner ice being formed in mild winters and the subsequent earlier ice break-up. However, years with higher snow accumulation correlated with slower growth rates, which may be due to delayed ice break-up and thus a shorter summer growing season. More than 30% of the growth in YOY charr could be explained specifically by air temperature and snow accumulation in the two Arctic charr populations. This indicated that juvenile Svalbard Arctic charr may experience increased growth rates in a future warmer climate, although future increases in precipitation may contradict the positive effects of higher temperatures to some extent. In the longer term, a warmer climate may lead to the complete loss of many glaciers in western Svalbard; therefore, rivers may dry out, thus hindering migration between salt water and fresh water for migratory fish. In the worst-case scenario, the highly valuable and attractive anadromous Arctic charr populations could eventually disappear from the Svalbard lake systems. High Arctic; Svalbard lake systems; climate impact; Arctic charr; growth rate; anadromy |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Svenning, Martin Bjørvik, Eigil T. Godiksen, Jane Aanestad Hammar, Johan Kohler, Jack Borgstrøm, Reidar Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles |
author_facet |
Svenning, Martin Bjørvik, Eigil T. Godiksen, Jane Aanestad Hammar, Johan Kohler, Jack Borgstrøm, Reidar Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles |
author_sort |
Svenning, Martin |
title |
Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr? |
title_short |
Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr? |
title_full |
Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr? |
title_fullStr |
Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Expected Climate Change in the High Arctic—Good or Bad for Arctic Charr? |
title_sort |
expected climate change in the high arctic—good or bad for arctic charr? |
publisher |
MDPI |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32654 https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9010008 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic charr Arctic Climate change Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic charr Arctic Climate change Svalbard |
op_relation |
Fishes FRIDAID 2219706 doi:10.3390/fishes9010008 2410-3888 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32654 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9010008 |
container_title |
Fishes |
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9 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
8 |
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1790595574598205440 |