BiodivERsA Scenarios of freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem services in a changing Arctic - ARCTIC-BIODIVER

Arctic areas are in rapid transition due to direct and indirect impacts of climate change, permafrost thaw as well as changes in flora and fauna. Arctic freshwaters are vulnerable and strongly affected by these drivers, and warming per se as well as increased flux of nutrients and organic carbon, as well as impact from increasing populations of geese, will affect species composition and diversity in these systems. ARCTIC-BIODIVER is a circumpolar project aiming at studying the impacts and effects of these drivers. The Norwegian part of the project have focused on freshwater localities at Svalbard as well as certain areas of Finnmark where there is active permafrost thaw, an alpine transect from. South-Central Norway from a glacier front down the valley, and finally a number of samples from Norwegian, mainland lakes. The focus has been eDNA, emphasizing the microbial biota as well as zooplankton. Samples have also been supplemented with greenhouse gas (GHG) analysis to assess the climatic feedbacks from freshwaters. For the latter group we have also supplemented with previous data to obtain a high latitudinal and climatic coverage of species composition and diversity. We will here study the links between ambient changes and the productivity and species composition in these sites. The data are still partly under analysis, but we see strong altitudinal and latitudinal differences in diversity, reflecting mainly climatic drivers. We also see strong links between GHG and water quality. We will also perform a deeper, metagenomic screening in selected localities to assess the impact of birds, nutrients and increased levels of organic matter (from permafrost thaw and increased rainfall So far 3 papers re in progress, one on zooplankton diversity gradients, community composition, and projections for future change by use of a space-for-time approach. A second paper address the GHG-production and a third the outcome of the microbial eDNA analysis. More papers are in the pipeline, but joint papers will the full consortium will avait the finalizing of the project period for the other partners (end of 2022). In sum this project will provide a circumpolar overview of current status of arctic freshwaters, provide data on effects of current changes, and thereby also predict future impacts on diversity and ecosystem services.

De oppnådde og potensielle virkninger og effekter er tredelt: - Prosjektet vil gi informasjon om kjemisk og biologisk tilstand, mangfold og diversitet i ferskvannslokaliteter sirkumpolart i Arktis som danner en viktig referanse for systemer som er i rask endring både på grunn av klima og andre påvirkninger. Prosjektet vil også bidra med tilgjengelige databaser over funksjonelle trekk hos nøkkelorganismer (trait database) og andre grunnlagsdata som er søkbare og offentlig tilgjengelige. Prosjektet vil også lage framskrivninger av biologiske responser basert på klimascenarier. - Prosjektet har bidratt med betydelig grad av metodeutvikling, både mht standardisert innsamling, eDNA analyser og gassdata. - Prosjektet har etablert et tett samarbeid mellom sentrale nasjoner, institusjoner og personer som danner et godt grunnlag for videreutvikling av et sirkumpolart samarbeid på metodeutvikling og økosystemresponser.

ARCTIC-BIODIVER is an interdisciplinary, international research program focused on filling gaps in Arctic freshwater biodiversity knowledge, and aims to facilitate development of biodiversity scenarios at national and circumpolar scales. The project considers multiple dimensions of biodiversity (structure and function) to improve prediction. Field testing of the projected climate change impacts on Arctic freshwater food web dynamics allows for the estimation of uncertainty in biodiversity scenarios. Moreover, the use of space-for-time analyses of shifts in biodiversity and basal resources will help develop early warning indicators for ecological impacts of climate change. ARCTIC-BIODIVER is further focused on the development of bio-economic models to integrate scenarios of biodiversity across trophic levels with the socio-economics of ecosystem services provided by fish in the Arctic. Through these activities, ARCTIC-BIODIVER addresses the two major priorities of the Call: (1) Development and application of scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services across spatial scales of relevance to multiple types of decisions, and (2) Consideration of multiple dimensions of biodiversity and ecosystem services in biodiversity scenarios.