Invertebrate contributions to Arctic ecosystem services

The project "Invertebrate contributions to Arctic ecosystem services" will be part of a master thesis in the Climate Change Management programme at Høgskulen på Vestlandet (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences). The aim of the project is to sample the Arctic invertebrate necrobiome and investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of reindeer carcass decomposition in relation to invertebrate communities. Field work will be conducted in Adventdalen on Svalbard in collaboration with the REINCAR project (RiS ID 11512) led by Nord University with additional collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI). REINCAR is exploring many aspects of carcass ecology on Svalbard. Of particular interest to this project, is NPI’s long running dataset of geo-references of reindeer carcasses. NPI conducts an annual reindeer survey which follows (more or less) fixed routes in Adventdalen and surrounding valleys. Since 2008 the survey also geo-references reindeer carcasses, and these observations are integrated in the Climate-ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra (COAT, RiS ID 10771). With this long running dataset we can revisit carcasses that have died in past years. This will allow the project to turn back the clock and begin to explore how invertebrate communities change through time, while also considering interannual reindeer mortality.