List of ongoing relevant projects by BATMARE staff

List of suggested tasks for BATMARE fellows

List of current projects by BATMARE fellows

Ongoing relevant projects by BATMARE staff

Suggested tasks or projects for PhD students

(but you are welcome to suggest your own tasks or project)

1. Evolution of microbial food webs

Supervisors: Frede Thingstad and Jarl Giske

This is an "Artificial-Life" approach that involves artificial evolution (on a PC) of unicellular organisms with four functions: phagoptrophy, osmotrophy, autotrophy, and heterotrophy. In the real world there are of course generalist organisms capable of doing all this. So why are there then specialist organisms, such as heterotrophic bacteria, phytoplankton, protozoans etc? One answer has to do with size. The efficiency of the diffusion process in water puts a fitness cost on large organisms, while predation risk puts a risk on smaller. Very small organisms will also have to choose between anatomical structures, e.g. space for photosynthesis and a "mouth". This evolution can be studied by individual-based modelling, where evolution and adaptation is studied through a genetic algorithm.

 

2. Fast food for small fish

Supervisor Jarl Giske

To model how advection of zooplankton impacts growth, fecundity and population dynamics of the mesopelagic planktivorous fish Maurolicus muelleri which lives in the continental slope waters world wide.

 

3. Affective hawk-dove games

Supervisor Jarl Giske

Game theory is based on actors with a fixed (genetic) or phenotypic plastic strategy. But real animals are more complex, and emotions is the primary "proximate" explanation for how conflicts arise and are solved. This can be studied by having a population of agents, where genes code for their feelings, and where the fitness gain of a feeling is frequency-dependent. This will lead to evolution of feelings in the population. This project will be linked to the ongoing project on "hedonic modelling of fish behaviour" (http://www.ifm.uib.no/staff/giske/ledig.html).

 

4.Growth rate dependent prey shift in hatchery cod

Supervisors Anne Gro Vea Salvanes and Per Jakobsen

The attempt to conduct ocean ranching on cod in Masfjorden, western Norway was unsuccessful. No single clear cause could be identified. However, it was observed that hatchery cod had a different feeding behaviour, different growth rate, higher predator inspection rate and higher mortality than wild cod. Perhaps the hatchery cod were less motivated to shift to natural prey while released into the fjord, and perhaps this could be associated with its growth rate while they were fed superfluous artificial food while being reared in the hatchery. In this project we will study experimentally through behaviour studies if growth rate is important for prey shift in hatchery cod. This project will be linked to the project "Environmental influence n fish stocks"

 

5. Habitat choice in cod in relation to haemoglobin genotype

Supervisors Anne Christine Utne-Palm and Anne Gro Vea Salvanes

Experimental studies have demonstrated that competitive performance in cod is related to haemoglobin genotype. The different haemoglobin molecules differ in efficiency in transporting oxygen from the gills to the respiring tissue, and this will be associated with growth. Because the frequency distribution of haemoglobin genotypes forms a gradient along the Norwegian coast, with different types dominating in south and north, it is possible that the different genotypes have different success in different habitats. Will a cod, which has a haemoglobin type that requires high availability of oxygen to a larger degree, seek to avoid habitats with low oxygen contents compared with an individual that has lower oxygen demands? In this project we will test experimentally if oxygen as an environmental factor and haemoglobin as a genetic factor influence habitat choice in cod. This project will be linked to the project "Environmental influence n fish stocks"

 

6. Sex difference in morphological characters in cod

Supervisor Anne Gro Vea Salvanes

There are sex differences in feeding behaviour, growth, maturation age and reproductive behaviour in cod. For experimental studies it is possible to separate females from males using the ultrasound technique to identify the sex based on internal characters on mature cod. For many other fish species it has also been demonstrated that there exist morphological differences or differences in colouration between the sexes. However, colour differences do not exist in cod, and the ultrasound technique is not feasible to identify sex on internal characters for juveniles. Therefore juveniles have had to be killed before being able to determine sex. This is a large drawback for experimental studies as it has been impossible to combine groups with known sex ratio. So far no study has attempted to separate the sexes on juvenile fish using morphometric measurements. A large data set has therefore been collected at the University of Bergen to test this. This project will be linked to the project "Environmental influence n fish stocks"

Recent, ongoing and accepted projects by BATMARE fellows

• Development of a life history model of the distribution of life stages of common copepods in Gullmarsfjorden, Sweden. Josefin Titelman, Göteborg University
• Ecological modelling of anoxic situations in estuarine zones without tidal forcing. Xavier de Pedro Puente, University of Barcelona
• Response of the CYP1A-like protein in mussels after exposure to organic pollutants. Henrik Jonsson, Rostock University
• Modelling size distribution in marine microbial food webs with A-life individual-based models using neural networks and genetic algorithms. Miguel Angel Rodríguez Arias, University of Barcelona
• Combining acoustic and trawl data for abundance estimates, expert systems – neural networks. Suzanna Neville, University of Leicester.
• Genetic structure and phylogeography of Pomatoschistus minutus, P. lozanoi and P. microps on the Belgian and European Continental Shelf and in the Mediterranean Sea. Els Gysels, Catholic University of Leuven.
• Phenotype-environment interactions and selective processes in the early life history of fish. Anders Bang, University of Aarhus.
• Morphometric, Meristic and genetic analyses of redfish from the Faroe Islands. Dolores Garabana, University of Vigo.
• Marine virology: live cycles of viruses that infect Emiliania huxleyi. Joaquín Martínez Martínez, University of Plymouth
• Assessing the interactions between populations of the endangered species of marine turtle Caretta caretta and the environment at the individual level with development of complementary modeling approaches (IBMs - Metapopulation models). Antonios Mazaris, University of the Aegean.
• Carbon biogeochemsitry on the continental shelves of the Nordic Seas. Nicoletta Ruggieri, University of Genoa
• Encounter rates between benthic organisms and particles at the shelves, the shelf edge and shelf slopes along Norway. Elisa Ravagnan, University of Venice
• Modelling the evolution of dispersal behaviour. Simone Heinz, University of Marburg and UFZ-Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig
• Age and growth rate of whiting and poor cod from the Celtic Sea in the lab using otolith microstructure. Oonagh Dwane, National University of Ireland, Galway
• Abundance, diversity and species composition of Peracarida (Crustacea, Malacostraca) on the South Greenlandic shelf. Bente Stransky, University of Hamburg

If you are interested in contacting any of these fellows, you may send a message to clelia.booman@ifm.uib.no who will forward it to her/him

Background

Research Areas

Facilities

Courses

Financing

Who Where

Projects

How to Apply

Links