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Ocean temperature oscillations enable reappearance of blue mussels Mytilus edulis in Svalbard after 1000 year absence

Abstract

We report the first observations of settled blue mussels Mytilus edulis L. in the high Arctic archipelago of Svalbard for the first time since the Viking Age. A scattered population was discovered at a single site at the mouth of Isfjorden in August 2004. Our data indicate that most mussels settled there as spat in 2002, and that larvae were transported by the West Spitsbergen Current northwards from the Norwegian coast to Svalbard the same year. This extension of the blue mussels’ distribution range was made possible by the unusually high northward mass transport of warm Atlantic water resulting in elevated sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic and along the west coast of Svalbard.
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Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Jørgen Berge
  • Geir Johnsen
  • Frank Nilsen
  • Bjørn Gulliksen
  • Dag Slagstad

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Ocean / Fisheries and New Biomarine Industry
  • UiT The Arctic University of Norway
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • The University Centre in Svalbard

Year

2005

Published in

Marine Ecology Progress Series

ISSN

0171-8630

Volume

303

Page(s)

167 - 175

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository