News

The environmental pollutant TBT can mimic hormones to the extent that it sterilizes female snails and make them grow non-functional penises and vas deferens. But for the first time since monitoring started up in 1991 and the total ban of TBT entered force in 2008, only fertile dogwhelk have been found along the Norwegian coastline.

The road to the Minamata Convention on mercury took almost 15 years and has been significantly influenced by Arctic research and Norwegian efforts. Why and in what way did Arctic research play such a significant role in this road towards the convention?

The HACON project will provide the first comprehensive study of deep (4000 m) hydrothermal vent ecosystems under ice in the Arctic region. HACON targets a key missing piece of the global vent biogeographic puzzle in a region that remains mostly unexplored because of its remote and climatologically challenging location.

Drones are the future for nature mapping and monitoring. – Compared to satellite pictures, drone images provide 1,000 times better image resolution and one million times more data points, says Kasper Hancke, marine biologist at NIVA.

There are very low levels of microplastic in the water from Norwegian waterworks, according to a report conducted by Norwegian Water. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health concludes that this does not pose any health risk. The Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA) has carried out the analyzes and the scientific work.

Havforsuringen i arktiske havområder forventes å føre til store økologiske og sosioøkonomiske konsekvenser i de kommende tiårene – både lokalt og globalt.

New financial tools and sources must be harnessed to fund soil restoration and remediation projects to improve communities’ health, according to a new series of reports from a coalition of researchers from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Norwegian Institute of Water Research and the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP).

Kelp Forests are underwater ecosystems formed in shallow waters. Although they look very much like plants, kelps are actually large brown algae. Kelp forests have been described as one of the most ecologically dynamic and biologically diverse habitats on the planet. View this short video from the Norwegian Blur Forest Network (NBFN) to be enlightened.

Despite national objectives of reduced use and substitution of hazardous substances, more than two hundred tons were still in use in transport related products in Norway in 2012. Which chemicals are they, how exposed are we humans, and do they leak out to the environment? Newly published research provides some answers.

The Research Council of Norway has allocated almost 27 million NOK to the NIVA-lead project within Research Infrastructure, NorSOOP, for the period 2018-2024. The objective of NorSOOP is to support oceanic and atmospheric research and observations, and to help find ways to detect and manage human impacts on the ocean.

NIVA scientists will be attending the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (Setac) European meeting in Rome from the 14th until 17th May 2018. A list of the platform presentations and posters being presented by NIVA researchers are given below. If you are attending, please reach out to one of our scientists if you would like to discuss future collaborations with NIVA or if you have any questions about our research.

Klimaendringer, deriblant havforsuring, påvirker mange planter og dyr i sjøen på ulike måter. Fersk forskning tilsier at tare kan nyte fordeler av noen av endringene.

The latest findings from the largest European project in the emerging science of wastewater analysis are presented today by the Europe-wide SCORE group, in association with the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA). The project analysed wastewater in 56 European cities in 19 European countries in March 2017 to explore the drug-taking behaviors of their inhabitants.

Three unmanned ocean vehicles (gliders) will be deployed outside Bodø during week 10 (5 – 11 March). The vehicles will be operating on the Norwegian shelf, in Vestfjorden and outside the Lofoten and Vesterålen Islands.

Climate change, including acidification of the oceans, will likely affect many of the plants and animals in our sea and oceans. Fresh research results indicate that kelp could be favoured by some of the changes.

Researchers from Aarhus University have measured a new world record: Small ice algae on the underside of the Arctic sea ice live and grow at a light level corresponding to only 0.02% of the light at the surface of the ice. Algae are the primary component of the Arctic food web and produce food far earlier in the year than previously thought.

Below ice and snow, in pitch dark, Arctic charr’s circadian clock still ticks with precision. The exception comes during the darkest and brightest weeks of the year, when daily activity rhythms break down.

More and more rivers are regulated to serve human needs such as flood protection, transport, irrigation, hydropower generation or drinking water supply. Do altered flow dynamics affect organisms that inhabit the river bottom? And how does river flow interact with other ecosystem stressors like acidification or nutrient enrichment? A recent research project combined a flume experiment with findings from 64 regulated and unregulated river sites in Norway and Germany to find the answers.

For decades in Norway, the species rich kelp forests have been grazed down by sea urchins, leaving behind nothing but naked rocks. As a result of climate change, sea urchins along parts of the Norwegian coast are now on retreat, while the same climate changes are probably the cause of the new, big threat towards the global kelp forests: the rise of turf algae.

NIVA has assessed the environmental status of macroalgae communities in Sognefjorden, Norway. The findings show there is reason for concern.