Fram Centre

E-DNA: Using DNA in sea water to trace species

It sounds like science fiction, but it’s actually true: Scientists can tell which species that are living in an area, by extracting DNA from seawater samples. This could be an important new tool in fisheries management.
July 01, 2020

How to COPE? Contaminant–climate change interactions in the Arctic

Changes in climate. Loss of biodiversity. Emissions of toxic contaminants. These are the main environmental challenges we face today, and few places are they felt as strongly as in the Arctic.
June 09, 2020

Profile 2020: Arctic giant on the lookout for adventure

Salve Dahle is inspired by the past, driven by the future, and lives for the pursuit of the unknown. Profile article 2020 is written by Christine Kristoffersen Hanssen.
May 28, 2020

Retrospective: Drifting with ice - From the schooner Fram to ultramodern RV Polarstern

In 1893 the Norwegian researcher Fridtjof Nansen sailed his wooden schooner Fram towards the Arctic. He let the vessel freeze into an ice floe and drift, hoping that the natural east-west currents in the Arctic Ocean would carry Fram and her crew to the geographical North Pole.
May 12, 2020

Do delousing agents used in aquaculture solve a problem or create one?

A creature just centimetre long causes major losses of farmed salmon and imposes significant costs on aquaculture. Moreover, this tiny creature poses a threat to salmon and char living in the wild, as well as other marine organisms. Why is that, and what can we do about it?
May 04, 2020

New technology opens up the Arctic for research

Automated platforms such as remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles – generally called ROVs and AUVs – allow scientists to reach totally new locations in the harsh environment of the Arctic.
April 22, 2020

The Arctic is greening, bird populations are declining: Is there a link?

Ecological theory predicts that increased productivity at the base of food chains may raise predation rates at intermediate levels. New research by the Climate-ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra (COAT) finds a link between plant productivity in tundra landscapes and bird-nest predation rates.
April 14, 2020

What drives pollutant exposure in Barents Sea polar bears?

Polar bears in the Barents Sea population use their environment in two different ways. Bears that spend most of their time offshore are exposed to higher levels of pollutants than bears that stay along the coast due to differences in feeding habits, energy expenditure, and geographical distribution.
April 02, 2020

Arctic Aliens: A rising threat

The Arctic is the fastest-warming region on Earth: ice is melting faster than ever, exposing land that is ripe for colonisation and occupation by both native and invading species. But it is not only flora and fauna that are traveling north: so are we. Homo sapiens, the greatest invader of them all.
March 25, 2020

Expedition to the sunken nuclear submarine Komsomolets in the Norwegian Sea

On 7 April 1989, the Soviet nuclear attack submarine Komsomolets sank in the Norwegian Sea after a fire broke out. In the summer of 2019, Norwegian scientists finally had a chance to see the wreck on the seafloor with their own eyes and assess the status of any radioactive releases from the submarine.
March 19, 2020

Pages