Responsible: Eivind Stensrud
Supervisors: Alexander Eiler, Anders Ståhlberg
Collaborators: Olli Hyvarinen, Simon Hasselø Kline, Gustav Johansson, Stefan Filges, Karl Lundström
Aim
To establish an ultrasensitive and more specific metabarcoding approach through an interdisciplinary collaboration to facilitate the usage of dDNA to target both primary- and secondary consumption actively. The new assay will then be used in dDNA analysis of top predators from the Skagerrak, Kattegatt, and Oslofjord (SKO) region to detect organisms associated with the food webs of the top predators.
Background
Anthropogenic stressors have contributed to the extinction rate being 1000 times higher than background levels (Pimm, Jenkins, Abell et al., 2014). Therefore, determining which species are present and how the food web structures are necessary to describe, understand, and predict the functional changes in ecosystems.
In the coastal and marine ecosystems in Skagerrak, Kattegat and the Oslofjord, there has been an extensive shift in the species composition over the last decades, including the depletion of cod populations (Jonsson, Corell, André et al., 2016) and species loss (Obst, Vicario, Lundin et al., 2018). This has caused changes in species interactions, including predator-prey interactions, that have further enforced shifts in biodiversity and habitat degradation (Norderhaug, Gundersen, Pedersen et al., 2015; Pihl, Baden, Kautsky et al., 2006). By obtaining a detailed understanding of how ecosystems are structured is a valuable tool to prevent future loss and restore ecosystem functions (Solan, Cardinale, Downing et al., 2004; Worm, Barbier, Beaumont et al., 2006).
Research questions
How are the coastal ecosystems of the SKO region structured?
Could dDNA samples reveal interspecific feeding preferences?
How has the coastal ecosystem of the SKO region changed?
The PhD project hopes to establish an ultrasensitive metabarcoding approach for food web analysis. Conducting dDNA analysis in coastal and marine ecosystems will reveal a highly resolved food web, which can be used to find effective ways to mitigate further species and diversity loss.