Arctic arthropods: practical and profitable

Date/time: December 3, 10:30-12:00

Room: Mesanin 2

Session organizer: Toke Høye, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University

Climate change is affecting the ecology and behaviour of species as well as population and trophic dynamics in the Arctic. Because of their short generation time, ectothermy, abundance and diversity, invertebrates are useful organisms for monitoring how Arctic biodiversity responds to climate change. Terrestrial invertebrates (insects, spiders, mites and springtails) in the Arctic, like other regions of the globe, represent an immense contribution to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. There are an estimated 5000+ species of Arctic arthropods serving numerous ecological roles. They are also practical as large, standardized and replicated ecological data sets on them are easily collected. At the same time, we still know very little about Arctic arthropods, and therefore they yield the capacity for great knowledge profit. Arctic terrestrial research infrastructures are improving (e.g., field stations in North East Greenland, Svalbard, and Arctic Canada) as is the knowledge about the diversity and distribution of species and novel techniques like barcoding and stable isotope analysis. Hence, we are now in a position to unravel the complexity of Arctic invertebrates and to understand the effects of climate change on this major component of Arctic biodiversity. The session will present current knowledge and discuss future research directions.

Session theme: Arctic change, resilience and adaption