Last week, the Lab was at sea for the third and final cruise in the KatFish23 project funded by the Dansk Center for Havforskning (DCH). The project is a collaboration with colleagues in DTU Aqua and the University of Hamburg to observe seasonal changes in larval fish and their prey in the Kattegat and Danish Belt Seas.
Huge thank you to DCH, the science team and crew of AURORA for making the trip a big success!
Colleagues from Aarhus Kommune, DTU Aqua, Aalborg University and Aarhus University gathered last week at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies to kick-off our project on “Integrated ecological, genomic and oceanographic analysis for planning marine habitat protection”.
The project, funded by AAGE V. JENSEN NATURFOND, will allow us to co-create spatial planning tools for Danish coastal marine habitats with stakeholders in Havsamarbejdet i Østjylland. Participants will combine genetics, physiology and modelling to map coastal marine habitat and assess different planning options with a focus on increasing marine life in coastal Danish habitats.
Thank you all for an excellent meeting!
We have a new, open-access article exploring spawning migration timing in Atlantic herring out in the September issue of the Journal of Fish Biology.
In the paper, we identify earlier spawning time but longer duration for Atlantic cod in the southwest Baltic Sea in warmer years. Earlier timing was linked to temperatures during gonadal development (particularly the latest, vitellogenesis stage), with a thermal constant of spawning identified as 316˚C days.
The study was led by Nicolas C. Ory and Catriona Clemesen at GEOMAR and was based on a 50 year time-series of herring observations in Kiel Fjord graciously provided by fisher Anton Kardel.
Earlier this month, Anna travelled to Helsingør, DK for the MARiNAO Research in the North Atlantic Ocean Annual Meeting.
The meeting brought together six research projects funded by the Danish Parliament and administered by the Research Council Faroe Islands. The projects span the range from phytoplankton to whales covering waters around the Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.
Anna participated as a member of both the FjordProcess (characterizing marine ecosystems in Faroese fjords) and ClimFishLink (exploring climate signals in growth of Faroese fishes) projects. It was an inspiring few days both finding connections across projects, and getting the chance to dive deeper into project goals with colleagues in person.
Thank you for bringing us together, Research Council Faroe Islands!
This month, Anna travelled to Plymouth to take part in the 7th Advances in Marine Ecosystem Modelling Research symposium. The symposium brings together researchers using models to explain biological variability in the ocean. Anna presented recent efforts to advance biophysical modelling efforts using thermal time metrics.
A big thank you to the AMEMR organisers at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory for a fun and productive meeting.
Looking forward to 2027!
The Department of Biology at Aarhus University is hiring!
Up to two (tenure-track) positions will be filled at the assistant, associate or full professor level in aquatic biology and ecology. Candidates in both marine and freshwater research areas are encouraged to apply.
Applications are due 1 October 2024.
On 21 June, MSc Candidate Nathalie Rosenberg Bach will defend her MSc thesis entitled “The biophysical parameters influencing the distribution and presence of the veined squid Loligo forbesii at its northern edge”.
In the thesis, Nathalie describes and explains factors controlling the presence of L. forbesii at the northern limit of the species’ range. At the defence, Nathalie will discuss this thesis as well as presenting a lecture on the roles of squid in the ecosystem. Prof. Katherine Richardson will join us as external censor.
Time: Friday, 21st of June 2024 at 09.30.
Place: Building 1531, room 113, Lecture Theatre Aud. D1, Department of Mathematics, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, 8000 Aarhus C
We are looking for a PhD candidate for the fully-funded project “How ecology, genetics, and oceanography control connectivity and biodiversity across Danish marine habitats". Join us at AU's Department of Biology (Aquatic Section) to explore biodiversity, ecology, genetics, oceanography, and modelling.
This PhD position is part of a project funded by the AAGE V. JENSEN NATURFOND that will provide improved tools to explain and predict biodiversity patterns across Danish coastal marine habitats.
Application deadline is 1 August 2024 at midnight (23:59 CEST), with a starting date of 1 November 2024 or later.
Read more about the position here.
Get your graduate degree at a top 100 university
The Graduate School of Natural Sciences at Aarhus University is looking for a number of bright, enthusiastic and ambitious candidates who are interested in pursuing a PhD education.
The University is located in Aarhus, Denmark, which provides international students with a safe and stable environment, a high standard of living and a wealth of social opportunities.
Besides having an excellent reputation that enables our PhD graduates to find outstanding employment prospects, Aarhus University offers attractive working conditions, research support and campus resources. Read more about all the benefits here.
Anna and Line travelled to DTU Aqua in Lyngby, Denmark for the 4th West Baltic Cod Forum (WBCF) and the inaugural meeting of the ICES Working Group on Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management of the Western Baltic Sea.
At the WBCF, researchers in Germany and Norway coordinated sampling plans and discussed recent observations of western Baltic cod spawning and feeding ecology, along with ecosystem dynamics.
At WGECOBAL, we joined researchers from all over Europe for the working group kick-off. WGECOBAL aims to better understand environmental effects on the living marine resources of the Western Baltic Sea. The group is chaired by Christian Möllmann (University Hamburg, Germany), Stefan Neuenfeldt (DTU Aqua, Denmark) and Heike Schwermer (Kiel University, Germany).
Thank you to the organizers of these inspirational meetings!
Anna joined the ICES Working Group on Integrative, Physical-biological and Ecosystem Modelling (WGIPEM) earlier this year.
The annual meeting was in March where group members from across the globe joined in person (in Spain) and online to share current research on ecosystem modelling in marine systems.
Anna shared current and planned lab activities in a presentation entitled “Using a "biological theory of relativity" to model time-scales in individual-based models (applications and plans for zooplankton and larval fish)”
A belated post to spread the word on a new article from 2023:
PhD student Jonathan Christensen led a team exploring electroreception in catshark embryos. We found a freeze response in egg case embryos when exposed to direct current (DC) electric fields. The behaviour represents a possible predator avoidance strategy in the embryos as the freeze response may reduce their detection by predators.
The study represents a collaboration between Aarhus University (Jonathan Christensen, Peter Grønkjær, and Anna B. Neuheimer) and the Kattegatcentret (Rune Kristiansen).
The paper is published in Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology and was chosen for the cover image.
On 12 January, PhD Candidate Kris-Emil Jørgensen will defend his PhD entitled “Life history in a complex sea – Ichthyoplankton phenology in the Kattegat”.
Kris-Emil’s research focused on how spatiotemporal distribution and early life history development varied among fish species in the Kattegat, with implications for spatial management and fish production.
Time: Friday, 12th of January 2024 at 13.30
Place: Building 1531, room 113, Lecture Theatre Aud. D1, Department of Mathematics, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, 8000 Aarhus C
More information here and below.
Last month marked the start of the BlueBioClimate project.
Funded by Interreg, BlueBioClimate brings together researchers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden to develop nature-based tools to support blue biodiversity management in the Kattegat-Skagerrak region. Excited to get started with this inspiring group!
Nathalie, Sofia and Anna visited the Faroe Islands this week where Anna led a workshop on developing individual-based models (IBMs) to test hypotheses. While the focus were research aims of the FjordProcess project, the group was represented by a range of experiences (chemistry, math, biology and oceanography) from institutes in the Faroes and Denmark.
Over the 2.5 days, participants developed an IBM to explain seasonal dynamics of ichthyoplankton in Faroese fjords (with applications beyond).
A big thank you to our colleagues at Havstovan for hosting and showing us around the beautiful country.
In May, Anna travelled to Nuuk, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) to take part in the Annual Meeting of the “Marine Research in the North Atlantic” group. Along with collaborators from the Faroes, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark, we shared progress on research projects exploring marine processes in the areas of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes. There to help represent the FjordProcess project, the research and the land were incredibly inspiring!
A big thank you Research Council of the Faroe Islands who organised the meeting!
We are looking for a PhD candidate for the project “How bio-physical processes shape early-life-history habitat in the Kattegat-Skagerrak region". Join us at AU's Department of Biology (Aquatic Section) to explore ecology, genetics, oceanography, and modelling.
Application deadline is 1 November 2023 at midnight (23:59), with a starting date of 1 February 2024.
Read more about the position here.
Get your graduate degree at a top 100 university
The Graduate School of Natural Sciences at Aarhus University is looking for a number of bright, enthusiastic and ambitious candidates who are interested in pursuing a PhD education.
The University is located in Aarhus, Denmark, which provides international students with a safe and stable environment, a high standard of living and a wealth of social opportunities.
Besides having an excellent reputation that enables our PhD graduates to find outstanding employment prospects, Aarhus University offers attractive working conditions, research support and campus resources. Read more about all the benefits here.
Applications are accepted from college students and graduates with an academic record corresponding to a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
In an article out earlier this year, we explore the match-mismatch hypothesis across three trophic levels in the North Sea marine ecosystem.
Led by lab member Sofia Ferreira, the study explores the spatially explicit overlap of seasonal timing of larval herring, copepods and phytoplankton, and how overlap can explain recruitment of herring one year later.
Overlap in predator-prey timing varied spatially and could explain ~ 23% of recruitment in age-1 herring. We discuss possible mechanisms behind the negative relationship between overlap and recruitment including feeding-dependent and independent factors and data limitations.
The study was a collaboration between the Department of Biology at Aarhus University and the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) at the University of Oslo.
Read more here:
Ferreira, A.S.A., A.B. Neuheimer, & J.M. Durant. 2023. Impacts of the match-mismatch hypothesis across three trophic levels - a case study in the North Sea. ICES J. Mar. Sci. 80: 308-316. (link)
In January, the Anna and Kris-Emil (Jørgensen) headed to the University of Hamburg (UHH) to join the West Baltic Cod Forum meeting. Kris-Emil ran a workshop on larval fish identification, and the group shared research interests and sampling plans to coordinate investigations of cod in the Western Baltic.
A big thank you to our hosts at UHH!
A few other highlights from 2022 and the Neuheimer Lab:
In September 2022, our work exploring match-mismatch dynamics across trophic levels in the North Sea was presented by lead author Sofia Ferreira at the ICES Annual Science Conference in Dublin, IE.
In November 2022, Anna Neuheimer and Sofia Ferreira travelled to the International Symposium on Small Pelagic Fish in Lisbon, PO. We presented work on match-mismatch dynamics and explaining spawning time variability across space and time.
In December 2022, Anna travelled to Møn, DK as a keynote speaker for DTU Aqua’s Centre for Ocean Life Annual Retreat. Anna shared her thoughts on temperature and the relativity of biological time, as well as the building of a “second brain” for knowledge management.
Our study modelling the concentration of the human pathogen Vibrio vulnificus has been published in Science of the Total Environment. In the effort, we are able to explain 80% of the variability in V. vulnificus concentration in the Ala Wai Canal using rainfall, temperature, water nitrogen (nitrate + nitrite) and humic dissolved organic matter (DOM). We show how the model can be used to predict future V. vulnificus concentrations including a 2-3 fold increase in concentration by 2100.
The study included colleagues at the University of Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi Pacific University and was led by Jessica Bullington, now at Stanford University.
Read more here:
Bullington, J.A., A.R. Golder, G.F. Steward, M.A. McManus, A.B. Neuheimer, B.T. Glazer, O.D. Nigro & C.E. Nelson. 2022. Refining real-time predictions of Vibrio vulnificus concentrations in a tropical urban estuary by incorporating dissolved organic matter dynamics. Science of the Total Environment. 829: 154075. (link)
