Svalbard shores under stress; impacts of local human activities on marine invertebrates living in a warming Arctic coastal system

Summary

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on the globe, opening up the area for human activities such as shipping and mining. This places Arctic marine systems under stress, for instance by introducing contaminants or invasive exotic species. In this thesis the impacts of human activities in a warming environment were investigated for invertebrates that are living on the seafloor of the Arctic archipelago Svalbard, by field and laboratory experiments. Results were used to establish a baseline and show that currently the effects of contaminants and exotic species do not raise concern for marine invertebrates. However, given the essential role of invertebrates in the fragile Arctic food web, dedicated monitoring of these key species and the development of mitigating measures are strongly advised.