The Earth’s magnetic field and celestial cues provide animals with compass information during migration. Inherited magnetic compass courses are selected based on the angle of inclination, making it difficult to orient in the near vertical fields found at high geomagnetic latitudes. Orientation cage experiments were performed at different sites in high Arctic Canada with adult and young white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) in order to investigate birds’ ability to use the Earth’s magnetic field and celestial cues for orientation in naturally,,cry steep magnetic fields at and close to the magnetic North Pole. Experiments were performed during the natural period of migration at night in the local geomagnetic field under natural clear skies and under simulated total overcast conditions. The experimental birds failed to select a meaningful magnetic compass course under overcast conditions at the magnetic North Pole, but could do so in gcomagnetic fields deviating less than 3 degrees from the vertical. Migratory orientation was successful at all sites when celestial cues were available.

Bird migration and orientation at high latitudes are of special interest because of the difficulties associated with different compass systems in polar areas and because of the considerable differences between flight routes conforming to loxodromes (rhumblines) or orthodromes (great circle routes). Regular and widespread east-north-east migration of birds from the northern tundra of Siberia towards North America across the Arctic Ocean (without landmark influences) were recorded by ship-based tracking radar studies in July and August. Field observations indicated that waders, including species such as Phalaropus fulicarius and Calidris melanotos, dominated, but also terns and skuas may have been involved. Analysis of flight directions in relation to the wind showed that these movements are not caused by wind drift. Assuming possible orientation principles based on celestial or geomagnetic cues, different flight trajectories across the Arctic Ocean were calculated: geographical loxodromes, sun compass routes, magnetic loxodromes and magnetoclinic routes. The probabilities of these four alternatives are evaluated on the basis of both the availability of required orientation cues and the predicted flight paths. This evaluation supports orientation along sun compass routes. Because of the longitudinal time displacement sun compass routes show gradually changing compass courses in close agreement with orthodromes. It is suggested that an important migration link between Siberia and North American stopover sites 1000-2500 km apart across the Arctic Ocean has evolved based on sun compass orientation along orthodrome-like routes.

Studies of birdmigration in the Beringia region of Alaska and eastern Siberia are of special interest for revealing the importance of bird migration between Eurasia and North America, for evaluating orientation principles used by the birds at polar latitudes and for understanding the evolutionary implications of intercontinental migratory connectivity among birds as well as their parasites. We used tracking radar placed onboard the ice-breaker Oden to register bird migratory flights from 30 July to 19 August 2005 and we encountered extensive birdmigration in the whole Beringia range from latitude 64 degrees N in Bering Strait up to latitude 75 degrees N far north of Wrangel Island, with eastward flights making up 79% of all track directions. The results from Beringia were used in combination with radar studies from the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia and in the Beaufort Sea to make a reconstruction of a major Siberian-American birdmigration system in a wide Arctic sector between longitudes 1108 E and 130 degrees W, spanning one-third of the entire circumpolar circle. This system was estimated to involve more than 2 million birds, mainly shorebirds, terns and skuas, flying across the Arctic Ocean at mean altitudes exceeding 1 km (maximum altitudes 3-5 km). Great circle orientation provided a significantly better fit with observed flight directions at 20 different sites and areas than constant geographical compass orientation. The long flights over the sea spanned 40-80 degrees of longitude, corresponding to distances and durations of 1400-2600 km and 26-48 hours, respectively. The birds continued from this eastward migration system over the Arctic Ocean into several different flyway systems at the American continents and the Pacific Ocean. Minimization of distances between tundra breeding sectors and northerly stopover sites, in combination with the Beringia glacial refugium and colonization history, seemed to be important for the evolution of this major polar bird migration system.

We report the results from the first experimental study of the fate of whale and wood remains on the Antarctic seafloor. Using a baited free-vehicle lander design, we show that whale-falls in the Antarctic are heavily infested by at least two new species of bone-eating worm, Osedax antarcticus sp. nov. and Osedax deceptionensis sp. nov. In stark contrast, wood remains are remarkably well preserved with the absence of typical wood-eating fauna such as the xylophagainid bivalves. The combined whale-fall and wood-fall experiment provides support to the hypothesis that the Antarctic circumpolar current is a barrier to the larvae of deep-water species that are broadly distributed in other ocean basins. Since humans first started exploring the Antarctic, wood has been deposited on the seafloor in the form of shipwrecks and waste; our data suggest that this anthropogenic wood may be exceptionally well preserved. Alongside the new species descriptions, we conducted a comprehensive phylogenetic analyses of Osedax, suggesting the clade is most closely related to the frenulate tubeworms, not the vestimentiferans as previous reported.

A major area of current research is to understand how climate change will impact species interactions and ultimately biodiversity. A variety of environmental conditions are rapidly changing owing to climate warming, and these conditions often affect both the strength and outcome of species interactions. We used fish distributions and replicated fish introductions to investigate environmental conditions influencing the coexistence of two fishes in Swedish lakes: brown trout (Salmo trutta) and pike (Esox lucius). A logistic regression model of brown trout and pike coexistence showed that these species coexist in large lakes (more than 4.5 km(2)), but not in small, warm lakes (annual air temperature more than 0.9-1.5 degrees C). We then explored how climate change will alter coexistence by substituting climate scenarios for 2091-2100 into our model. The model predicts that brown trout will be extirpated from approximately half of the lakes where they presently coexist with pike and from nearly all 9100 lakes where pike are predicted to invade. Context dependency was critical for understanding pike-brown trout interactions, and, given the widespread occurrence of context-dependent species interactions, this aspect will probably be critical for accurately predicting climate impacts on biodiversity.

Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels are driving changes in the seawater carbonate system, resulting in higher pCO(2) and reduced pH (ocean acidification). Many studies on marine organisms have focused on short-term physiological responses to increased pCO(2), and few on slow-growing polar organisms with a relative low adaptation potential. In order to recognize the consequences of climate change in biological systems, acclimation and adaptation to new environments are crucial to address. In this study, physiological responses to long-term acclimation (194 days, approx. 60 asexual generations) of three pCO(2) levels (280, 390 and 960 mu atm) were investigated in the psychrophilic sea ice diatom Nitzschia lecointei. After 147 days, a small reduction in growth was detected at 960 mu atm pCO(2). Previous short-term experiments have failed to detect altered growth in N. lecointei at high pCO(2), which illustrates the importance of experimental duration in studies of climate change. In addition, carbon metabolism was significantly affected by the long-term treatments, resulting in higher cellular release of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). In turn, the release of labile organic carbon stimulated bacterial productivity in this system. We conclude that long-term acclimation to ocean acidification is important for N. lecointei and that carbon overconsumption and DOC exudation may increase in a high-CO2 world.

Abstract Migratory naive birds are thought to find the migration route from their natal site to a specific wintering area by either clock-and-compass orientation or goal area navigation. These two alternative hypotheses were tested by extensive longitudinal displacements of juvenile wheatears, hatched in northeastern Siberia, on their first autumn migration towards the wintering area in East Africa. Orientation of individual birds was repeatedly recorded in circular orientation cages, under natural clear and overcast conditions in the local geomagnetic field, during the westward displacement. During the initial part of the migration period (no stars visible), the wheatears oriented towards geographic NW-NNW under both clear and overcast skies. At the last test site, when the birds got access to directional information from the stars, their orientation changed and became bimodal with the majority of headings towards south. These results fail to support both clock-and-compass orientation and goal area navigation, and show that additional factors, not yet understood, affect the birds' orientation in field tests.