Project description
CHASE is a follow-up-project of the work initiated within the Helmholtz Virtual Institute PolarTime, on the understanding of endogenous biological clocks and rhythms of pelagic key invertebrates inhabiting the Polar Oceans.  Biological clocks provide a measure of time so that organisms can anticipate and adapt to cyclic changes in their environment. New findings by our group suggest that in zooplankton, circadian clock genes underpin daily behavioral/physiological rhythms. By measuring day-length, the circadian clock seems to synchronize not only the daily but also the timing of seasonal life cycle events in response to annual cycling changes in light conditions (photoperiodism). However, climate change induced geographical population shifts at high latitudes will result in animals experiencing a mismatch between the thermal and the photoperiodic environments. Indeed, such migrations result in exposure to different day-lengths (or photoperiods), which can be extreme when compared with lower latitudes. We will focus on the understanding of how such changes in photoperiod affect species in the group of calanoid copepods and krill, centrally important to the ecological function of the Arctic ecosystem. This project is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council NERC.

Project Leader and Contact
Prof. Dr. Bettina Meyer, co-lead investigator, University of Oldenburg/AWI.
Dr. Kim Last, co-lead investigator, Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).

Participants
Prof. Dr. Bettina Meyer, Dr. Kim Last, Prof. Finlo Cottier, Prof. David Pond, Prof. Geraint Tarling, Dr. Jordan Grigor, Chelsea McGowan-Yallop, Lukas Hüppe, Dr. Laura Payton

Working groups ICBM
Biodiversity and biological processes in polar Oceans

Project Partners
University of Oldenburg, Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), British Antarctic Survey (BAS)

Cooperation
International:
Dr. David Wilcockson, Aberystwyth University, UK
Dr. Janne Soreide, University Centre in Svalbard, Norway
Dr. Jonathan Cohen, University of Delaware, United States
Dr. Jørgen Berge, University of Tromsø, Norway
Dr. Malin Daase, University of Tromsø, Norway
Dr. Sören Häfker, University of Vienna, Austria
National:
Dr. Jurgen Groeneveld, Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Duration
2018-2021

Financial Support
This project is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council NERC.

Project website
www.changing-arctic-ocean.ac.uk/project/chase/