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By 2050, kelp farming along the Norwegian coast is estimated to cover an area corresponding to half the size of all farmed land in the country. The management agencies need to prepare.

Genomic markers are the key in a new approach for assessing the toxic effects arising from exposure to multiple stressors.

A new European Environment Agency (EEA) report tells that between 75 and 96 % of the assessed area of Europe’s regional seas have a contamination problem.

The aim of the PEACE project is to get a big step closer to a more realistic way of studying the effect of contaminants on natural ecosystems. Last week, the project team presented key findings at the prestigious SETAC conference in Helsinki – and received the Best Platform Presentation Award.

When fundamental changes started to happen in three ecosystems in North America, people reacted: They completely stopped pollution, forestry and fishing. But the attempts were futile. It was impossible to bring the ecosystems back to their original state. Why didn’t the management efforts have any effect?

NIVA research manager Nikolai Friberg guest edits a Special Issue of Water, a peer-reviewed open access journal on water science and technology, including the ecology and management of water resources, and is published monthly online by MDPI. This special issue is now open for submission with deadline August 30 2020.

The environmental pollutant TBT can mimic hormones to the extent that it sterilizes female snails and make them grow non-functional penises and vas deferens. But for the first time since monitoring started up in 1991 and the total ban of TBT entered force in 2008, only fertile dogwhelk have been found along the Norwegian coastline.

Climate change undoubtedly is one of the most significant development challenges of our times. Research over the last few decades has demonstrated clearly the links between anthropogenically induced emissions and climatic changes. Despite these scientific advancements, uncertainties persist at multiple scales; with respect to future societal emissions, predictions of accuracy, frequency and scale of climatic events, or possible feedback loops.

The results of seven years’ wastewater analysis have been compiled in an article published in the prestigious journal Addiction. An international group of researchers, the SCORE group (Sewage analysis CORe group Europe), analysed the wastewater of more than 60 million people in 120 cities in 37 countries.

Speaking of Aurora, most people will think of the Northern Lights, the spectacular celestial displays frequently seen in the Arctic. Scientists in the HACON-project travelled to the northernmost part of the world, searching for Aurora. But not the one in the sky: They were gazing into the vast depths of the Arctic Ocean to figure out what exotic creatures live in the cold waters close to the North Pole.

New research shows that silver and titanium nanoparticles in present in treated wastewater may have toxic effects on algae, crustaceans and fish gill cells, and the effects seem to be species dependent.

Unlike land plants, photosynthesis in many aquatic plants relies on bicarbonate in addition to CO2 to compensate for the low availability of CO2 in water. A study in SCIENCE by Iversen and co-authors from among others NIVA shows that the abundance of plant species with the ability to use bicarbonate increases in hard water lakes with greater bicarbonate concentrations. In streams, where the CO2 concentration is higher than in air, bicarbonate users are few.

NIVA is contributing in a new EU-project that will provide new insight into making ocean observation more efficient.

The shared vision for Europe’s seas is a healthy marine environment where human-induced eutrophication is minimised. However, the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) assessment, published December 11th shows that eutrophication still remains a large scale problem in Europe’s regional seas. The assessment shows some positive effects from better nutrient management but the overall target of healthy seas will not be met by 2020.

NIVA has made a strong presence at The UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 (2 – 13 December 2019). Senior Research Scientist Richard Bellerby has taken part in and hosted events on ocean acidification (Arctic Council and The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme) as well as contributed to the ICCI-report "Cryosphere 1,5 degrees", launched during the conference.

In the January issue of Cell Press journal OneEarth, NIVA scientist Luca Nizzetto and co-writer Satish Sinha of Toxic Links argue that further empowering marginalized waste pickers in developing countries (already involved in the efficient recovery of value and materials from recyclable plastic waste) is key to curbing plastic inputs to the ocean and tackling several sustainable development goals. Financial mechanisms aimed at valuing also the non-recyclable plastic waste can trigger these workers' spontaneous engagement to curb plastic releases, with an expenditure lower than that of pollution impacts.

NIVA will lead a new Joint Project Initiative Climate and Oceans project that will provide a greater understanding of global change effects on ocean and coastal ecosystems and services at regional to local levels.

NIVA is a leading research partner in the newly funded H2020 project, FUTUREmares, that will provide socially and economically viable nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation to safeguard these ecosystems’ natural capital, biodiversity and services.