On behalf of Blekinge County Administrative Board Aquabiota mapped the fish community in the Gåsefjärden area in Kalskrona archipelago using eDNA and net fishing, as well as compared these methods. In the month of August 2019, 45 stations were sampled by net fishing and 17 by eDNA, of which 16 stations were mutual for both […]
Limnic environmental monitoring in Sundstatjärn
Sundstatjärn is a popular bathing lake in central Karlstad, that has been struggling with eutrophication for many years. Eutrophication gives rise to cyanobacteria during the warm months of the year. These blooms of cyanobacteria can in turn produce harmful toxins. To minimize the risks to humans and animals, Aquabiota on behalf of the Municipality of […]
Global environmental changes negatively impact temperate seagrass ecosystems
A new paper in Ecosphere investigates how potential climate change stressors can affect different parts of a seagrass community. The oceans are increasingly affected by multiple aspects of global change, with substantial impacts on ecosystem functioning and food-web dynamics. While the effects of single factors have been extensively studied, it has become increasingly evident that […]
Fish assemblages & habitat patterns in the Baltic Sea
A new study in Marine Biodiversity has been published focusing on seagrass fish assemblages in a seascape ecology perspective in the Baltic Sea in collaboration with the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences and the Baltic Sea Centre at Stockholm University. This study set out to determine fish assemblage composition in Zostera marina (L.) […]
Temperature drives cod movements
A new study in Ecology and Evolution has been published focusing on the movement patterns of Atlantic cod in collaboration with Stockholm University, Zoological Society of London and the County Administrative Board Västra Götaland. The Atlantic cod is classed as vulnerable and under extreme pressure from fishing. More information is needed about the ecology and […]
AquaBiota has finished its summer field season
AquaBiota has recently completed its summer field season. One of the tasks that AquaBiota performed was conducting SCUBA diving surveys around Hanö, in the Bight of Hanö. We were struck by how beautiful it was in many places and that the biodiversity was so high. The assignment was carried out for the County Administrative Board […]
Conservation values at Klints Bank
Using drop-video AquaBiota has investigated the conservation values at Klints Bank east of Gotland. The number of occurring species was very limited and the dominating organisms were blue mussels and hydrozoans. Mussel beds occurred at 40% of the stations, and were more common in shallower areas where hard substrate occurred to a greater extent. The […]
eDNA detects 84 fish-populations in ten Swedish coastal watercourses
In February 2017 AquaBiota monitored fish-communities in ten coastward discharging rivers in northern Sweden, by using eDNA (environmental DNA metabarcoding). From each waterbody a few litres of water was collected and subsequently analysed for traces of fish DNA in order to identify the different species. Historical data from electrofishing spanning over 30 years was compared […]
Monitoring of crayfish and large freshwater clams using water samples
AquaBiota now offers monitoring of crayfish and large freshwater clams using eDNA. A few liters of water from a lake is enough to detect the presence of the critically endangered noble crayfish or the introduced signal crayfish. Being a vector of the crayfish plague the signal crayfish constitutes a serious threat to the native noble […]
Inventories of nature values in Lidingö
AquaBiota performed a marine conservation value assessment and extensive field surveys of the coastal waters off Lidingö for Lidingö Municipality’s work with a “blue plan”. Lidingö has launched a project to increase knowledge of the municipality’s aquatic nature values. This knowledge is necessary in municipal planning to highlight conservation values, threats and opportunities for development. […]