Effects of marine fuel oils on Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) early life stages
This work is part of the ARCEx project financed by NFR and industry partners and hosted by UiT Norway. NORCE Environment is partner in WP3 on the effect of petroleum discharges on key species of northern ecosystems.
The use of marine diesel oil in Arctic areas is expected to further increase due to increased ship traffic as well as greater restrictions of usage of heavy bunker oils in many areas around the world, including the Arctic. In 2019, 61% of the ships recorded in the Arctic polar code area used distillate marine fuel (including both, marine gas oil and marine diesel oil). Although less persistent, the toxicity of marine diesel oil to aquatic organisms might be greater than of heavy bunker oils due to chemicals associated in their composition having higher bioavailability (Neff, 1979).
Although marine diesel oil is widely used around the world and various amounts of discharges regularly happen in Norway, biological responses were studied only in few species so far, including boreal and Arctic pelagic copepods (Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus glacialis) (Hansen et al., 2013) and Icelandic scallops (Chlamys islandica) (Geraudie et al., 2016; Milinkovitch et al., 2015). Species-specific differences have been found in copepods and these differences are important to understand in order to perform adequate risk assessment analyses (Hansen et al., 2013).
This study aims at investigating the potential of different marine fuels to cause adverse effects on early life stages of a (sub-)Arctic crustacean, Pandalus borealis. Further, its potential to recover from adverse effects under ideal and unfavorable conditions will be studied. P. borealis is considered a highly relevant species as it is widely distributed along the Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea up to Svalbard. It is a key species in the North Atlantic food web and locally of high commercial value for the fishery.
The experimental set-up is based on a high energy mixing system adopted from Milinkovitch et al. (2011) and used in several studies investigating dispersed oil effects, including published work on the effects of crude oil in P. borealis (Arnberg et al., 2019, Keitel-Gröner et al., 2020).
Since the threat of an oil spill from ships in the Arctic is considered a top risk to the marine environment, further knowledge on the sensitivity of key species to potential discharges is needed. The data obtained from this work are relevant for authorities with administrative responsibilities related to maritime transport and the Norwegian environment. The response community can use the data as input to emergency preparedness and contingency planning including NEBA/SIMA.
In total, 1120 shrimp larvae will be used in the experiment and approx. 40 female shrimp with eggs will be collected to provide the larvae. There are currently no effective replacement methods available to avoid the use of shrimp in this project. The minimum number of animals required to achieve acceptable statistical strength will be used.
The use of marine diesel oil in Arctic areas is expected to further increase due to increased ship traffic as well as greater restrictions of usage of heavy bunker oils in many areas around the world, including the Arctic. In 2019, 61% of the ships recorded in the Arctic polar code area used distillate marine fuel (including both, marine gas oil and marine diesel oil). Although less persistent, the toxicity of marine diesel oil to aquatic organisms might be greater than of heavy bunker oils due to chemicals associated in their composition having higher bioavailability (Neff, 1979).
Although marine diesel oil is widely used around the world and various amounts of discharges regularly happen in Norway, biological responses were studied only in few species so far, including boreal and Arctic pelagic copepods (Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus glacialis) (Hansen et al., 2013) and Icelandic scallops (Chlamys islandica) (Geraudie et al., 2016; Milinkovitch et al., 2015). Species-specific differences have been found in copepods and these differences are important to understand in order to perform adequate risk assessment analyses (Hansen et al., 2013).
This study aims at investigating the potential of different marine fuels to cause adverse effects on early life stages of a (sub-)Arctic crustacean, Pandalus borealis. Further, its potential to recover from adverse effects under ideal and unfavorable conditions will be studied. P. borealis is considered a highly relevant species as it is widely distributed along the Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea up to Svalbard. It is a key species in the North Atlantic food web and locally of high commercial value for the fishery.
The experimental set-up is based on a high energy mixing system adopted from Milinkovitch et al. (2011) and used in several studies investigating dispersed oil effects, including published work on the effects of crude oil in P. borealis (Arnberg et al., 2019, Keitel-Gröner et al., 2020).
Since the threat of an oil spill from ships in the Arctic is considered a top risk to the marine environment, further knowledge on the sensitivity of key species to potential discharges is needed. The data obtained from this work are relevant for authorities with administrative responsibilities related to maritime transport and the Norwegian environment. The response community can use the data as input to emergency preparedness and contingency planning including NEBA/SIMA.
In total, 1120 shrimp larvae will be used in the experiment and approx. 40 female shrimp with eggs will be collected to provide the larvae. There are currently no effective replacement methods available to avoid the use of shrimp in this project. The minimum number of animals required to achieve acceptable statistical strength will be used.