Why Iceland?

The marine environment around the island Iceland with it´s submarine ridges and the complex hydrography showing a high climate change sensivity provides a natural experimental area for ecological studies and for observing the impact of climate change. With the huge dataset from the BIOICE-project (click for link: Benthic Invertebrates of Icelandic waters), the taxonomic knowledge about species and their distribution is documented since 1991.

Although there were no revisited stations in the BIOICE sampling grid and each year a different area was sampled, it shows the way to the idea of a long-term study with regularly revisited stations. To realize such approach is one of the future goals of the IceAGE-project. The first expedition August/September 2011 with RV Meteor aims to re-sample selected BIOICE stations gaining specimens for genetics and filling gaps in analysing abiotic parameters and adding station in favour of the ecologic approach for modelling species distribution based on the information we could gain from BIOICE publications.
Not only with BIOICE the Icelandic marine environment was extensively sampled. Parallel to the zoological approach, oceanographers put their focus on the complex system around Iceland. We are aiming to link BIOICE data with the existing oceanographic data in collaboration with the Marine Research Institute (Reykjavik) and the University of Hamburg