Door 6: Biodiversity, Conservation, and Sticking Up For The Little Guy

For this year’s Advent Calendar, we’ve decided to theme ourselves around climate change and conservation. For my first blog entry, I’ve decided to write more of a background about the general need for marine biodiversity conservation, and some opinions on who should care, and why. I will then […]

Door 5: A book (gift) recommendation

As the festive season approaches, many of us find ourselves pondering the perfect gifts for our loved ones. Is for this reason that, in this post, I’d like to suggest a unique present that transcends the boundaries between scientific and non-scientific interests—a coffee table book titled “The Art […]

Door 4: Challenges of species identification in marine zooplankton

For our 4th door, let’s dive into the marine realm of zooplankton! The plankton refers to all organisms that do not have the strength to swim against the currents and end up drifting with them. The phytoplankton is the algae part of plankton, while the zooplankton is the […]

Door 3: How exactly did dinosaurs go extinct?

For this year’s advent calendar, we have decided to focus on biodiversity, climate and environment. In relationship with climate change and the biodiversity crisis we face due to the ongoing extinction of many species, there is currently a vast amount of research done on the topic. Today, however, […]

Door 2: Mitochondrial genomes and why they are so great

The mitochondria is the organelle within the cell which is regarded as the cells “power house”. This is because they play a crucial role in energy production through oxidative phosphorylation. Within the mitochondria, the mitochondrial genomes, also referred to as mitogenomes, are found. The mitogenomes are small circular […]

Door 1: Sequencing genomes suggested by the community

It is the time of the year again and we are running our advent calendar again. The first door opened and reveals an update on the Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) project. The project started about a year ago and it is time to take a first look at […]

Group of the month: Calanus (Copepoda)

For this month, the FEZ blog is starring a group of tiny, yet particularly important marine animals. Calanoid copepods of the genus Calanus (raudåte på norsk) are present in all seas of our planet but it is in the northern hemisphere that these little crustaceans are the most […]

The hidden invasion along the Norwegian coast

Last week Line Willersrud, a Master student in our group, successfully defended her Master thesis “Assessing genetic biodiversity in Caprellidae”. She worked very hard for her thesis by collecting caprellid species along the Norwegian coast as part of the Artsdatabanken project “Assessing biodiversity in the marine algae belt“, […]

Doing genomic research with a masonry trowel

When you think about genomic research and sequencing genomes like it is the goal of the Earth Biogenome Project (EBP), Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) or InvertOmics you have in mind all these new fancy technologies called Next-Generation, Third-generation or High-through-put sequencing. All these amazing advances in technologies allowing […]

Group of the month: Rotifera

Rotifers, or “wheel animalcules”, are an interesting group of microscopic animals (size between 0.1 and 1mm in length) commonly found both in fresh water and terrestrial habitats; although less number of species have been described, marine rotifer species exist too. In regards with their classification, rotifers belong to […]