Tracking through space and time: deep-sea cephalopods in the Arctic and North Atlantic, from individuals to communities, facing climate change and chemical pollution (ToughCephs)

• Applicant: Dr. Alexey Golikov
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 575584244

Arctic marine ecosystems are undergoing rapid transformation due to climate change and anthropogenic stressors. Understanding long-term ecological shifts and assessing cumulative effects are key priorities in Arctic marine science, as outlined in strategic frameworks such as the German Research Agenda ‘Polar Regions in Transition’ (2021), which remains a guiding document under the current government and the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). This project focuses on cephalopods (Phylum Mollusca), a highly abundant and ecologically important group that responds sensitively to environmental change. Their chitinous beaks preserve stable isotope and mercury signatures, enabling retrospective analyses of trophic dynamics and pollution exposure. Cephalopods thus serve as ideal proxy taxa for tracking ecosystem change from individual to community levels. The study integrates two complementary approaches: 1) Reconstruction of long-term impacts of climate change and mercury pollution on selected Arctic and North Atlantic cephalopod species from different habitats (timeline: 1844–2025). 2) Analysis of shifts in cephalopod community composition across the biogeographic boundary between the Arctic and North Atlantic (timeline: 1895–2025). Historical sampling around Iceland and the Davis Strait provides a unique dataset for modeling biomass and abundance in relation to environmental variability. Stable isotope and mercury analyses will be applied to archived specimens of dominant pelagic, bentho-pelagic, and benthic species. Five hypotheses will be tested, generating open-access datasets on biodiversity, trophic ecology, and pollution exposure. These results will fill critical knowledge gaps at mid-trophic levels and contribute to marine conservation and policy development. The project builds on prior experience in Arctic marine ecology and aligns with international initiatives such as the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the Minamata Convention.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants