IceAGE Amphipoda

• Applicant: Dr. Anne-Nina Lörz
• Subject Area: Systematics and Morphology (Zoology) ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406687910

The international IceAGE project (Icelandic marine Animals: Genetics and Ecology) focuses on the climatic sensitive region at the northernmost part of the North Atlantic: Greenland, Iceland and Nordic Seas reaching to the North Sea. So far, 80,000 amphipod crustaceans have been sampled during the IceAGE project at depths between 120 –3000 m. The extremely high sample coverage and the fact that amphipods are brooders with limited dispersal capabilities makes them the taxon of choice to identify ecological variables driving benthic community composition and limiting species distributions. This requires a secure taxonomic baseline. The main goal of this project is to assess the diversity, phylogenetic systematics and phylogeographical history of North Atlantic / Subarctic Amphipoda. Integrative taxonomy is the basis for documenting, understanding, and observing changes in deep-sea biodiversity. This project will augment knowledge of an important region in the Subarctic/ North Atlantic which faces extensive environmental changes in the future.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants