Master and PhD students

PhD students
Daniel Hitchcock Daniel is studying how variation in life-history affects contaminant levels in Arctic species. For example, how do species in the Arctic allocate energy toward reproduction? How does this affect contaminant levels? What differences do we see between males and females? Will additional stressors such as climate change lead to differences in life-history strategies and contaminant levels? Daniel aims to answer these research questions in three ways. First, he will conduct a systematic review to assess the literature and carry out a meta-analysis to compare scientific data against one another. Secondly, he will collect data either in the field or in the lab. Lastly, he hopes to develop models which explain how life-history and climate effects influence the bioaccumulation of contaminants. Daniel is an Australian who undertook his Bachelor degree at the University of Melbourne and Master degree at the University of Bergen. The supervisors for his PhD project are Katrine Borgå (UiO), Tom Andersen (UiO) and Øystein Varpe (UNIS).
Norith Eckbo Norith is studying contaminants in Arctic and Antarctic seabirds. She is particularly interested in the intersection of ecotoxicology, ecology and evolution, how we communicate science, and the role of research in nature management and policy making. After spending three and a half year at the Norwegian Environment Agency monitoring the environment and working with ocean management, she returned to research with renewed motivation and ideas. The project, POLAR-ECOTOX, is funded through the ØKOSYSTEM call by the Norwegian Research Council. In the first part of the project, she aims to compare contaminant levels, profiles and effects between the two Polar Regions. The Great skua and Black guillemot represent migrating and resident species of the North, respectively. Southern skua, King penguin and Adelie penguin represent migrating and resident species of the South, respectively. All species will be sampled during fieldwork at Svalbard in June 2015, and Antarctica in Dec-Feb 2015-16. Effect parameters are telomere reduction and DNA-damage (comet assay). Secondly, she aims to quantify how climate, and ecological and physiological drivers (e.g. diet and life history traits) may have influenced temporal trends of contaminants in a King Penguin colony. Thirdly, this particular colony is at risk of extinction due to climate change, and on top of that, contaminants may serve as an extra environmental stressor. She therefore aims to investigate potential mixture effects of contaminants and climate, and how contaminants may influence population dynamics in an already vulnerable King penguin colony. Supervisors are Katrine Borgå (UiO) and Geir Wing Gabrielsen (Norwegian Polar Institute). Our collaborators are Celine LeBohec (IPEV), Dorte Herzke (NILU) and Jan Ove Bustnes (NINA).

Master of Science students
Karl Johan Ullavik Bakken Karl Johan started his master in ecotoxicology after finishing his bachelor at the same university. He is particularly interested in the interdisciplinary area between toxicology and marine biology, which was important when he chose a topic for his master thesis. In his thesis he has analysed maternal milk of hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) from the West Ice population outside Greenland for multiple chlorinated and brominated substances. Most important are the heavy, persistent legacy contaminants like PCB and PBDE. The hooded seal is an interesting model species due to the fact that the pups are borne with a large layer of blubber and weaned from their mother after only 4-5 days. During this period, high-lipid rich milk (>60%), is transferred to the pups carrying the lipophilic contaminants that are excreted from the mother. Karl Johan is particularly interested in investigating how the precursors are transferred between mother and pup, both prenatal and postnatal, and also how the hydroxylated (-OH) metabolites of these precursors occur in the pups. Karl’s supervisors are: Katrine Borgå (UiO, NIVA), Gro D. Villanger (Norwegian Institute of Public Health), Anuschka Polder (Norwegian University of Life Sciences) and Ketil Hylland (UiO).
Randi Grønnestad Randi Grønnestad completed her Bachelor degree in biology at UiO and is now attending the Master’s program in biology, more specific, eco toxicology at UiO. Her master thesis is called “Levels, patterns and maternal transfer of per – and polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs), and their associations with thyroid hormones in hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) mother-pup pairs from the West-Ice”. PFCs are environmentally persistent contaminants that are present in the Arctic and with a potential to bioaccumulate and biomagnify in food webs. The aim of this study was to investigate levels and patterns of PFCs in hooded seal mother-pup pairs from the West Ice (east of Greenland), determine if these contaminants are transferred from mother to pup via milk and placenta, and to investigate possible associations between concentrations of PFCs and thyroid hormone concentrations (T3 and T4) in blood. The hooded seal has a high level in the Arctic food web and a short lactation period (only 3-4 days) with transfer of a very lipid rich milk (>60%). This makes this species a good model to investigate the transfer of chemicals through milk. No studies have previously been done to investigate levels or maternal transfer of PFCs in hooded seals, which makes this project particularly interesting. The supervisors for this project are Katrine Borgå, Gro Dehli Villanger and Anuschka Polder.
Ane Haarr I am undertaking a Master’s degree in toxicology at the University of Oslo. During my bachelor degree, I spent one year at UNIS, Svalbard where I studied Arctic terrestrial and marine biology, ecology and Arctic environmental management. I am interested in how the Arctic is affected by human activity and global change both in terms of a warming climate and the long-range transport of contaminants from industrialised areas. For my project I will study genetic damage in relation to contaminant exposure in different Arctic birds. Birds are important study organisms in ecotoxicology as they are both vectors of transport and victims of pollutants; they possess various physiological adaptions and occupy different trophic levels; and they are important indicators of our oceans´ health.
Hilde Karin Midthaug Hilde will examine and compare levels and patterns of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in South Polar Skua blood, sampled in 2001/2002 and in 2013/2014 from Svarthamaren in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctic. The working title of her thesis is "Persistent organic pollutants in the Antarctic top predator, South Polar Skua (Catharacta maccormicki), over the past decade". The main aim is: to find out if and how the organochlorine contaminants (OCs) levels and patterns have changed between the years whether newer POPs such as brominated flame retardants, fluorinated compounds, endosulfan and dieldrin/aldrin have entered the Antarctic food web whether local diet, trophic level and/or migration will explain some of the population difference in contaminant accumulation Supervisors are : Katrine Borgå (UiO), Jan Ove Bustnes (NINA) and Anuschka Polder (NMBU)
Julie Sørlie Paus-Knudsen Observe the potential behavioural effects of pesticide on bees, under or at the value given by EPPO, Scientific committee for pesticides and the Professional group for pesticides. Investigate foraging behavior on other pollinators than honeybees (Apis mellifera), preferably bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) or orchard mason bee (Osmia lingnaria) exposed to more than one pesticide. Sypervisors: Anders Nielsen, Katrine Borgå, Merete Grung

PhD students

Daniel Hitchcock

Daniel is studying how variation in life-history affects contaminant levels in Arctic species. For example, how do species in the Arctic allocate energy toward reproduction? How does this affect contaminant levels? What differences do we see between males and females? Will additional stressors such as climate change lead to differences in life-history strategies and contaminant levels?

Daniel aims to answer these research questions in three ways. First, he will conduct a systematic review to assess the literature and carry out a meta-analysis to compare scientific data against one another. Secondly, he will collect data either in the field or in the lab. Lastly, he hopes to develop models which explain how life-history and climate effects influence the bioaccumulation of contaminants.

Daniel is an Australian who undertook his Bachelor degree at the University of Melbourne and Master degree at the University of Bergen.

The supervisors for his PhD project are Katrine Borgå (UiO), Tom Andersen (UiO) and Øystein Varpe (UNIS).

Norith Eckbo

Norith is studying contaminants in Arctic and Antarctic seabirds. She is particularly interested in the intersection of ecotoxicology, ecology and evolution, how we communicate science, and the role of research in nature management and policy making. After spending three and a half year at the Norwegian Environment Agency monitoring the environment and working with ocean management, she returned to research with renewed motivation and ideas. The project, POLAR-ECOTOX, is funded through the ØKOSYSTEM call by the Norwegian Research Council.
In the first part of the project, she aims to compare contaminant levels, profiles and effects between the two Polar Regions. The Great skua and Black guillemot represent migrating and resident species of the North, respectively. Southern skua, King penguin and Adelie penguin represent migrating and resident species of the South, respectively. All species will be sampled during fieldwork at Svalbard in June 2015, and Antarctica in Dec-Feb 2015-16. Effect parameters are telomere reduction and DNA-damage (comet assay).
Secondly, she aims to quantify how climate, and ecological and physiological drivers (e.g. diet and life history traits) may have influenced temporal trends of contaminants in a King Penguin colony.
Thirdly, this particular colony is at risk of extinction due to climate change, and on top of that, contaminants may serve as an extra environmental stressor. She therefore aims to investigate potential mixture effects of contaminants and climate, and how contaminants may influence population dynamics in an already vulnerable King penguin colony.

Supervisors are Katrine Borgå (UiO) and Geir Wing Gabrielsen (Norwegian Polar Institute). Our collaborators are Celine LeBohec (IPEV), Dorte Herzke (NILU) and Jan Ove Bustnes (NINA).

Master of Science students

Karl Johan Ullavik Bakken

Karl Johan started his master in ecotoxicology after finishing his bachelor at the same university. He is particularly interested in the interdisciplinary area between toxicology and marine biology, which was important when he chose a topic for his master thesis.
In his thesis he has analysed maternal milk of hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) from the West Ice population outside Greenland for multiple chlorinated and brominated substances. Most important are the heavy, persistent legacy contaminants like PCB and PBDE. The hooded seal is an interesting model species due to the fact that the pups are borne with a large layer of blubber and weaned from their mother after only 4-5 days. During this period, high-lipid rich milk (>60%), is transferred to the pups carrying the lipophilic contaminants that are excreted from the mother.
Karl Johan is particularly interested in investigating how the precursors are transferred between mother and pup, both prenatal and postnatal, and also how the hydroxylated (-OH) metabolites of these precursors occur in the pups.

Karl’s supervisors are: Katrine Borgå (UiO, NIVA), Gro D. Villanger (Norwegian Institute of Public Health), Anuschka Polder (Norwegian University of Life Sciences) and Ketil Hylland (UiO).

Randi Grønnestad

Randi Grønnestad completed her Bachelor degree in biology at UiO and is now attending the Master’s program in biology, more specific, eco toxicology at UiO. Her master thesis is called “Levels, patterns and maternal transfer of per – and polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs), and their associations with thyroid hormones in hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) mother-pup pairs from the West-Ice”. PFCs are environmentally persistent contaminants that are present in the Arctic and with a potential to bioaccumulate and biomagnify in food webs. The aim of this study was to investigate levels and patterns of PFCs in hooded seal mother-pup pairs from the West Ice (east of Greenland), determine if these contaminants are transferred from mother to pup via milk and placenta, and to investigate possible associations between concentrations of PFCs and thyroid hormone concentrations (T3 and T4) in blood. The hooded seal has a high level in the Arctic food web and a short lactation period (only 3-4 days) with transfer of a very lipid rich milk (>60%). This makes this species a good model to investigate the transfer of chemicals through milk. No studies have previously been done to investigate levels or maternal transfer of PFCs in hooded seals, which makes this project particularly interesting. The supervisors for this project are Katrine Borgå, Gro Dehli Villanger and Anuschka Polder.

Ane Haarr

I am undertaking a Master’s degree in toxicology at the University of Oslo. During my bachelor degree, I spent one year at UNIS, Svalbard where I studied Arctic terrestrial and marine biology, ecology and Arctic environmental management. I am interested in how the Arctic is affected by human activity and global change both in terms of a warming climate and the long-range transport of contaminants from industrialised areas. For my project I will study genetic damage in relation to contaminant exposure in different Arctic birds. Birds are important study organisms in ecotoxicology as they are both vectors of transport and victims of pollutants; they possess various physiological adaptions and occupy different trophic levels; and they are important indicators of our oceans´ health.

Hilde Karin Midthaug

Hilde will examine and compare levels and patterns of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in South Polar Skua blood, sampled in 2001/2002 and in 2013/2014 from Svarthamaren in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctic. The working title of her thesis is "Persistent organic pollutants in the Antarctic top predator, South Polar Skua (Catharacta maccormicki), over the past decade".

The main aim is:

to find out if and how the organochlorine contaminants (OCs) levels and patterns have changed between the years
whether newer POPs such as brominated flame retardants, fluorinated compounds, endosulfan and dieldrin/aldrin have entered the Antarctic food web
whether local diet, trophic level and/or migration will explain some of the population difference in contaminant accumulation

Supervisors are : Katrine Borgå (UiO), Jan Ove Bustnes (NINA) and Anuschka Polder (NMBU)

Julie Sørlie Paus-Knudsen

Observe the potential behavioural effects of pesticide on bees, under or at the value given by EPPO, Scientific committee for pesticides and the Professional group for pesticides. Investigate foraging behavior on other pollinators than honeybees (Apis mellifera), preferably bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) or orchard mason bee (Osmia lingnaria) exposed to more than one pesticide.

Sypervisors: Anders Nielsen, Katrine Borgå, Merete Grung

Published Apr. 9, 2015 7:47 AM - Last modified June 7, 2017 10:27 AM