Michael Sars Centre

University of Bergen

The Chatzigeorgiou group at the Michael Sars Centre, University of Bergen, is responsible for performing laboratory experiments and field measurements in the North Sea. Marios is also acting as the scientific director of the Deuteronoise consortium.

Our lab will used an interdisciplinary approach to study the effects of low frequency anthropogenic noise in two tunicates, the ascidian Ciona intestinalis and the appendicularian Oikopleura dioica (in collaboration with the group of Daniel Chourrout) which are highly abundant in the North Sea.

Our research efforts will commence by working in close collaboration with the acoustics team of Giovanni Zambon (Milano Bicocca) on a campaign designed to measure the soundscape of low and high anthropogenic noise in the North Sea.

We will then build experimental setups that combine cutting edge video recording with sound production in the lab to reproduce different levels and types of anthropogenic noise under laboratory conditions. We will study the effects of noise on the larval, juvenile, and adult behaviors of the two tunicate species. We will complement our behavioral studies by a series of experiments aimed at dissecting the morphological, physiological, and transcriptomic effects of anthropogenic noise on C. intestinalis and O. dioica.

In addition, the group will closely collaborate with the company Tunicell which specializes in the commercial farming of Ciona intestinalis to explore the effects of anthropogenic noise in situ.

We hope that our data will inform national and international policy directives with the aim to reduce the impact of noise pollution across European sea basins. To further amplify the exploitation of its results we will collaborate with local dissemination hubs (e.g. Aquarium of Bergen) to communicate our findings to the broader public of Bergen and Norway.