Oceanography | Vol. 38, No. 2
56
Biodiversity and Underwater Cultural Heritage
The Svalbard fjords provide natural laboratories for exploring the
effects of global warming. Fjords on the west coast receive large
quantities of heat energy, organisms, and particles that are trans
ported northward by the West Spitsbergen Current (e.g., Berge
et al., 2005). Fjords on the northern part of the archipelago are
more influenced by Arctic water masses. Arguably, Rijpfjorden is
among the most extensively studied High Arctic marine ecosys
tems (e.g., Jordà-Molina, 2023), thought to host a more endemic
Arctic fauna without the influence of boreal species. Finding
Xyloredo nooi both in Rijpfjorden and Smeerenburg shows that
significant knowledge gaps remain regarding biodiversity and
distribution of species that need to be filled before we can ana
lyze and understand how future warming of the Arctic may influ
ence and alter biodiversity, ecosystem composition, and eventu
ally also ecosystem services in the marine Arctic.
Moreover, and due to the fact that investigations of the few
wrecks discovered in cold-water temperatures have shown no
presence of wood-boring mollusks, there has been an assump
tion that such organisms do not thrive in the High Arctic (Stewart
et al., 1995). With over 1,000 historic shipwrecks estimated to
be in the waters between Greenland and the Svalbard archipel
ago (Guijarro Garcia et al., 2006), the area could potentially be
a treasure trove of information not only on Svalbard history but
also on 400 years of Europe’s richest maritime history. The pres
ence of wood-boring bivalves may pose a hitherto unrecognized
threat to this underwater record of centuries of extractive activity
along the Arctic frontier. The newly discovered wreck of Figaro,
a wooden whaling ship that sank in 1908, did not show signif
icant signs of damage from wood-boring organisms (Mogstad
et al., 2020). Figaro was discovered in Isfjorden on the west coast
of Svalbard ~100 nm south of Smeerenburg (Figure 1; for details
regarding Figaro, see Mogstad et al., 2020). The fact that Figaro
presently is the only investigated historical wreck in the Svalbard
archipelago underscores the profound knowledge gaps related to
the natural and cultural history of the seabed in these areas.
The rate of Arctic warming is to two to four times the global
average (Gerland et al., 2023), which will impact the biological
diversity as we know it today. A likely effect will be to extend
the distribution of boreal species northward. Following this, the
entry of new and more wood-boring organisms to the Arctic
will pose a threat to cultural heritage, as observed in this story.
However, the story and future perspectives may be entirely dif
ferent for the deep-sea, cold-water species Xyloredo nooi. The
combination of less sea ice and a much-reduced timber indus
try in Siberia is likely to result in reduced substrate for these spe
cies. To some extent, this may be partly counteracted by faster
flow of the TPD (Figure 1), reducing the potential time it takes
for a piece of wood to be transported across the Arctic Ocean.
Nevertheless, less wood on the seabed will then reduce the avail
ability of steppingstones for wood-boring organisms. On the
other hand, more frequent extreme weather events as a result of
global climate change could increase wood input to the ocean.
All of these factors combined, and in the light of the present
knowledge, it is difficult to predict the status and the vulnerabil
ity of these deep-sea organisms.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The report of wood-boring mollusks in the High Arctic is indic
ative of a hitherto unknown, but potentially ecologically signif
icant, element of the Arctic marine biota. Collected in the rela
tively well-studied fjords of Svalbard, the discovery also points
toward a major gap in knowledge regarding biodiversity and eco
system composition. Such knowledge gaps are particularly rele
vant in light of the Norwegian government’s recent decision to
allow exploration and mapping of the seafloor in preparation for
future development of deep-sea mining (Nature, 2024).
Climate change is fundamentally transforming the Arctic.
Half of the summer sea ice has disappeared since the 1980s, and
the rest is projected to be gone within the coming decades (Kim
et al., 2023). The warming extends from the deep ocean to the
upper atmosphere, impacting ocean circulation, weather pat
terns, ecosystems, and human presence in the region (Gerland
et al., 2023; Nanni et al., 2024). We need to close knowledge gaps
concerning the Arctic biota to understand the present compo
sition of Arctic benthic organisms and their ecosystems and
to understand and manage changes to these areas. As demon
strated in this study, the natural and cultural histories of the
Arctic are deeply intertwined, necessitating interdisciplinary
approaches to uncover connections and insights across domains
that might otherwise remain obscure. Climate change coincid
ing with increased interest from commercial and geopolitical
actors in the region further enhance this need.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
The supplementary materials are available online at https://doi.org/10.5670/
oceanog.2025.311.
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