Our Precious Transboundary Waters

ongoing

The overall objective of the project is sustainable Finnish-Norwegian water catchment management to conserve biodiversity and improve the quality of living for the population. The project will document the state of the aquatic environment at the time of the closure of the largest source of air pollution on the of Russia, Norway and Finland border area - the smelter in the settlement of Nikel in Russia. The situation is unique in all Nordic countries as massive decade-long atmospheric emissions have now stopped and the fragile sub-arctic environment has been provided an opportunity to recover. The transboundary watershed of Lake Inari-Pasvik river provides an influential study platform to deepen our understanding of the long-term anthropogenic effects on migratory populations of the brown trout. With the state-of-art genetic methods and existing long-term time series of data collection, we will track back the genetic changes that brown trout populations have undergone. Hence, we can guide the knowledge-based conservation and management of brown trout populations in Norway and Finland to most effective practices. Status of the Neiden river Atlantic salmon stocks have deteriorated rapidly in 2020- 2021. A possible renewal of the bilateral fishing agreement between Finland and Norway requires access to all existing data on salmon on both sides of the border. To facilitate this task, we create a shared database where all long-term data required for evaluation of the salmon stock status. A spread of the lethal salmon parasite Gyrodactylus salaris would have significant ecological and social consequences in the Tana and Neiden rivers, the inhabitants of the area and especially the Sámi culture. To increase the common awareness of the threats of G. salaris spreading, a communication plan together with a detailed contingency plan, will be prepared. In addition, an eDNA method will be developed and implemented for an early detection system of G. salaris in these river systems. Project objectives: 1. Documentation of long-term effects of heavy air pollution from Russian metallurgic industry on the Finnish-Norwegian border area and recovering of aquatic environment. 2. Built genetic library to reveal human-induced changes in the unique natural brown trout populations in the Pasvik-Inari watershed for cross-border management and conservation. 3. Shared new information on the status of the Neiden River salmon stocks as a basis of the renewal of the bilateral agreement on salmon conservation and management. 4. Increased common awareness regarding the lethal salmon parasite Gyrodactylus salaris and a joint contingency plan on preventing spread of G. S. in the Finnish-Norwegian border area. Improved monitoring for G. S. using eDNA method.

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