ESSAS 2026

The meeting theme is “Borealization: Subarctic and Arctic Marine Systems in Transition.”
Sessions include:

• Marine Heatwaves: Impacts on High Latitude Ecosystems from Physics to Biology and Human Communities
• Tracking Borealization: Physical Change, Biological Responses, Community Impacts
• Gadids under Borealization: Ecology, Fisheries, and Management
• Connections across the Subarctic Atlantic: Physics to Fish, Fjords to Gyres, Surface to Seafloor
• The Effects of Multiple Drivers on Arctic and Sub-Arctic Coastal/Fjord Environments: Bridging Marine Chemistry and Biology

All sessions are designed to span natural and social sciences and to cover systems from the coast to the deep sea.

A detailed program will be announced closer to the date.

1. Marine Heatwaves: Impacts on High Latitude Ecosystems from Physics to Biology and Human Communities
   Co-chairs: Bia Dias, Ben Fitzhugh, Angel Ruiz Angulo
   
   This session invites contributions examining the impacts of marine heatwaves (MHW) on high-latitude systems. We welcome papers that (1) situate marine heatwaves within the broader climate–oceanographic context, including physical mechanisms, cross-system comparisons, food-web restructuring, and ecosystem functioning under sustained heat stress; (2) present species-specific case studies that document ecological, economic, and social impacts of MHWs on important fish or shellfish, their fisheries, and dependent communities in high-latitude systems; and (3) explore adaptations by affected communities and management systems to warming events throughout human history, including strategies that integrate ecological and socioeconomic information to build resilience in rapidly changing oceans.
    
2. Tracking Borealization: Environmental Change, Biological Responses, Community Impacts 
   Co-chairs: Franz Mueter, Pavel Emelin, Jacob Kasper
   
   This session will document and quantify observed changes in Subarctic and Arctic marine ecosystems that illuminate the extent of borealization—including evidence that both supports and challenges it. We welcome studies on the direction and pace of change in key oceanographic and biogeochemical properties; shifts in species distributions and community composition from plankton to fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals; and changes in human communities (e.g. harvest patterns, population trends). Contributions that develop integrated indicators and spatially explicit metrics to map the footprint of borealization and identify hot spots are especially encouraged.
    
3. Gadids under Borealization: Ecology, Fisheries, and Management
   Co-chairs: Ben Laurel, David Coté, Caroline Bouchard
   
   Rapid borealization is reshaping SubArctic and Arctic marine ecosystems, with gadid fishes (e.g., cod, pollock, and haddock) playing a central ecological and socio-economic role. This session explores how warming, changing ice regimes, and altered food webs are influencing gadid distribution, life history, trophic interactions, and productivity. We will highlight emerging patterns in recruitment, growth, and predator–prey dynamics, and examine consequences for Indigenous, subsistence, and commercial fisheries. Integrating observations, modeling, and management perspectives, the session aims to identify knowledge gaps and discuss adaptive strategies to sustainably manage gadid populations in rapidly changing northern seas.
    
4. Connections across the Subarctic Atlantic: Physics to Biology, Fjords to Gyres, Surface to Seafloor
   Co-chairs: Warsha Singh, Guðbjörg Ásta Ólafsdóttir, Kumiko Azetsu-Scott
   
   This session explores the interconnected physical and biological processes that structure Subarctic Atlantic ecosystems across spatial and temporal scales. We invite contributions examining how ocean physics, topographic features, and climate variability influence biological communities from fjord systems to the open ocean, and from surface waters to the deep seafloor. Studies integrating observations, modelling, and interdisciplinary perspectives are particularly encouraged. By linking processes across habitats and trophic levels, this session aims to improve understanding of ecosystem connectivity, resilience, and change in a rapidly warming and increasingly variable Subarctic Atlantic.
    
5. The effects of multiple drivers on Arctic and Sub-arctic costal/fjord environments; bridging marine chemistry and biology
   Co-chairs: Sam Rastrick, Melissa Chierici, Agneta Fransson, Naomi Harada, Kumiko Azetsu-Scott
   
   Arctic and Subarctic coastal and fjord ecosystems are highly productive and central to carbon cycling, food security, and local communities, yet they face rapid climate change, increase in natural disaster, and growing industrial pressures. This session invites studies that quantify how climate change (warming, acidification, deoxygenation, freshening, eutrophication), and marine industry e.g. aquaculture, tourism, mineral extraction and sources of other marine contaminants) alter biogeochemistry and biology across environmental gradients. We especially welcome work that integrates laboratory experiments with field observations and bridges marine chemistry with ecology. Contributions that place industry–environment interactions in the context of accelerating climate change are encouraged.

Please submit your abstract before 15 February 2026 using the link below:

ESSAS 2026 - abstract submission - Fill out form

• Abstract submission deadline: 15 February 2026
• Notification of acceptance (oral/poster): mid-March 2026
• Early-bird registration deadline: 21-March 2026
• Final registration deadline: 10 May 2026
• Meeting dates: 23–25 June 2026

Please register using the links below:

Regular participant

• Early-bird (until 21 March): 45,000 ISK
  • Buy early bird ticket
• Regular (after 21 March): 50,000 ISK
  • Buy regular ticket
• Includes: Access to all sessions, lunches, coffee breaks, welcome reception, conference materials

Student / early-career (MSc, PhD, postdoc)

• Early-bird (until 21 March): 20,000 ISK
  • Buy early bird ticket, student
• Regular (after 21 March): 25,000 ISK
  • Buy regular ticket, student
• Includes: Same as above (discounted rate)

Optional conference dinner at MFRI

• Early-bird (until 21 March): 12,000 ISK
• Regular (after 21 March): 12,000 ISK
  • Buy dinner ticket
• Includes: Catered dinner at MFRI, guided introduction/tour, round-trip bus transport

Optional sea-angling excursion

• Early-bird (until 21 March): 10,000 ISK
• Regular (after 21 March): 10,000 ISK
  • Buy ticket
• Includes: Afternoon excursion from Reykjavík Harbour, capacity 40 people

The icebreaker will take place in Litla torg, Háskólatorg, at the University of Iceland on the evening of 22 June (17:00–21:00), with light refreshments.

The conference dinner will be held on the evening of 24 June at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (Hafró).

The evening includes:

• A short introduction/tour of Hafró
• A catered dinner in the dining hall
• Bus transport between the University of Iceland / downtown Reykjavík and Hafnarfjörður

A voluntary afternoon sea-angling excursion from Reykjavík harbor will be offered on June 23 (limited capacity; additional cost). Details will be provided closer to the meeting.

ESSAS (Ecosystem Studies of Subarctic and Arctic Seas) is an international regional program that seeks to understand how climate variability and change affect marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them in the Subarctic and Arctic.

Members of the ESSAS SSC will contribute to the scientific program and abstract review. 

Local Organizing Committee (LOC):
•    Guðbjörg Ásta Ólafsdóttir (chair), University of Iceland
•    Jacob Kasper (MFRI)
•    Warsha Singh (MFRI)
•    Einar Pétur Jónsson (MFRI)
•    Michelle Valliant (UI)
•    Angel Ruiz Angulo (UI)