Florian Berg

I am researcher at the pelagic group of the Institute of Marine Research investigating the population structure and dynamics of small pelagic fish like sprat and herring. My research area is concentrating on the Norwegian coast, the North Sea and Skagerrak. As part of this work, I am also a member of the ICES Herring Assessment Working Group for the Area South of 62°N (HAWG) that provides scientific advice on the herring, sprat and sandeel stocks in the North Sea and the adjacent areas spanning from the Celtic Sea to the Western Baltic.

I am also involved in the GENSINC project (GENetic adaptations underlying population Structure IN herring, Clupea harengus) at the University of Bergen. The overall aim of the project is to establish an improved biological basis for stock identification in herring which will contribute to a more sustainable exploitation of the species. We use genome sequencing to document variability in genes with potentially high adaptive significance resulting in phenotypic variability. My main task is to conduct multigenerational experiments, e.g. consisting of hybrids between spring and autumn spawning herring, to understand evolutionary and population genetic responses to environmental change. I am responsible to investigate the phenotypic plasticity of herring reared under common garden conditions and to develop methods to discriminate different herring populations. This can be further used to improve the assessment of this species.