Pål Asgeir Olsvik

My research interest is to study how environmental contaminants affect molecular mechanisms in fish and other organisms. During my early years as a scientist my research focused on metals (Cd, Cu and Zn), and how elevated levels and speciation of these elements affect brown trout in mining-contaminated rivers in Norway.

As a researcher at NIFES from 2003 and onwards (merged with the Institute of Marine Research from 2018), the focus was on studying how chemicals found in aquafeed and seafood affect fish. Chemicals enriched in aquafeed, including heavy metals, various POPs like PCBs, dioxins, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides, may pose a health risk to fish. Studied fish species included Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, brown trout, Atlantic cod, Atlantic herring, tusk and burbot, and zebrafish. To reduce the number of experimental animals, in vitro methods were developed and used to test toxicity in fish.

For the last decade or so, one of the main tools used to study the impact of chemicals on wildlife has been toxicogenomics. Toxicogenomics is the study of the structure and function of the genome as it responds to cellular exposure to xenobiotics, and combines toxicology with genomics or other high-throughput molecular profiling technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

In 2017, I joined Nord University. At Nord University, my research focuses on aquatic ecotoxicology, with special emphasis on environmental challenges associated with aquaculture. Currently, I am running projects on chemicals associated with aquaculture such as salmon lice drugs and antifoulants, on microplastics, on deposition of mine tailings in fjords, and on rare earth elements as environmental contaminants.