Svalbard has 17 spider species, mostly small and black

Svalbard has 17 spider species, mostly small and black, Steve Coulson, a professor of terrestrial ecology at UNIS, and Anja Charlotte Hansen, a former UNIS communications adviser, wrote in Forskersonen on 1 November. They live there all year and can travel far through the air.

The authors said that tests on the UNIS course AB-329 Winter Ecology showed survival below −12 °C. Chemicals and proteins stopped the animals freezing, they said. They also said that most spiders floating on silk threads landed within 30 km, and that the species posed no danger to people.

Coverage: Forskersonen