We are excited to welcome two new members to our network, Alexandra Barry and Maria Pavolotskaia!
Alexandra began her PhD studies at the University of Gothenburg in early September 2024. She has a BSc in Biology and Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MSc in Forest Resources from the University of Maine (both in the United States). Her current research focuses on how warming and other environmental changes in the Arctic tundra drive changes in plant community productivity through shifts in functional traits and community assemblages. She will use a combination of growth chamber experiments and field observations to tackle this question.
Maria will start her PhD at the University of Gothenburg in April, supervised by Anne Bjorkman. She has a MSc in Biology with a focus on Ecology and Conservation from the University of Gothenburg. During her PhD, she will study how pollinator communities in northernmost Sweden have changed over the past decades following warming and how these changes relate to the pollination services they provide to plants. Her research will explore shifts in bumblebee community composition, the plants they rely on for pollen collection, and how these changes influence patterns of plant reproduction.
