Author: Mariana Verdonen

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Elisabeth Cooper joins the NordBorN team at UiT

Prof. Elisabeth Cooper is a plant ecologist based in Tromsø at UiT- The Arctic University of Norway. She studies plant- and tundra ecosystems responses to climate. She runs a long-term experiment on Svalbard to find out more about the role of snow and changes in winter conditions for tundra ecology. She has previously worked at UNIS in Longyearbyen and Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø and is an active member of the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) network.

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Tom Vorstenbosch joins the NordBorN team!

Tom has started his position as a postdoctoral fellow at the NTNU in Trondheim. In this role, he will be taking over the coordinating responsibilities of the NordBorN network, allowing Mariana Verdonen to focus more on her research during the final months of her contract.

Tom completed his PhD at the University of Vienna, Austria, where his work focused on modelling biological invasions in the sub-Antarctic region. He assessed the risk that plant invasions pose for these isolated islands under climate change, and how their past and current shipping network links them to potential alien plants on the mainland. Prior to this, he worked in the Austrian Alps documenting the distribution of alien plant species along rivers and roads, as well as conducting ethnobotanical research on the famine food consumed during the Dutch famine of 1944-45. He is interested in polar and alpine flora, biological invasions, history, and species dynamics under climate change.

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PhD position on hyperspectral remote sensing of tundra vegetation changes at the University of Gothenburg

Deadline: January 19, 2026

Tundra vegetation is being impacted by extreme climatic changes now influencing much of the Arctic. Increased temperatures, change in season length, and altered precipitation patterns affect plant health, biomass, and species composition. Satellite data are used to observe changes in tundra vegetation, and hyperspectral data have the potential to provide detailed insights into tundra vegetation’s biochemical and biophysical properties.

This PhD project aims to determine the utility of newly available hyperspectral satellite data to better understand and quantify biochemical and biophysical properties of tundra vegetation negatively impacted by changing climatic conditions. The study areas will be located in the Swedish tundra area. Research questions to be addressed are, for example, can biochemical and biophysical properties of tundra vegetation associated with a drier and warmer climate be detected using hyperspectral satellite data? Can hyperspectral satellite data be used to detect tundra plant diversity? Is there a benefit to synergistic use of data from hyperspectral and multispectral satellites?

The student will be placed at the Department of Earth Sciences. This PhD position is financed primarily by the Swedish National Space Agency. The PhD student’s specific research questions and approaches will be developed in collaboration with the supervisory team at the start of the PhD project.

More information can be found here: https://web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/1035/job?site=7&lang=UK&validator=9b89bead79bb7258ad55c8d75228e5b7&job_id=38805