Category: news

This last week (April 27- May 2) several NordBorN researchers attended the European Geophysical Union (EGU) General Assembly 2025 in Vienna. Mariana and Elias co-convened the session Global change impacts biodiversity, from observations, and experiments to modeling (ITS3.12/BG0.8 + BG3.20) that featured several talks and posters on borealization, and respectively presented posters about NordBorN and Arctic greening trends. Alejo presented his research on biocrust in the Icelandic highlands, and Isabel discussed the use of the term borealization.

Contributions by NordBorN researchers and links to the abstracts:

• Salazar, A., Gunnlaugsdóttir, E., Jónsdóttir, I., Klupar, I., Wandji, R.-P., Arnalds, Ó., and Andrésson, Ó.: Increased biocrust cover and activity in the highlands of Iceland after five growing seasons of experimental warming, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2609, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2609, 2025
• Koivisto, E., Kuzmin, A., Berner, L., Forbes, B. C., Kerby, J., Kolari, T., Korpelainen, P., Skarin, A., Tahvanainen, T., Verdonen, M., Villoslada, M., and Kumpula, T.: Understanding Arctic Greening Trends: A Multispectral Approach to Shrubification and Ecological Shifts, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9963, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9963, 2025
• Verdonen, M., Barrio, I. C. and the NordBorN team: NordBorN: a research and educational platform to understand borealization in the Nordic region, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12001, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12001, 2025
• Barrio, I. C. and the NordBorN team: Borealization of terrestrial ecosystems: patterns, drivers and consequences , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12056, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12056, 2025

We are happy to welcome Sarah Evans to our network!

Sarah is enrolled in the Nordic Master’s Programme in Environmental Changes at Higher Latitudes (EnCHiL), offered jointly with the University of Helsinki and the Agricultural University of Iceland. With her focus on the societal implications of borealization, she will look at how the encroachment of boreal ecosystems affects local communities and relevant stakeholders. With a particular interest in utilising interdisciplinary research, she aims to contribute to a holistic approach that bridges the gap between environmental and socially driven perspectives.

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.