Category: news

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.

Mathilde Defourneaux is defending her PhD on Wednesday December 18, 2024 at 14:00 GMT.

Mathilde’s thesis, entitled The impacts of spatio-temporal shifts in vertebrate herbivore communities on the functioning of the Icelandic tundra will be defended at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of the Agricultural University of Iceland. Mathilde’s supervisors are Prof. Isabel C Barrio (Agricultural University of Iceland), Prof. James D.M. Speed (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Ass.Prof. Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe (University of Victoria). The opponents in the defence will be Prof. Robin Pakeman (The James Hutton Institute) and Dr. Camilla Fløjgaard (Aarhus University).

The defence will take place at the AUI campus in Keldnaholt, but you can also follow online. A link will be provided on the university website closer to the date.

It is not only a big day for Mathilde, but also for NordBorN, as Mathilde is also formally the first NordBorN PhD student to graduate!

All the best from the NordBorN team for your big day Mathilde!