Category: news

Last week, Beatrice Trascau and James Speed visited Mariana García Criado at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) in sunny Barcelona, Spain.

Mariana reports back from an intensive week of work:

We spent the week working on a NordBorN project with the aim of characterizing boreal and tundra plant species’ functional trait spaces. The workshop was a success and we are currently finalising the analyses and starting to write the manuscript. The idea for this project came up during the first NordBorN meeting in Iceland in 2024, so we are very excited to share some updates with you soon!

During their visit, Beatrice also presented her PhD work to the Global Ecology Unit at CREAF.

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.