Roos Bruins Slot is one of our interns this year. She is part of the Durin project and works with our PhD student Kristine Birkeli to help collect carbon flux measurements in the field. Get to know Roos better! She writes: “I’m a Dutch Biology student and started my internship with Between the Fjords in READ MORE
Tundra might turn from carbon sink into carbon source due to global warming
Tundra ecosystems hold vast amounts of carbon, which is projected to be released into the atmosphere under climate warming. Our group contributed to this important and alarming new paper in Nature, led by researchers from Umeå University in Sweden. Using carbon flux data collected inside and outside open-top chambers (OTCs), we show that ecosystem respiration READ MORE
Come work with us! Apply for our Postdoctoral position within terrestrial ecosystem modelling.
Are you interested in plant functional types and ecosystem modelling? Come work with us! Dwarf-shrubs are a dominant plant functional group across the boreal, arctic and alpine biomes, and they play important roles for biodiversity, ecology and ecosystem functioning in the habitats in which they occur. For example, dwarf-shrubs provide important food resources for grazers, READ MORE
Camera surveillance of pollinators in alpine grasslands
Are alpine flowers visited more during the day, or during the night? Does the importance of nocturnal pollinators differ with elevation? How do alpine pollinators respond to warming treatments? And is it possible that some pollinators “bully” others away from flowers while foraging? These are all questions that insect surveillance cameras help to address. We READ MORE
Soil carbon stocks
Carbon storage is an important ecosystem service, yet we know very little about how much our ecosystems store. Semi-natural systems are especially understudied. First results show that these ecosystems might be some of the most carbon rich! Question: How much soil carbon is stored in western Norwegian semi-natural ecosystems, specifically coastal heathlands and grasslands? For READ MORE
Plant Functional Traits Course engages in South African RangeX sites
In December 2023, the 7th plant functional traits course (PFTC7) took place in the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa. We were particularly pleased that this led to a collaboration with the RangeX project. During PFTCs, research is usually conducted along an elevational gradient. This time, the highest location at ca. 3000m coincided with the high READ MORE
RangeX writing retreat in Ireland
In November 2023, the RangeX team spend a productive week in Ireland, delving into various tasks, data sets, and papers. Numerous constructive discussions ensued, generating ideas for future project outputs. We outlined the joint field experiment data paper, incorporating data sets from China, Switzerland, Norway, and South Africa. The team members focusing on aboveground interactions READ MORE
How can we characterize the microclimates of dwarf-shrubs? (Durin)
Leaf temperatures have a major influence on plant growth and development, e.g. photosynthesis rates, and thermal tolerance limits. However, our ability to measure such important characteristics has until recently been limited. Now with thermal imagery we can measure leaf temperatures directly! Learn to analyze thermal images collected on dwarf-shrub canopies across Norway. compare thermal profiles READ MORE
The belowground life of roots in alpine grasslands (Funder)
Often when we characterize plant growth and development, we focus on the above-ground, but less-so the below-ground. Here we focus on the important alpine grasslands of Norway, and we take a dive below to better understand how these communities are utilizing resources such as water and nutrients below-ground, including: 1) Does the biomass of roots READ MORE
How dwarf-shrubs allocate carbon (Durin)
In the DURIN project, we are investigating how environmental factors and vegetation characteristics impact ecosystem functioning and carbon dynamics in heathland ecosystems. To better understand how dwarf-shrubs are distributing to their above ground carbon resources, we will assess patterns of shoot growth, leaf longevity, and relative investment into stems and leaves on harvested dwarf-shrubs from READ MORE