Student: Salvör Jónsdóttir
Advisor: Karl Benediktsson
Student: Íris Hrund Halldórsdóttir
Advisors: Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson, Karl Benediktsson, og Andreas Walmsley
About the project:
The main aim of the project is to explore the interplay between the entrepreneurial environment and the resilience of tourism enterprises. That is, to see to what degree, and what kind of role does the entrepreneurial environment have in the resilience of tourism enterprises. The project will focus specifically on the concept of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE).
Student: Iman Rousta
Advisors: Haraldur Ólafsson; Egil Erlendsson and Hao Zhang
About the project:
Part of a larger, ongoing international research initiative focused on "Climate change impacts on surface and atmospheric dynamics across global climate-sensitive regions"
Student: Snædís Sunna Thorlacius
About the project
Through the use of palaeoenvironmental methods (palynology, sedimentology, tephrochronology and archaeobotany) this project aims to advance our knowledge and understanding of the environmental trajectories associated with the rise and fall of the transhumance system in Iceland c. AD 900–1900. The project aims to establish a picture of a land-use method that was at the heart of the Icelandic pastoral farming economy and at what environmental cost the transhumance system operated. The research questions focus on the temporal and operational aspects of the system at three focus areas: Svarfaðardalur, Borgarfjörður and Mosfellsdalur.
Student: Didrik Tveit
About the project
The project reconstructs the long-term ecological history of downy birch (Betula pubescens) woodlands in Iceland during the late Holocene, with a particular focus on the period following Norse settlement (Landnám) in the late 9th century. Iceland has ambitious afforestation targets, making it critical to understand how native birch woodlands have historically responded to climate variability, human impact, and fire disturbance. Using an integrated palaeoecological approach, combining geochemical proxies (n-alkanes, PAHs, and faecal biomarkers) with traditional methods (pollen analysis, microscopic charcoal, and CFS) I reconstruct woodland resilience, anthropogenic change, and paleofire regimes over millennial timescales. These long-term baselines, unattainable from modern monitoring alone, will directly inform afforestation planning, conservation priorities, and wildfire risk management in Iceland.
Student: Caroline Planche
About the project
The early Holocene was characterised by rapid climatic shifts driven by changes in North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere circulation, including fluctuations in the AMOC, culminating in the prominent 8.2 ka cooling event. Iceland, strategically located within the North Atlantic climate system, offers an ideal setting to investigate these changes, particularly its highlands, which are highly sensitive to climate and volcanic disturbances. This study examines how vegetation and environmental conditions in the Icelandic highlands responded to early Holocene warming and abrupt climatic fluctuations, with a focus on the 8.2 ka event.
A multi-proxy approach is applied to lake sediment sequences from the Arnarvatnsheiði region, combining pollen analysis, lipid biomarkers, biogenic silica, loss-on-ignition, C/N ratios, stable isotopes, and XRF geochemistry to reconstruct vegetation dynamics, palaeotemperatures, and landscape stability. Tephrochronology and radiocarbon dating provided chronological control. By identifying past regime shifts under rapid climate perturbations, this study contributes to theoretical understanding of ecosystem resilience.
Student: Foday Sheku Dumbuya
Advisor: Karl Benediktsson
Student: Deisi Trindade Maricato
Advisors: Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson and Jessica Aquino
Student: Laufey Haraldsdóttir
Advisor: Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson
Student: Daniela Desperati
Advisors: Anna Karlsdóttir, Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson( UI)Filippo Menga (University of Bergamo) and Cinzia Spinzi (University of Padova)
Student: Jumana Kahn
Advisors: Rannveig Ólafsdóttir, Þorvarður Árnason, Sandra Wall-Reinius, Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir