Supervision
About the project
The principal object of the project is to examine climatically- and anthropogenically-driven changes in terrestrial ecosystems over the Holocene in Northwest Iceland. We assess the impacts of the proposed drivers for environmental change over a transect stretching through an environmental gradient from the oceanic environs of the Skagi peninsula, across the inner lowlands, up to the highland margin and highlands. The environmentally different locations will be examined palaeoecologically in order to assess their respective ecosystem resilience to climate change and land use. We employ a multi-proxy approach, combining bio- and lithostratigraphic methods to tease out signals for vegetation change and soil erosion. The new data allows for the examination of how climate and vegetation change affects the globally important carbon pool in lakes and wetlands. The new data will inform about how the terrestrial ecosystem has responded to climate change and land-use in the past, and as such provide important information about how ecosystems may react to future climatic or anthropogenic perturbations.
Doctoral Graduate Student
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.
Supervision
About the project
The project is concerned with enhancing the palaeoecological (sediments, pollen and sedaDNA) understanding of the Holocene in Iceland with specific regard to downy birch (Betula pubescens) woodland from before and after human settlement in the late 9th century (Landnám). Consilience between palaeoecological (lake sediments), archaeological (survey, excavation) and historical material will be sought in relation to woodland ecology and Icelandic society. Analyses will be augmented further by an examination of the current ecological condition of selected ancient semi-natural woodlands (ASNW) in Iceland i.e. raid vegetation survey and dendrochronology. The broad scope of the project demands an interdisciplinary approach, and the project depends upon the collaboration of researchers from several institutions within Iceland as well as overseas (Norway, Denmark). The consideration of both the past and the present anticipates the future recovery and restoration of birch woodland in Iceland through conservation efforts and natural regeneration, potentially providing insight into patterns and rates of woodland expansion, species composition, and the identification of threats to surviving and developing woodlands.
Doctoral Graduate Student
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.
Supervision
About the project
Formed during a submarine volcanic eruption between 1963 and 1967, the time span of about 60 years since the formation of Surtsey is only a very short period from a pedological perspective, especially in the cold and harsh Icelandic climate. However, it provides a unique opportunity to investigate the early stages of soil development on young land in real time. By an extensive investigation of pedogenesis and formation of secondary clay minerals in the young soils of Surtsey, we aim to better understand the influence of seabirds and vegetation as well as geothermal heat on weathering and the formation of pedogenic clay minerals in newly formed, pristine land.
Supervision
About the project
Located in an active volcanic environment and often in close vicinity to glacial outwash plains and eroded drylands, Icelandic peatlands display a wide range in mineral and organic content. They offer a unique opportunity to investigate the effect of tephra deposits and anthropogenic impact on carbon dynamics in peatlands. In this project we investigate carbon accumulation and carbon decomposition of disturbed peatlands in Iceland over time. We aim to better understand how distinct mineral deposits within these organic soils impact the carbon dynamics.
Doctoral Graduate Student
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.