Tundra Ecology Lab Members

Dr. Ingibjörg Svala Jónsdóttir is a Professor of Ecology at the University of Iceland. Her research focuses on how ongoing environmental changes and land-use changes affect ecosystems and biodiversity across the tundra biome.

Dr. Isabel C Barrio is a Professor at the Agricultural University of Iceland. Her research interests relate to plant-herbivore interactions in tundra ecosystems, and her research in Iceland focuses on the impacts of sheep grazing on common highland ranges, a main land use in Iceland.

Dr. Alejandro Salazar is an Assistant Professor at the Agricultural University of Iceland. His research interests relate to soil microbiology and biogeochemistry in the context of global change. Alejandro is one of the leaders of the CRUST (Climate Research Unit at Subarctic Temperatures) experiment, at Fjallabak, Iceland. The CRUST experiment is linked to the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) and generates information about the effects of global warming on cold-adapted Biological Soil Crust (BSC).

Mathilde Defourneaux is a PhD student at the Agricultural University of Iceland. She is interested in the effects of herbivores on polar and subpolar terrestrial ecosystems. Her PhD focuses on the effect of spatio-temporal changes in herbivore assemblage on the tundra functionality in the Icelandic Highlands. She use tools such as spatial and temporal modelling.

Ingvild Ryde is a PhD student at the University of Iceland. Her main interests are plant ecophysiology, plant chemistry, and herbivory and warming effects in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. She likes to answer her research questions using analytical chemistry techniques.

Ian Klupar is a PhD student located in Askja at the University of Iceland. His research is focuses on how plant-herbivore interactions can regulate local ecosystem carbon balance in the Icelandic highlands. 

Bastien Papinot is a PhD student at the University of Iceland studying bryophyte ecology across Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems. His work focusses on understanding the link between bryophyte diversity and functional diversity on ecosystem processes in the tundra

Þórný Þorsteinsdóttir is a MSc student at the University of Iceland working on

Rafn Sigurðsson is a MSc student at the University of Iceland working on the invasive moss Campylopus introflexus and whether it has a negative impact on moss diversity in geothermal areas, but also looking at what kind of habitats it prefers.

Axel Ingi Einarsson is a BSc student at the University of Iceland currently working on studying the effects of sheep grazing cessation on the plant traits of palatable plant species in the Icelandic highlands.

Marika Halmová was a visiting student in Iceland. She is a PhD student at the Palacky University in Czech Republic focusing on the influence of drought on temperate forests ecosystems. She is interested in the herbaceous species seedling survival and how plants cope with the prolonged drought periods. 

Matteo Petit Bon defended his PhD in 2020 at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the University Centre in Svalbard. Matteo is now a NSF-funded Postdoc in Plant and Ecosystem Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, USA. He is working on the project “Climate change responses in coastal Arctic wetlands” (main Advisor and PI: Prof. Dr. Karen H Beard), in which he is studying how flooding and higher summer temperatures affect vegetation and ecosystem processes (CO2/CH4 exchange rates) in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Western Alaska), one of the largest high-latitude river deltas on Earth.

Nori Geer is is a Fulbright fellow coming in Iceland from the United States. Their project will focus on insect herbivory and its impact on tundra plants. Nori graduated from Wellesley college in 2023 and is excited to begin a career in ecological research.

Arna Björt Ólafsdóttir was a Master’s student at the University of Iceland.

Vala Fridriksdóttir was a Master’s student at the University of Iceland.

Laura Barbero Palacios is a research assistant within the TUNDRAsalad project. Laura completed her degree in Biology at the University of Girona and completed a MSc degree in Terrestrial Ecology and Biodiversity Management at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Laura is interested in the role of herbivores as ecosystem engineers, particularly on their effects on biogeochemical cycles.

Sumjidmaa Sainnemekh is a PhD student at the Agricultural University of Iceland. She has been working for the Green Gold-Animal Health project and the Mongolian National Federation of Pasture Groups as a researcher since 2010. Her research interests relate to rangeland ecology in arid ecosystems, and her research in Mongolia focuses on the ecological site description concept and state and transition model development in common rangeland types.

Dr. Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Iceland. She is a socio-ecological researcher working at the interface of plant ecology and Indigenous and local knowledge. She uses tools such as advance statistical analyses, modelling and remote sensing as well interviews with holders of land-based knowledge to answer questions of local and global relevance. She is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria in Canada

Dr. Denis Warshan was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Iceland. He studies plant-cyanobacteria symbiotic systems using genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses to understand the interactions between cyanobacteria and their plant hosts, from gene to ecosystem level. The aim is to build a knowledge base of cyanobacteria and host molecular and metabolic pathways involved in the formation of their symbioses and a basis for information on material exchange and communication between cyanobacteria and the host. 

Katrín Björnsdóttir presented her Master’s thesis at the University of Iceland in 2018. In her thesis, Decomposition responses to climate warming and sheep grazing in the high and sub-Arctic, Kata used teabags in Iceland and Svalbard to measure decomposition rates. Kata is now a PhD student at Gothenburg University.

Tara Mulloy was a MSc student of the Tundra Ecology Lab. She defended her MSc at Simon Fraser University in April 2020. Her thesis, Effects of nutrient addition and sheep grazing on tundra rangelands in the Icelandic Highlands was part of the NutNet collaboration at the FENCES experimental sites in the highlands.

Marie Magendie is a French student in AgroSup Dijon, an agricultural and environmental engineering school. She conducted a five months internship at the Agricultural University of Iceland working on the patterns of invertebrate herbivory in Iceland.

Katrín Valsdóttir presented her MSc thesis in 2021 at the University of Iceland.

Martin Mörsdorf defended his PhD, Effects of local and regional drivers on plant diversity within tundra landscapes at the University of Iceland, UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) in 2015. Martin is now a researcher at the Chair of Geobotany in Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg.