University of Bergen
Our core team is/has been part of the Ecological and Environmental Change Research Group (EECRG) at the Department of Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) at the University of Bergen.
Suzette Flantua
Global change ecologist
PPF-Alpine project leader. My research focuses on the responses of biodiversity to past and future climate change and humans, with a special emphasis on mountain systems. I have a background in paleoecology, biogeography, landscape ecology, and spatial analyses, and I enjoy integrating them all to gain new insights into the drivers of global mountain biodiversity.
Eline Rentier
Earth scientist &
spatial data analyst
My background is in geo-ecological dynamics, geodiversity and geo- and ecosystem services. I use ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, Python and R to assess landscape dynamics through space and time. In the coming years, I will model the spatiotemporal dynamics and connectivity of global alpine biomes.
Lotta Schultz
Ecologist
I am an ecologist with great interests in global change ecology, biogeography and mountains. During my PhD within the PPF-Alpine project, I will analyse global patterns of alpine biodiversity and the legacy effects of the drivers that determine them.
John-Arvid Grytnes
Macroecologist
My research focuses on global mountain biodiversity patterns, including plants, birds and mammals. I am particularly interested in elevational trends of biodiversity and long-term dynamics of plant communities.
Ondřej Mottl
Quantitative ecologist, Charles University,
Czech Republic
My research focuses on understanding ecological processes in ecosystems on different temporal and spatial scales. I have a background in community ecology, tropical ecology, and paleoecology, with a keen interest in data science and quantitative analyses.
Camila Pacheco-Riaño
Global change ecologist, University of Gothenburg
I am a computational ecologist and biogeographer. My research focuses on understanding how plants respond to climate change in mountainous and cold regions worldwide. I’m particularly interested in using big data analysis and synthesizing global processes to understand how biodiversity is distributed across space and time.
Liliya Draganova
MSc Student Biological Sciences
My research topic focuses on alpine ecosystems in the tropics and the interactions between plants and their pollinators. I am doing my thesis on “How reproductive ecology varies across key species in the highly diverse Paramos of Ecuador?”
Sara Lien
MSc Student Biological Sciences
My research topic focuses on mapping and analysing the snowbed nature type within the alpine ecosystem in Finse (Norway). I am interested in looking into how this nature type has changed over the last years.
Dave Chandler
Glaciologist
My research focuses on processes at the base of ice sheets, in particular on how friction, subglacial hydrology and sediment deformation influence ice flow. This work has included hydrological tracing experiments in Greenland, and numerical simulations of the Antarctic Ice Sheet with the ‘PISM’ ice sheet model.
Augusto do Nascimento
Earth Scientist
My main interests are on cryosphere dynamics and in how geographic information systems and spatial analysis can facilitate research and improve our understanding of glacierized regions. I am working in PPF-Alpine this year as a scientific assistant.
Global collaborators
Daniel Cadena
Ornitologist, University Los Andes, (Colombia)
My research focuses on understanding the evolution, systematics, and evolutionary ecology of vertebrates, with a special focus on Neotropical birds. My research includes studying the role that large-scale evolutionary processes play in establishing spatial patterns of species richness.
Stefan Dullinger
Ecologist, University of Vienna, Austria
My research focuses on studying patterns of biodiversity and how they are affected by global environmental change. I am especially interested in mountain floras and their fate under a warming climate.
Johannes de Groeve
Geospatial data scientist, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
I am a geospatial data scientist and data manager at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam working on reproducible and open science in the field of ecology and geography. I am the main developer of the R-package TABS, Temporal Altitudinal Biogeographical Shifts
Simon Haberle
Paleoecologist, Australian National University
My research focuses on understanding the impact of climate variability and human activity on terrestrial ecosystems of South America, Pacific, and Indian Oceans during the Holocene.
Anna Hughes
Physical geographer, University of Manchester, UK
My research focuses on ice sheets and glaciers, and their interaction with climate. I use traces left behind in the landscape to reconstruct the size, movement, and dynamics of former ice masses.
Holger Kreft
Macroecologist & Biogeographer, University of Göttingen, Germany
My research focuses on documenting general trends in the spatial distribution of biodiversity and unraveling the mechanisms that cause spatial gradients in biodiversity, from local to global scales, while also using our knowledge for applied questions in conservation.
Petra Langebroek
Earth Scientist, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Norway
My research focuses on how ice sheets interact with climate, including studies looking into how stable the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic ice sheet are, and how to quantify rates of ice sheet change through time.
Martin Margold
Paleoglaciologist, Charles University, Czech Republic
My research focuses on reconstructing the dynamics of past glaciers and ice sheets through the tools of glacial geomorphology and Quaternary geology. In particular, I am interested in the deglaciation dynamics of the North American Ice Sheet Complex and the linkages to global climate during the Late Glacial.
Sietze Norder
Biogeographer, Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
I am deeply fascinated by the enormous variety of life on Earth: millions of plant- and animal species, and thousands of different cultures and languages. This biological- and cultural diversity however is unevenly distributed across the globe. I try to understand why this is the case. I often use islands as model systems to study how biodiversity patterns are influenced by topography, climate, and socio-cultural factors.
Kenneth Rijsdijk
Biogeographer, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
I am a biogeographer with background in Quaternary geology and have worked extensively on volcanic islands of the Atlantic and continental islands of the Mediterranean. I am intrigued by the question how landscape dynamics shape biotic assemblages and influence evolutionary patterns in biota. I use sea level fluctuations changing insular connectivity as a tool to assess how rates of connectivity change influence evolutionary processes.
Carolina Tovar
Spatial and data analyst, Royal Botanical Garden KEW London, UK
My research focuses on understanding the spatial distribution of plant biodiversity in tropical regions and its primary drivers. My two main research lines are: 1) The role of functional traits and evolutionary history in shaping biodiversity distribution, and 2) Biodiversity responses to past, current, and future environmental changes.
Davnah Urbach
Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment, Switzerland
My research focuses on global mountain biodiversity conservation and biodiversity-related opportunities for sustainable development. I am the Executive Director at Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA).
Diana Vásquez Evolutionary biologist and botanist
My main research interest is to understand the evolutionary and ecological processes that are involved in the formation of hyper-diverse floras. Most of my research has been focused on high-elevation Andean plant groups, implementing genomic approaches. I am also leading a scientific-outreach project that seeks to promote biodiversity conservation through open-access to science:
LINK