I am a biologist investigating how plants function and respond to various stressors at high altitude and latitude ecosystems. I research how climate change affects the emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs).

Research projects:

IndiVOCtual

IndiVOCtual investigates and quantifies the sources of within-species variation and insect herbivory determining the BVOC emissions from widespread mountain birch forests in Subarctic. More specifcially, I quantify how genetic differences, dendroecology, insect herbivory shape the volatilomes of mountain birch populations. Funded by VILLUM fonden (VILLUM International Postdoc). 

Effects of herbivory  of biogenic volatiles in an Arctic birch forest

The main aim of this project is to determine the impact of herbivory on ecosystem-scale Arctic VOC emissions, which may have implications on the local/regional atmospheric composition. We We measured ecosystem fluxes of BVOCs, CO2, H2O using PTR-TOF-MS and eddy covariance from 2021-2023, with 2023 being the insect outbreak year. The BVOC measurements were done at different scales: ecosytem level, trunk, forest floor level measurements from different ground vegetation types,  and mountain birch leaves exoeriencing different pressures of herbivory.

PhD - Effects of insect herbivory and changing climate on biogenic volatile organic compound emissions in the Arctic

The main aim of my PhD was to increase our understanding of how increased insect herbivore pressure affects VOC emissions in arctic ecosystems under future climatic conditions. 

To assess the effects of herbivory on VOC emissions, I exposed plants to local geometrid moth larvae and simulated herbivory treatment. I conducted these treatments in long-term field experiments manipulating climate warming and increased cloudiness (two future climatic changes predicted for arctic ecosystems). In addition, I used natural elevational gradients to represent a range of future climates. In this way, I could assess the combined influence of insect herbivory and climatic changes on VOC emissions. In all experiments, VOCs were collected using the branch enclosure method and analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.