Kort præsentation

I am a botanist studying how plants change through time—from historical collections to modern ecosystems—to understand why some species persist while others are lost in the Anthropocene.

My research focuses on temporal dynamics across biological levels, linking genomics, phenology, functional traits, and growth, to uncover the mechanisms that determine species resilience and loss under global change.

I take an integrative, evolutionary approach, combining historical and modern data, modern field studies and resurveys, and emerging tools in spectroscopy, genomics, and data science, to reconstruct long-term plant responses to environmental change. I often focus on species at the edges of their ranges and edaphic specialists in irreplaceable habitats, where signals of resilience and collapse are most pronounced.

Current research

• Resilience and loss in relict plants. Identifying functional, phenological, and genomic mechanisms of persistence across  centuries of change
• Phenological responses to climate change. Detecting shifts and mismatches using intergrated phenology data
• Extreme weather and plant dynamics. Understanding how drought and climate variability shape phenology, growth, and species responses  
• Trait and growth dynamics in Arctic and temperate plants. Linking environmental change to plant performance over time

Students and postdocs interested in plant evolution, global change biology, conservation, or natural history collections are very welcome to get in touch.

CV

• 2024-present: Assistant professor (tenure-track) & curator, Science & Society Section, Natural History Museum of Denmark
• 2021-2023: Science & Society Section - Citizen Science and Exhibition Content Scientist, Natural History Museum of Denmark
• 2017-2021: Postdoc, Citizen Science & Botany Sections, Natural History Museum of Denmark. 
• 2014-2017: MedPlant Marie Curie PhD Fellow, Natural History Museum of Denmark. Travel routes of a worldwide weed, Plantago major, and biogeographic origins of island endemics in the genus Plantago.
• 2006-2014: Herbarium Curator and Field Botanist, Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario, Canada. 
• 2001-2006: Botanist/Landscape Ecologist, Toronto Region Conservation Authority, Ontario, Canada.
• 2001: Master’s degree in forest conservation, University of Toronto.
• 1999: Bachelor’s degree in botanical science, McGill University. 

Primære forskningsområder

Temporal dynamics in the Anthropocene, species conservation, persistence and loss, plant phenology and climate change, functional traits, population genomics and phylogeography, historical ecology, edge-of-range populations, edaphic specialist plants, reflectance spectroscopy, integrative taxonomy, plant biogeography (Cyperaceae, Poaceae), citizen science

Undervisnings- og vejledningsområder

Citizen Science (PhD course / MSc course), Plant-Animal Interactions (BSc), Conservation (BSc), Conservation Biology (MSc), Tropical Botany, Science Communication and Outreach (MSc). Visit our Museum webpage for details.