Keynote Speakers

The Arctic University Museum of Norway

Prof. Alsos uses ancient sedimentary DNA to study climate and human impact on past ecosystem diversity, species persistence, and ecosystem build-up in arctic and alpine regions. She has also assembled large-scale genome-skims of vascular plants which greatly improves species identification in eDNA studies. Her research group is currently moving towards full-ecosystems reconstruction providing new data on the past diversity of a range of organisms in terrestrial and marine environments.

Keynote: Ecosystem drivers and niche changes inferred from sedimentary ancient DNA

Kristianstad University, Sweden

Dr. Carl Regnéll is a Quaternary geologist whose research focuses on the glacial and climate history during the last glacial-interglacial cycle and up to the present. His main interests cover the behaviour and geomorphological legacy of the Eurasian Ice Sheet complex, and the climate and landscape development in Scandinavia.

Keynote: Dead in the water – the final demise of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet

University of Plymouth

Professor Simon Belt is a world-leading expert on the changing state of polar sea ice, and has pioneered the development of using organic compounds made by algae as a means of carrying out sea ice reconstructions. He will present an overview of the current status of biomarker-based SST proxies and introduce a potential solution for reconstructing Arctic (and Antarctic) SSTs in the palaeo record.

Keynote: Arctic sea surface temperatures