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Participation in UNIS course AB-340 Climate Change Biology 2024

Lay summary

Description of the programme

The course consists mainly of lectures and seminars illustrating the causes and consequences of climate change from the point of view of many different disciplines, starting from the geosciences and then focusing on the biosphere. Some excursions to both wild and experimental field sites showed us first hand some effects of the changing climate – which are nowhere on Earth as extreme as they are in the Arctic – and gave insight into how research about climate change can be done.

How did you benefit from the programme?

I mainly benefitted from the interdisciplinary aspect of the course, which allowed me to understand many of the climate change effects studied in my field (animal biology) through a more holistic perspective. Additionally, studying and in general living a month and a half on an Arctic island during the polar night is a great training to get accustomed to things such as trip planning, logistics and safety
which are fundamental to any kind of work in remote regions (even when the Sun is there).

What were the highlights of the training?

The excursions were of course the highlights as we had the chance to go out and learn directly from the environment. I also enjoyed hearing lectures from world-experts and from people that have worked (and lived!) at extreme latitudes for their whole career, hence providing a unique perspective on climate change, which in Svalbard is more a present worry than a future one. As a personal highlight
of Longyearbyen in Autumn I must also mention the swarms of reindeer that are all over the town and the neighboring valleys: seeing them never gets old.

Would you recommend the programme to other students?

I highly recommend the course mainly because of the importance of its theme. The interdisciplinarity means that anyone (not just biologists) can benefit from it and the reality of climate change makes the information relevant for everyone even beyond academic value. The other side of the coin is of course that those lectures from one’s own specific field can feel a bit basic. It’s also important to be prepared for the darkness and understand that in late fall the opportunities for field activities are limited, though very unique.

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