Tanja Slotte, Professor at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, got two of her projects funded from VR and FORMAS. Slotte explains that:

The Swedish Research Council funded project will allow us to address fundamental questions on the genetic basis of convergent evolution and loss of the classic floral polymorphism distyly, which has interested many generations of evolutionary biologists, and that we can now study in plant non-model systems using genomic tools. We originally started working on distyly with funding from the ERC, and it is great that we can now continue and extend this work with support from the Swedish Research Council.

Slotte continues: “I am also very pleased to receive a FORMAS grant, which aims to investigate how we can use population genomic analyses to identify genetic variation for drought tolerance in collections of crop wild relatives. The idea is that such genetic variation could ultimately be used for climate adaptation of crops. Importantly, the funding from Formas also means that we can now start a new collaboration with researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU in Uppsala and Alnarp) and with researchers in Spain (University of Granada) and the UK (Durham University).”

Photo: Private

We also had the pleasant opportunity to briefly chat with Sara Blichner, Guest researcher and Postdoc at the Department of Environmental Sciences. Her project, with the Swedish title Processutvärdering för att minska osäkerheten i klimatmodeller (in English: Process evaluation for reduced uncertainty in climate models), got a 4 million SEK grant from VR. On the question of what the project aims at achieving, Blichner explains:

In my project I’ll work on reducing uncertainty in future climate projections by better constraining how aerosols impact the climate. The idea is to evaluate climate models based on how well they represent the relationships between climate relevant properties (e.g. aerosol concentrations and cloud properties), rather than just how well they represent each property separately.

Blichner continues: “The hypothesis is that this is a better indicator of how well the models do at representing changes in the future and past. To do this, I’ll use a lot of state-of-the art methodology, like perturbed parameter ensembles, emulators and clustering techniques.” 

In response to our question on what Blichner’s thoughts are now that the project got funded, one important reminder to all researchers was highlighted: “I thought about and planned this project for a long time, so I really could not be more excited that I get to do it! I think life in science involves a lot of rejection and criticism so it’s important to savour it a bit when it goes your way.”

With that very crucial reminder, we are proud to congratulate the following Bolin Centre members on their terrific work (note that some project titles are in Swedish):

VR funding:

• Sara Blichner, project title: Process evaluation for reduced uncertainty in climate models, granted 4 million SEK | VR.
• Helen Coxall, project title: Arctic Ocean borealization during past warm climates, granted 4 million SEK | VR.
• Elena Gorokhova, project title: Endogen produktion av metylkvicksilver: konsekvenser för biomagnifiering i pelagiska näringsväv, granted 3,7 million SEK.
• Sofi Jonsson, project title: Kvicksilver i Norra ishavet: nya insikter om kvicksilverbelastning och sedimentationsprocesser, granted 3,8 million.
• Agnes Karlsson, project title: Ny användning av ämnesspecifika isotoptekniker i stressekologisk forskning, granted 3,8 ,million SEK.
• Malin Kylander, project title: Winds of Change: Storms in the Euro-North Atlantic during the Holocene, granted 3,7 million SEK | VR.
• Matthew MacLeod, projecttitle: MµPPET – En modell av mikroplastförorening av jorden, granted 3,8 million SEK.
• Douglas Nilsson, project title: Emissioner av Havsspray – Olösta Nyckelprocesser och Tecken på Respons på Förändrat Klimat, granted 3,8 million SEK.
• Edouard Pesquet, project title: Avkodning av ligninkemins roll för växtutveckling, utveckling och motståndskraft mot torka, 3,6 million SEK.
• Tanja Slotte, project title: Convergent evolution och förlust av distyli – genetisk bas och genomiska följder, granted 4,1 million SEK.
• Sarah Steimer, project title: Utsläpp vid bromsslitage – en dold källa till flyktiga organiska föroreningar och sekundära partiklar, granted 4 million SEK.

FORMAS funding:

• Camille Akhoudas, project title: The Arctic Ocean carbon cycle and its response to ocean dynamics and freshwater forcing in a warming climate, granted 4 million SEK.
• Lisa Dellmuth, project title: Social ojämnlikhet och legitimitetsuppfattningar gentemot global klimatstyrning, granted 2,9 million SEK.
• Örjan Gustafsson, project title: Klimatpåverkande metan och kolmonoxid från Södra Asien: Isotopbaserade bestämmningar av utsläppskällorna, granted 2,99 million SEK.
• Sofi Jonsson, project title: Mobilisering av kvicksilver från nedbrytande torvmarker i permaforstområden, granted 3 million SEK.
• Matthew MacLeod, project title: BALLAST – Processbaserade massbalansmodeller för att förstå det komplexa fotavtrycket av plastföroreningar i miljön, granted 2,9 million SEK.
• Edouard Pesquet, project title: 3DWOOD – Tryckbart trä för att ersätta plast [kompositträmaterial med nya egenskaper gjorda från stamcellskulturer limmade med naturligt lignin], granted 2,99 million SEK.
• Frederik Schenk, project title: Resolving the Euro-Atlantic Temperature Conundrum of Rapid Deglaciation, granted 3 million SEK.
• Tanja Slotte, project title: Effektiv identifiering av genetisk variation för klimatanpassning av grödor, granted 2,99 million SEK.
• Matt O'Regan, project title: Climate change and carbon burial in the Beaufort Sea – CarBBeau, granted 2,99 million SEK.
• Carl Österlin, project title: Överbetat eller intrång? Utforskande av markanvändningskonflikters politiska ekologi i Sápmi, granted 3,99 million SEK.

For media requests or questions from the public, please contact communicator Laila Islamovic at Laila.islamovic@aces.su.se.