The PhD defence and trial lecture are fully digital and streamed using Zoom. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the disputation. It is possible to be present at the disputation in auditorium 1.
Trial lecture
Friday 18 February, 10:15-11:00, Aud 1, The Geology Building / Zoom:
The influence of global environmental change on the management of high-latitude ecosystems
Conferral summary (in Norwegian)
Vegetasjonskart er viktige grunnlag for forvaltning av ressurser og natur, men kan også benyttes i klimaforskning i dynamiske vegetasjonsmodeller. I dette doktorgradsarbeidet er det utviklet statistiske prediksjonsmodeller for utbredelsen av ulike vegetasjonstyper i Norge, hvilke miljøforhold som regulerer utbredelsen og hvordan man kan lage heldekkende vegetasjonskart basert på slike modeller. Arbeidet viser også hvordan klimamodeller basert på parametere fra disse vegetasjonskartene kan utvikles.
Main research findings
Popular scientific article about Horvath’s dissertation:
Ecological Climatology and Distribution Modelling
Reliable information about the land surface and vegetation is a prerequisite for managing protected areas, maintaining biodiversity or even predicting climate change. Yet, despite the enormous efforts in field-mapping campaigns, the coverage of vegetation maps in Norway is low. To supplement the coverage of vegetation maps, statistical methods were applied to predict the vegetation distribution. Information about environmental conditions regulating the vegetation distributions were extracted in the process. Moreover, the environmental information about the preferences of each vegetation type was used to improve the ecological components of climate models.
This doctoral thesis (1) presents detailed predictions of vegetation-type distribution for the whole Norway; (2) shows that large-scale landscape patterns are helpful additional information for establishing good predictions; (3) tests ways of assembling wall-to-wall vegetation maps; and (4) improves how vegetation is represented in climate models.
The doctoral work focuses on the Norwegian terrestrial areas, but the methodological findings are applicable to the high-latitude boreal and alpine ecosystems.
Photo and other information:
Press photo: Peter Horvath, portrait; 500px. Photo: Karsten Sund, NHM
Other photo material: Figure with description and credit as specified in the article above, size 1600px.
