The TUNDRAsalad team is growing! Mathilde Defourneaux joined the Agricultural University of Iceland in May 2021 to develop her PhD on the effects of spatio-temporal changes of herbivore assemblages on Icelandic tundra ecosystems. Mathilde will investigate how herbivore communities have changed in Iceland over time and what impacts these changes have had on Icelandic ecosystems. She will estimate current impacts of different herbivore assemblages across Iceland and at a finer spatio-temporal resolution, she will assess how herbivore impacts vary at a landscape scale within the growing season. Mathilde’s PhD supervisors are Isabel C Barrio at the Agricultural University of Iceland, Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe at the University of Iceland and James Speed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Mathilde has an MSc degree in landscape management from Agrocampus Ouest. Before moving to Iceland, Mathilde spent eighteen months in Crozet, Subantarctic Islands, studying the effects of climate change, human activities and introduced species on terrestrial ecosystems, with the programme SubantEco of the French Polar Institute (IPEV). After returning to France, she worked as a technician in data analysis and modelling at the CNRS in Rennes. Among Mathilde’s hobbies are scientific illustration and photography.
Welcome to the TUNDRAsalad team!