Arve Elvebakk

Both my Master degree (in 1979, at what is now the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in Trondheim) and my PhD (in 1989, at what is now the University of Tromsø - the Arctic University of Norway) were on Arctic Botany. This topic was also a dominant one in my career until 2005 or so, with overlapping fields of interest within biodiversity, biogeography, bioclimatology and ecology, including vegetation science. Svalbard was my primary field of interest, and I have written reviews on vegetation classification and botanical biodiversty, the latter one in a cooperation project. A particular interest has been the biogeographical subdivision of both Svalbard, and, a result of being a member of pan-arctic cooperation projects, the whole circumpolar Arctic. Together with maps of local climate based on plant distributions, the correlation with climate was entirely different as compared with conditions after the turn of the millenia, although the arctic plant cover responds slowly to climate change. After moving from a teaching position to a position as a leader of Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden, my profile has changed to taxonomy. Whereas vascular plants of cold areas of the whole world keeps my attention during the warmer half of the year, taxonomy within the lichen family Pannariaceae dominates within my research, mostly confined to the winter season. New species and genera are being described, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere, where the group had its evolutionary origin. However, new species are also being described from the Arctic, and the results are gradually being integrated within a global evolutionary model (phylogeny) made in cooperation with partners from Korea.