Britta Sannel Associate professor
Contact
Name and title: Britta SannelAssociate professor
Workplace: Department of Physical Geography Länk till annan webbplats.
Visiting address Room X417Svante Arrhenius väg 8
Postal address Inst för naturgeografi 106 91 Stockholm
Links
- Bolin Centre for Climate Research Länk till annan webbplats.
- Hydrology, Water Resources and Permafrost Research Unit Länk till annan webbplats.
- Master's Programme in Polar Landscapes and Quaternary Climate Länk till annan webbplats.
- Google Scholar Länk till annan webbplats.
- Arctic Avenue Länk till annan webbplats.
About me
I am an associate professor at the Department of Physical Geography, with a passion for Arctic environments and teaching. My research focuses on permafrost peatlands, and how they are affected by climate change.
Most of my teaching is on the Master’s Programme in Polar Landscapes and Quaternary Climate, and I have been the coordinator of this program for several years. I also teach many courses at bachelor level, and have led more than 30 field courses to New Zealand and various countries in Europe.
Course coordinator for:
Permafrost – Interactions with ecosystems and hydrology (GE7051)
Quaternary climate and environmental reconstructions (GE7076)
Swedish landscapes (GE5035)
The aim of my research is to increase our understanding of spatial and temporal dynamics in subarctic permafrost peatlands, in relation to climate change. My work is focusing on different time scales and topics:
Long-term/Holocene vegetation, carbon accumulation and permafrost dynamics (study sites in Canada, Norway and Sweden)
Landscape changes since the 1950s, including shifts in thermokarst lake distribution (study sites in Canada, Russia and Sweden)
Recent permafrost warming, active processes, and cause effect relationships (study sites in Sweden, Norway and Finland)
The peat plateau complex in Dávvavuopmi, northernmost Sweden, has been one of my key research sites for two decades. Here, I have monitored ground temperatures, active layer depths and meteorological parameters since 2005, analysed thermokarst lake dynamics since 1963 (using historical aerial photographs), and studied Holocene permafrost development (through plant macrofossil and geochemical analyses, and radiocarbon dating). Combined, this information can improve our knowledge about how future climate change will affect ground temperatures, landscape development and the carbon balance in permafrost peatland ecosystems.