Gunhild Rosqvist Professor of Geography, specialisation in Physical Geography

I am a researcher with expertise in effects of climate change on mountain and polar environments, especially effects on the cryosphere. I focus my research on effects of climate change on mountain ecosystems and surface waters. Together with Sami reindeer herders and researchers specialised in climate modelling and environmental law I study the effects of cumulative effects from past, current and future climate and land use change on reindeer herding. Our aim is to build resilience and to provide methods that can be used to assess such effects before decisions on competing land use are made. 

I participate in a large consortium project iQ2300. The aim for our team is to quantify annual snow accumulation rates through measurements of temporal (last 60 years) and spatial snow patterns with the aim to determine the spatial distribution of surface mass balance (SMB) of the Riiser Larsen Ice Shelf catchment. Long time series of ice sheet SMB data are required to understand the relative importance of different processes affecting accumulation and to evaluate if climate models are able to reproduce realistic atmospheric circulation patterns. This project is part of a larger consortium effort- iQ2300 with the overall aim to 

integrate field data on the current state of the ice sheet and historical trends in volume change into advanced ice sheet and sea-level models to project future ice sheet volume changes and associated sea-level rise trajectories, and their uncertainties, both globally and for the Swedish coast through 2300.

I was the director of Tarfala Research Station (TRS) between 2005 and 2020. During this time TRS developed into a national and international research infrastructure providing long term monitoring data and supporting cryosphere and ecosystem research and was funded by the Swedish Research Council and EU through participation in SITES and INTERACT.

Ongoing projects:

1. Surface Mass Balance: present day variability and future trends in Dronning Maud Land. Part of iQ2300:  Antarctic sea-level contribution in 2300: Integrated Queen Maud Margin Science. 2025-2029

2. Embracing extreme weather and compound events in landscape planning: the case of reindeer husbandry in Northern Sweden. Formas 2024-2026

3. Avoiding a green transition dilemma - The need for climate impact assessments in Swedish Sápmi. Formas 2023-2026

4.Norrlands vattenanknutna kulturmiljöer 2.0: Metoder för kulturmiljöövervakning. Riksantikvarieämbetet 2023-2025

5. The response of lake ecosystems to changes in glacier activity. Arctic Avenue, Stockholm and Helsinki Universities. 

6. A snow quality assessment tool based on new techniques and Sámi knowledge (Snow4all). Vinnova, SMHI.

Recent projects:

7. Scenario-based decision support for policy planning and adaptation to future changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Belmont Forum-BiodivERsA: Scenarios of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

8. Multiple pressures from changes in climate and land use on northern landscapes, Bolin Centre for Climate Research Srockholm University.

9. Nordic Centre of Excellence REXSAC - Resources Extraction and Sustainable Arctic Communities. Nordforsk.