MSc in Chemistry Lovise Pedersen Skogeng at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology (AMB) will Tuesday 16 December 2025 hold her trial lecture and defend her thesis for the PhD degree in Natural Science.
Trial lecture on assigned topic will take place at 10.15: "Arctic seabirds under stress"
Later, at 12.15 she will defend her thesis entitled: "From Sources to Seabirds - Tracking Organic Pollutants from European Air to Arctic Seabirds over time and space"
Professor and deputy head at the School of Business and Economics Øystein Myrland will lead the disputation.
Popular Science Summary
Even though harmful chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are banned, they’re still turning up in remote Arctic areas - and so are their modern replacements. Our study found both old and new pollutants in European air and, and old POPs in the Arctic seabird common eider, showing these chemicals can travel long distances.
Some of the banned POPs were found in increasing levels in both air and common eiders over the past decade. Warmer temperatures were linked to higher concentrations of POPs in eiders, suggesting that climate change is making the problem worse.
Looking to the future, we further developed a model for predicting contaminant exposure in Arctic seabirds, predicting declining concentrations following decreasing global emissions of POPs. This thesis highlights that continued monitoring and action are needed to protect Arctic wildlife from both old and new chemical threats, especially under the changing climate.
Evaluation Committee
Supervisors
Streaming
Both the trial lecture and defense and will be streamed and recorded:
Thesis
The thesis is available in Vitenarkivet.