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Bilde av Alsos, Inger Greve
Bilde av Alsos, Inger Greve
Professor in biology The Arctic University Museum of Norway inger.g.alsos@uit.no +4777620796 Tromsø

Inger Greve Alsos

Job description

Prof. Alsos uses ancient sedimentary DNA to study climate and human impact on past ecosystem diversity, species persistence, and ecosystem build-up in arctic and alpine regions. She has also assembled large-scale genome-skims of vascular plants which greatly improves species identification in eDNA studies. Her research group is currently moving towards full-ecosystems reconstruction providing new data on the past diversity of a range of organisms in terrestrial and marine environments.

  • Samuel James Walker, Aurélie Boilard, Mona Henriksen, Edana Lord, Marius Robu, Jan-Pieter Buylaert et al.:
    A 75,000-y-old Scandinavian Arctic cave deposit reveals past faunal diversity and paleoenvironment
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 04. August 2025 DOI
  • Brandon Samuel Whitley, Jakob Abermann, Inger Greve Alsos, Elisabeth Mackteld Biersma, Viktor Gårdman, Toke Thomas Høye et al.:
    Harmonising digitised herbarium data to enhance biodiversity knowledge: Major steps towards an updated checklist for the flora of Greenland
    Plants, People, Planet 2025 DOI
  • Antony Brown, Mary Lucas, Inger Greve Alsos, Bastian Fromm, S. Hudson :
    The sedaDNA revolution and archaeology: Progress, challenges, and a research agenda
    Journal of Archaeological Science 2025 DOI
  • Lara M. Wootton, Florian C. Boucher, Charles Pouchon, Cristina Roquet, Eric Coissac, Julien Renaud et al.:
    The late rise of sky-island vegetation in the European Alps
    Nature Plants 2025 DOI
  • John R. Stewart, Inger Greve Alsos, Antony Brown, Love Dalén, Peter D. Heintzman :
    The progressive evolution of cold-adapted species
    Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2025 DOI
  • Sandra Garces Pastor, Peter D. Heintzman, Scarlett Zetter, Youri Lammers, Nigel Yoccoz, Jean-Paul Theurillat et al.:
    Wild and domesticated animal abundance is associated with greater late-Holocene alpine plant diversity
    Nature Communications 2025 DOI
  • Jérémy Courtin, Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring, Simeon Lisovski, Ying Liu, Inger Greve Alsos, Boris K. Biskaborn et al.:
    Potential plant extinctions with the loss of the Pleistocene mammoth steppe
    Nature Communications 2025 DOI
  • Irene Julián-Posada, Graciela Gil-Romera, Sandra Garces Pastor, Peter D. Heintzman, Daniel Gómez, Federico Fillat et al.:
    Neolithic pastoralism and plant community interactions at high altitudes of the Pyrenees, southern Europe
    Communications Earth & Environment 2025 DOI
  • Youri Lammers, Pierre Robert Michel Taberlet, E. Coissac, Lucas Dane Elliott, Marie Kristine Føreid Merkel, Iva Pitelkova et al.:
    Multiplexing PCR allows the identification of within-species genetic diversity in ancient eDNA
    Molecular Ecology Resources 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • Pierre Guenzi-Tiberi, Benjamin Istace, Inger Greve Alsos, Eric Coissac, Sébastien Lavergne, Jean-Marc Aury et al.:
    LocoGSE, a sequence-based genome size estimator for plants
    Frontiers in Plant Science 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • Scarlett Poppy Saunders Hovey Zetter, Sandra Garces Pastor, Youri Lammers, Antony Gavin Brown, Kevin Walsh, Tomasz Goslar et al.:
    SedaDNA shows that transhumance of domestic herbivores has enhanced plant diversity over the Holocene in the Eastern European Alps
    The Holocene 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • Anastasia Poliakova, Antony Gavin Brown, Inger Greve Alsos :
    Exotic pollen in sediments from the high Arctic Lake Tenndammen, Svalbard archipelago: diversity, sources, and transport pathways
    Palynology 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • Inger Greve Alsos, Victor Boussange, Dilli Prasad Rijal, Marieke-Lise Beaulieu, Antony Gavin Brown, Ulrike Herzschuh et al.:
    Using ancient sedimentary DNA to forecast ecosystem trajectories under climate change
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • Roseanna J. Mayfield, Dilli Prasad Rijal, Peter D. Heintzman, Peter G. Langdon, Dirk N. Karger, Antony Gavin Brown et al.:
    Holocene summer temperature reconstruction from plant sedaDNA and chironomids from the northern boreal forest
    Quaternary Science Reviews 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • J. Sakari Salonen, Niina Kuosmanen, Inger Greve Alsos, Peter D. Heintzman, Dilli Prasad Rijal, Frederik Schenk et al.:
    Uncovering Holocene climate fluctuations and ancient conifer populations: Insights from a high-resolution multi-proxy record from Northern Finland
    Global and Planetary Change 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • Charlotte L. Clarke, Peter D. Heintzman, Youri Lammers, Alistair J. Monteath, Nancy H. Bigelow, Joshua D. Reuther et al.:
    Steppe-tundra composition and deglacial floristic turnover in interior Alaska revealed by sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA)
    Quaternary Science Reviews 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • Anastasia Poliakova, Antony Gavin Brown, Tomasz Goslar, Inger Greve Alsos :
    75. Lake Tenndammen, Colesdalen, Nordenskiöld Land, western Svalbard (Spitsbergen) archipelago
    Grana 2024 DOI / ARKIV
  • C. Patrick Doncaster, Mary E. Edwards, Charlotte L. Clarke, Inger Greve Alsos :
    The drivers of plant community composition have shifted from external to internal processes over the past 20,000 years
    Communications Earth & Environment 2023 DOI / ARKIV
  • Aloïs Nicolas Revéret, Dilli Prasad Rijal, Peter D. Heintzman, Antony Gavin Brown, Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring, Inger Greve Alsos :
    Environmental DNA of aquatic macrophytes: The potential for reconstructing past and present vegetation and environments
    Freshwater Biology 2023 DOI / ARKIV
  • Lucas Dane Elliott, Dilli Prasad Rijal, Antony Brown, Jostein Bakke, Lasse Topstad, Peter D. Heintzman et al.:
    Sedimentary Ancient DNA Reveals Local Vegetation Changes Driven by Glacial Activity and Climate
    Quaternary 2023 DOI / ARKIV
  • John W. Williams, Trisha L. Spanbauer, Peter D. Heintzman, Jessica Blois, Eric Capo, Simon J. Goring et al.:
    Strengthening global-change science by integrating aeDNA with paleoecoinformatics
    Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2023 DOI
  • Inger Greve Alsos, Victor Boussange, Dilli Prasad Rijal, Marieke-Lise Beaulieu, Antony Gavin Brown, Ulrike Herzschuh et al.:
    Using ancient sedimentary DNA to forecast ecosystem trajectories under climate change
    Research Square 2023 DOI
  • Lieveke van Vugt, Sandra Garces Pastor, Erika Gobet, Sarah Brechbühl, Antonietta Knetge, Youri Lammers et al.:
    Pollen, macrofossils and sedaDNA reveal climate and land use impacts on Holocene mountain vegetation of the Lepontine Alps, Italy
    Quaternary Science Reviews 2022 DOI / ARKIV
  • Kurt H. Kjær, Mikkel Winther Pedersen, Bianca De Sanctis, Binia De Cahsan, Thorfinn S. Korneliussen, Christian S. Michelsen et al.:
    A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA
    Nature 2022 DOI / ARKIV
  • Jan Smyčka, Cristina Roquet, Martí Boleda, Adriana Alberti, Frédéric Boyer, Rolland Douzet et al.:
    Tempo and drivers of plant diversification in the European mountain system
    Nature Communications 2022 DOI / ARKIV
  • Samuel M Hudson, Clive Waddington, Ben Pears, Natalie Ellis, Luke Parker, Derek Hamilton et al.:
    Lateglacial and Early Holocene palaeoenvironmental change and human activity at Killerby Quarry, North Yorkshire, UK
    Journal of Quaternary Science 2022 DOI / ARKIV
  • Aya Komatsu, Elisabeth Cooper, Inger Greve Alsos, Antony Brown :
    Towards a Jōmon food database: construction, analysis and implications for Hokkaido and the Ryukyu Islands, Japan
    World archaeology 2022 DOI / ARKIV
  • Antony Brown, Dilli Prasad Rijal, Peter D. Heintzman, Charlotte, L. Clarke, Hans Peter Blankholm, Helge Irgens Høeg et al.:
    Paleoeconomy more than demography determined prehistoric human impact in Arctic Norway
    PNAS Nexus 2022 DOI / ARKIV
  • Sandra Garces Pastor, Inger Greve Alsos, Peter D. Heintzman, Youri Lammers, Eric Coissac, Sébastien Lavergne et al.:
    High resolution ancient sedimentary DNA shows that alpine plant diversity is associated with human land use and climate change
    Nature Communications 2022 DOI / ARKIV
  • Maïlys Picard, Sofia Elisabeth Kjellman, Anders Schomacker, Inger Greve Alsos, Meifang Zhong, Stefan Bertilsson et al.:
    Reconstituting the impact of rising anoxia with paleoecology - an Arctic and local case study
    2025
  • Dilli Prasad Rijal, Peter D. Heintzman, Nigel Gilles Yoccoz, Antony Gavin Brown, Inger Greve Alsos, Kari Anne Bråthen :
    Millennia of spatiotemporal plant diversity trajectories captured by sedimentary ancient DNA
    2024
  • Inger Greve Alsos :
    Northern ecosystem reconstruction using ancient sedimentary DNA
    2024 SAMMENDRAG / OMTALE
  • Inger Greve Alsos :
    Ancient DNA reveals patterns of postglacial plant and animal colonization of N Fennoscandia
    2024 SAMMENDRAG / OMTALE
  • Galina Gusarova, Hedvig Elisabeth Mjøen, Magali Corti, Frédéric Mahé, Pernille Meyer, Lilja Steinthorsdottir et al.:
    Bridging past and present: From dietary metabarcoding of large herbivores towards broad scale biodiversity analyses
    2024
  • Pierre Guenzi-Tiberi, Benjamin Istace, Inger Greve Alsos, Eric Coissac, Sébastien Lavergne, Jean-Marc Aury et al.:
    Corrigendum: LocoGSE, a sequence-based genome size estimator for plants(Front. Plant Sci., (2024), 15, (1328966), 10.3389/fpls.2024.1328966)
    Frontiers in Plant Science 2024 DOI
  • Youri Lammers, Eric Coissac, Pierre Taberlet, Adriana Alberti, France Denoeud, Lucas Dane Elliott et al.:
    The PhyloNorway project: a Norwegian vascular plant genome reference set and applications.
    2023
  • Dilli Prasad Rijal, Peter D. Heintzman, Arve Elvebakk, Inger Greve Alsos :
    What else is in the mud? Current status and future potential of environmental DNA in bryophyte research
    2023
  • Dilli Prasad Rijal, Inger Greve Alsos :
    From mud to phylogeny: Late Quaternary phylogenetic diversity of terrestrial plants in northern Fennoscandia
    2023
  • Scarlett Poppy Saunders Hovey Zetter, Sandra Garces Pastor, Youri Lammers, Andreas Tribsch, Antony Gavin Brown, Eric Coissac et al.:
    Ancient DNA metabarcoding uncovers the effects of climate change and human impact on Austrian sub-alpine lake, Großer Winterleitensee
    2023
  • Sandra Garces Pastor, Peter D. Heintzman, Scarlett Poppy Saunders Hovey Zetter, Antony Gavin Brown, Youri Lammers, Boris Vanniere et al.:
    Impact of climate and domesticated mammals on Holocene plant richness in the European Alps revealed by sedaDNA
    2023
  • Youri Lammers, Pierre Taberlet, Eric Coissac, Lucas Dane Elliott, Marie Kristine Føreid Merkel, Iva Pitelkova et al.:
    Tracing species lineages through time and space using multiplexing PCRs
    2023
  • Inger Greve Alsos :
    Ecosystem reconstruction using ancient sedimentary DNA
    2023 FULLTEKST / SAMMENDRAG / OMTALE
  • Inger Greve Alsos :
    Ecosystem reconstructions using ancient sedimentary DNA
    2023 SAMMENDRAG / OMTALE
  • Inger Greve Alsos :
    Contribution of ancient sedimentary DNA to understand island biology
    2023 SAMMENDRAG / OMTALE
  • Inger Greve Alsos :
    Going north - the post-glacial arrival of animals in N Fennoscandia in relation to vegetation changes
    2023 SAMMENDRAG / OMTALE
  • Inger Greve Alsos :
    Ancient DNA reveals patterns of postglacial plant colonization of Fennoscandia
    2023 SAMMENDRAG / OMTALE
  • Dilli Prasad Rijal, Arve Elvebakk, Inger Greve Alsos :
    Ancient DNA of bryophytes: current status and future potential
    2022
  • Alexandra Rouillard, Mikkel W. Pedersen, Yucheng Wang, Marie-Louise Siggaard-Andersen, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Carsten Mejer-Jacob et al.:
    The role of climate and foodweb dynamics in Holocene microbial processing of CH4 in Arctic lakes
    2022
  • Yucheng Wang, Ana Prohaska, Haoran Dong, Adriana Alberti, Inger Greve Alsos, David W. Beilman et al.:
    Reply to: When did mammoths go extinct?
    Nature 2022 DOI
  • Yucheng Wang, Mikkel Winther Pedersen, Inger Greve Alsos, Bianca De Sanctis, Fernando Racimo, Ana Prohaska et al.:
    Author Correction: Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics (Nature, (2021), 600, 7887, (86-92), 10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x)
    Nature 2022 DOI

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    Research interests

    Ongoing projects:

    Teaching

    Post docs:

    Lucas Elliott (2024-): IceAge Genomic Tracking of Refugia and Postglacial Dispersal

    Nichola Stranberg (2024-) ArcEcoGen - Arctic Ecosystem Genomics

    Marieke-Lise Beaulieu (2023-): IceAGenT - IceAge Genomic Tracking of Refugia and Postglacial Dispersal  

    Youri Lammers (2019-2023): IceAGenT: IceAge Genomic Tracking of Refugia and Postglacial Dispersal

    Anastasia Poliakova (2019-2021): Future ArcTic Ecosystems (FATE): drivers of diversity and future scenarios from ethnoecology, contemporary ecology and ancient DNA

    Sandra Garcés Pastor (2018-2022): ECOGEN - Ecosystem change and species persistence over time: a genome-based approach

    Dilli Prasad Rijal (2017-2020 ): ECOGEN - Ecosystem change and species persistence over time: a genome-based approach

    Per Sjögren (2014-2017): AfterIce: Ancient DNA of NW Europe reveals responses to climate change

    Tina Jørgensen (2012-2013): AfterIce: Ancient DNA of NW Europe reveals responses to climate change

     

     

    Doktorgradsstudenter:

    Yuan Pan (2024-): IceAGenT: IceAge Genomic Tracking of Refugia and Postglacial Dispersal / Changing Arctic Research School

    Hedvig Elisabeth Mjøen (2022-): Genomic basis of eco-evolutionary responses to changing environments in Arctic plant-herbivore systems (PI Galina Gusarova)

    Mary Lucas (2022-): Archeogenomics (PI Tony Brown)

    Alois Nicholas Revéret (2021-): Sedimentary ancient DNA in Arctic lakes: towards a full-ecosystem reconstruction since the Last Glacial Maximum

    Tulug Gülce Ataman: The taphonomy of DNA in lakes and small catchments (PI Tony Brown)

    Lucas Elliott (2019-2024): IceAge Genomic Tracking of Refugia and Postglacial Dispersal

    Lasse Topstad (2019-): IceAGenT: IceAge Genomic Tracking of Refugia and Postglacial Dispersal

    Aya Komatsu (2019-): Jomon Environemntal Archaeology and Diet and a Comparison with Northern Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers (h-g-fs). (PI Tony Brown, Tromsø Museum)

    Scarlett Zetter (2019-2025): Echos of the past: Finding the secrets of ancient ecosystems using sedaDNA (ECOGEN project) 

    Sam Hudson (2019-2022): (PI Tony Brown)

    María Ariza (2018-2022): Taxon identification and multispecies coalescent plant biodiversity assessments (Plant.ID project, University of Oslo, PI Hugo de Boer) 

    Physilia Chua (2018-2021): Shotgun sequencing for comparative diet analysis of capercaillies (Plant.ID project, University of Copenhagen, PI Kristine Bohmann)

    Aythya Young (2017-2022): Insects, post glacial colonisation and refugia in northern Norway (Edinburgh University, PI Eva Panagiotakopulu)

    Youri Lammers (2016-2020): Sedimentary ancient DNA: Exploring methods of ancient DNA analyses for different taxonomical groups

    Charlotte Clark (2016-2019): (University of Southampton, PI Mary E. Edwards) 

    Dilli Prasad Rijal (2012-2016): Invasive Heracleum in Northern Europe: Introduction history and impact on native plant diversity

    Chris Ware (2011-2015): Shipping in polar waters: Introduction of marine invasive species through ballast water and biofouling

    Teppo Rämä (2010-2014): Diversity of marine wood-inhabiting fungi in North-Norway (PI Geir Mathiassen)

    Eike Müller (2008-2011): Dispersal and recruitment in the Arctic: studies of migration and germination in arctic-alpine vascular plants

    Kristine Westergaard (2006-2010): Disjunctly distributed arctic-alpine plant species – phylogeography and conservation genetics in a changing world

    ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8610-1085

    Member of research group

    Foodways, lifeways and climate change   Norsk innhold IceAGenT   English content ECOGEN – Ecosystem change   Norsk innhold ARCWAYS   English content NEAT   English content ArcEcoGen – Arctic Ecosystem Genomics   English content Changing Arctic   English content

    Member of project

    Genomics and archaeology of reindeer domestication and its impact on the Northern human diets and ecosystems of the past Arctic Greening: using ancient DNA to determine responses of willows and birches to climate changes