Prof Isla Myers-Smith
Chancellor's Fellow, Chair of Climate Change Ecology
- Global Change Research Institute
- School of GeoSciences
- University of Edinburgh
Contact details
- Email: Isla.Myers-Smith@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
113 Crew Building
The King's Buildings
West Mains Road - City
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Post code
- EH9 3FF
Background
I am a Chancellor's Fellow and Chair of Climate Change Ecology at the University of Edinburgh. My research examines the ‘greening of the Arctic’ and how plants are responding to climate warming and impacts including shrub expansion and permafrost thaw. My research group Team Shrub and I use tools from measuring tapes to drones to capture Arctic change in the Yukon Territory in the Canada Arctic and around the tundra biome. I work collaboratively with local communities and international research teams to better understand environmental change in the Arctic and beyond.
Qualifications
PhD Ecology, University of Alberta
MSc Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
BSc Agroecology, University of British Columbia
Awards:
Philip Leverhulme Prize Geography (2022)
Royal Geographical Society Walters Kundert Fellowship (2018)
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Early Career Award (2016)
Responsibilities & affiliations
Head of Post-graduate Research (Training & Progress) in the School of GeoSciences
Undergraduate teaching
Data Science in Ecology and Environmental Science, Conservation Science, Research and Project Management in GeoSciences
Current PhD students supervised
PhD
Elise Gallois (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2019 - 2023) Microclimate influences on tundra plant growth and phenology
Jospeh Everest (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2020 - 2024) Functional diversity in a warming Arctic
Calum Hoad (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2020 - 2025) Abiotic drivers of Arctic greening
Gerte de Jong (co-supervised PhD, UGothenburgh, 2020 - 2024) Winter and microclimate influences on tundra plant phenology
Diana Jerome (PhD, UEdinburgh/UHelsinki, 2021 - 2025) Climate sensitivity of shrub growth across the tundra-forest ecotone
Madelaine Anderson (co-supervised PhD, USherbrooke, 2021 - 2025) Plant phenology influences on tundra plant spectral diversity and traits
Megan Stamp (co-supervised PhD, UEdinburgh, 2022 - 2026) The drivers and consequences of community phenological cohesion
MSc
Erica Zaja (MSc, UEdiburgh, 2022 - 2023)
Past PhD students supervised
PhD
Gergana Daskalova (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2017 - 2021) Attribution of biodiversity change to global change drivers around the world
Mariana García Criado (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2017 - 2022) Quantifying distribution shifts of woody plant species under climate change
Sandra Angers-Blondin (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2015 - 2018) Climatic and biotic controls of shrub growth and expansion in the Arctic
Haydn Thomas (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2015 - 2018) Climate change as a driver of Arctic tundra shrub expansion
Jakob Assmann (PhD, UEdinburgh, 2015 - 2018) Phenology shifts and greening of Arctic tundra vegetation with climate change
MSc
Lia Lechler (MSc, UEdinburgh, 2021 - 2022)
Lisa Pilkinton (co-supervised MSc, UGlasgow, 2021 - 2022)
Naphon Oley (co-supervised MSc, UGlasgow, 2021 - 2022)
Karol Stanski (co-supervised MSc, Edinburgh - School of Informatics, 2017 - 2019)
Meagan Grabowski (MSc Committee, UBC, 2013 - 2015)
Benjamin Marquis (MSc Committee, USherbrooke, 2013 - 2015)
Research summary
Our research group works at the interface between global change biology, macroecology, biogeography, community, ecosystem ecology and remote sensing. Much of our research focuses on understanding the biological and climatic drivers that promote shrub expansion and the ecosystem consequences of this vegetation change for ecosystem functioning and the conservation of tundra ecosystems.
Knowledge exchange
Current project grants
RESILIENCE: Pathways of resilience and evasion of tipping in ecosystems (2022 - 2027), European Research Council Synergy Grant
TundraTime: Plant phenology change as a driver of Arctic greening trends (2022 - 2026), NERC (NE/W006448/1)
Knowledge Hub: Ecological Change and Livelihoods in the Porcupine Caribou Summer Range (2021 - 2024), Canadian Mountain Network
CHARTER: Drivers and Feedbacks of Changes in Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity (2020 - 2024), Horizon 2020
Accessing ‘Our Island’ (Qikiqtaruk) in a rapidly changing Arctic using immersive virtual reality for community engagement (2021 - 2023), National Geographic Society (NGS-82542T-2)
Disentangle the drivers of Arctic greening (2019), National Geographic Society (NGS-60126R-19)
Canadian Airborne Biodiversity Observatory (2018 - 2022), NSERC Discovery Frontiers Program
Past project grants
United Kingdom & Canada Arctic Partnership Bursaries Programme (2017 - 2021)
Walters Kundert Fellowship, Royal Geographical Society (2018)
NERC ShrubTundra: Climate as a driver of shrub expansion and tundra greening (2015 - 2018), UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M016323/1)
sTundra (2013 - 2014), German Synthesis Centre for Biodiversity Science (sDiv)
-
Incorporating Dead Material in Ecosystem Assessments and Projections
In:
Nature Climate Change
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01565-5
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (Published) -
Summer temperature—but not growing season length—influences radial growth of Salix arctica in coastal Arctic tundra
(14 pages)
In:
Polar biology, vol. 45, pp. 1257-1270
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-022-03074-9
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Range shifts in a foundation sedge potentially induce large Arctic ecosystem carbon losses and gains
In:
Environmental Research Letters, vol. 17
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6005
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)