Millicent Harding

Happy #PolarPride 2025! Celebrate diversity and the contributions of LGBTQIA+ people to polar science!

Happy #PolarPride2025!! As always a really important day in the polar calendar for inclusion and celebration. Unfortunately it is looking like I won’t be able to make the celebrations in person @geogdurham.bsky.social but hoping the rest of the dept has a great day celebrating!!

🐻‍❄️🐧🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Mark your diaries - It's Polar Pride on November 18th! Celebrate the achievements of LGQBTIA+ people in STEM and in polar science, and work to make work places more inclusive and supportive, and to challenge barriers and discrimination #polarpride #LGBTQinSTEM

Photo of Sisimiut airport in bright blue in the middle of the photo

Excited to have travelled to Greenland for the first time! I have landed in Sisimiut for the first part of Greenland Science week as part of the IASC Terrestrial Working Group funded project CONTACT. I’ve literally never been before so it’s been really fun visiting Sisimiut so far!

🚨Calling all U.K. Arctic terrestrial scientists.

"UK Arctic terrestrial science strengths and priorities workshop"
to discuss and then produce a prospectus outlining the UK’s “Strengths & Priorities” in Arctic terrestrial research.

Info and registration link here 👇
drive.google.com/file/d/1HV0c...

Interested in doing an internship with us? Let us know! Find the application details here: betweenthefjords.w.uib.no/internships/

Congrats Dan!!

Really fun to participate in this last week and looking forward to seeing what comes from it!

Illustration of a branch of Betula glandulosa (Resin birch). Illustration by Alberto S. Ballesteros (@asbillustration.bsky.social).

🌲 Boreal-tundra species drive Arctic plant borealization 🌲

Our new study in #EcologyLetters quantifies tundra plant borealization, assesses its main drivers and identifies the species & traits contributing to borealization.

doi.org/10.1111/ele....

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Job alert 🚨
Technician post in soil carbon at the University of Sheffield @sheffieldpps.bsky.social supporting natural capital assessment in South Yorkshire, UK
jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Technici...

NordBorN postdoc position in Trondheim - The Nordic Borealization Network Deadline: August 31, 2025 The NTNU University Museum is looking for an energetic and ambitious ecologist with excellent organizational and communication skills. The postdoctoral position is part of th...

Will you be the next #NordBorN #postdoc? #NTNU University Museum is looking for an ambitious young researcher to fill this role nordborn.lbhi.is?p=415 #NordForsk Deadline for applications is Aug 31!

Few updates from the field!

Found 3/4 original DART (?) OTC plots. No. 4 has been loosely identified so will track that down.

Both supervisors came out to see all the work I’ve been doing in Abisko!

I gave a tundra talk and an outreach talk at Naturum Abisko! I got a lovely book as a thank you.

Photo of two trees in a rocky tundra landscape

Had basically all the weather possible in Abisko including the most amount of waterlogged tundra I’ve ever seen but very special to find these trees near the treeline limits.

After an absolutely heroic 38 hr journey up to Abisko we have finally made it!

Looking a lot cooler than last time I was here! 🌲❄️🌳

Thanks!

Can’t believe it has all come around so quickly!

Big thank you to the Andrew Croft Memorial fund, @rgsibg.bsky.social, and Durham for funding this trip!
🌲🌳🛰️

Two people with 6 duffel bags piled on luggage trolleys

And we are headed to Abisko! Excited to be going back up and catching up with people from last year. Also very excited to meet all those new!

I’ll be giving a Tundra talk on the 17th June at ANS and an outreach talk on the 21st at Naturum Abisko!

The first paper of my PhD (and my first first-author paper!) is out now in Marine Biology 🌊 🎆 We tracked snow petrels in a season of extreme weather and little sea ice in east Antarctica❄️ read more on our #ANTSIE webpage here:
www.antsie.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/06/06/snow-petrel-tracking/

The foraging distribution and habitat use of chick-rearing snow petrels from two colonies in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica - Marine Biology The polar sea-ice zones are highly productive and seasonal habitats that support large populations of vertebrate predators. In the Antarctic, snow petrels (Pagodroma nivea) are regarded as highly ice-...

Hot off the press! A new study on snow petrel tracking from coastal Droninng Maud Land, Antarctica, by the wonderful @elliehonan.bsky.social!

Read the paper here:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
And a summary here(including an epic fieldwork video): antsie.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/06/06/s...

What do sea-ice associated seabirds do during a season with little sea ice? Results from GPS tracking on snow petrels is now published, led by @elliehonan.bsky.social funded by @erc.europa.eu @leverhulme.ac.uk details here: www.antsie.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/06/06/snow-petrel-tracking/ 🧪🐙

Do you have a background in vegetation mapping from satellite and drone images and you have experience conducting fieldwork in the Arctic? Apply for this amazing position with #GINR by June 9! 🌿🗺️https://herbivory.lbhi.is/2025/06/05/job-opportunities-with-ginr/

Please share widely! We have been running this course for 3 years now, and this is our fourth iteration! We also offer a mini grant program and mentorship opportunities! Check it out and sign up here: evobiocrashcourse.github.io

A landscape photo looking towards Abisko village and Lake tornetrask

Not thrilled about the mosquitos 🦟🦟 but very excited to be heading back to Abisko this summer to start the field season in a month!

Congratulations!

This season absolutely wouldn’t be possible without the support of Durham Biosciences, @geogdurham.bsky.social, Pro:NE, @rgsibg.bsky.social, and Millie’s longest term fieldwork funder/supporter (has been funding her fieldwork since her masters!) the wonderful Andrew Croft Memorial Fund

Excited to be all confirmed for the 2025 SAFE field season!

We will be spending 6 weeks out and about across the Fennoscandia Arctic treeline looking at all things trees and shrubs 🌲🌳🛰️📏

Our team of three will be going out to Abisko, Sweden first and then departing for Norway and Finland!

Today between 16:15 - 18:00 I’ll be presenting my poster on climate change impacts on the Fennoscandian treeline! Come along to hear all about the trees and shrubs 🌲🌳🛰️🗾

Illustration of a Greenlandic landscape, showing in the foreground Rhododendron lapponicum on a cliff, with sea ice and icebergs in the background. Illustration by Alberto S. Ballesteros (@asbillustration.bsky.social)

🌸Plant diversity dynamics over space and time in a warming Arctic 🌸

Our new study @nature.com analysed plant diversity change in >2000 tundra plots over 4 decades. We found that plants changed unevenly, mostly driven by warming and biotic interactions.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Summer 2024 was the first season of my PhD fieldwork in Kevo/Abisko (@safe-treeline.bsky.social) and it was beyond anything I’d ever experienced in the subarctic or anything my supervisor had any experience of!