The Big Thaw
The Big Thaw studies snow and glacier changes in the Alps and Himalayas to improve forecasts of mountain water resources for global communities.
Bianca Perren
Palaeoecologist
I am a Quaternary paleoecologist with a specialization in Arctic/Antarctic environmental change. Specifically, I use diatoms and other fossil remains in lake sediments to reconstruct changing environmental conditions resulting from eutrophication, 20th and 21st Century climate warming, or Holocene natural variability.
Research interests
Holocene climate variability
Holocene/Anthropocene transitions
Environmental change
Paleolimnology
Arctic (Greenland) environmental history
Subantarctic environmental history
Relative sea level history
Collaborations
https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=O053MesAAAAJ
Bichet, V., Gauthier, E., Massa, C., Perren, B. B. 2014. Lake sediments as an archive of land use and environmental change in the Eastern Settlement, southwestern Greenland. Journal of the North Atlantic. 6: 47–63
Balascio, N.L., D’Andrea, W.J., Bradley, R.S., Perren, B. B. 2013. Biogeochemical evidence for hydrologic changes during the Holocene in a lake sediment record from southeast Greenland. The Holocene. 23(10) 1428 –1439
Bichet, V., Gauthier, E., Massa, C., Perren, B.B., Petit, C., Mathieu, O., Richard, H. 2013. History and impacts of South Greenland farming activities: an insight from lake deposits. Polar record, 49(3):210-220,
Perren, B. B., Wolfe, A.P., Cooke, C. A., Kjaer, K.H., Mazzucchi, D., Steig, E. J. 2012. Twentieth century warming revives the world’s northernmost lake. Geology 40 (11), 1003-1006,
Perren, B. B., Massa, C., Bichet, V., Gauthier, E., Mathieu, O., Petit, C., Richard, H. 2012. A paleoecological perspective on 1450 years of human impacts on a lake in southern Greenland. The Holocene 22 (9), 1025-1034.
Perren, B. B., Anderson, N. J., Douglas, M. S. V., Fritz, S. C. 2012. The influence of temperature, moisture, and eolian activity on Holocene lake development in West Greenland. Journal of Paleolimnology 48(1): 223-239.
Massa, C., Perren, B. B., Gauthier, E., Bichet, V., Petit, C., Richard, H. 2012. A 10 ka record of environmental change from Lake Igaliku, South Greenland. Journal of Paleolimnology 48 (1): 241-257.
Masson-Delmotte, V., Swingedouw, D., Landais, A., Seidenkrantz, M.S., Gauthier, E., Bichet, V., Massa, C., Perren, B., Jomelli, V., Adalgeirsdottir, G., Christensen, J.H., Arneborg, J., Bhatt, U., Walker, D. A., Elberling, B., Gillet-Chaulet, F., Ritz, C., Gallée, H., van den Broeke, M., Fettweis, X., de Vernal, A., Vinther, B., 2012. Greenland climate change: from the past to the future. WIRES Climate Change, doi: 10.1002/wcc.186 pdf
Massa, C., Bichet, V., Gauthier, E., Perren, B. B., Mathieu, O., Petit, C., Monna, F., Giraudeau, J., Losno, R., Richard, H. 2012. A 2500 year record of natural and anthropogenic soil erosion in South Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 32: 119-130.
Balascio, N.L., Zhang, Z., Bradley, R.S., Perren, B., Dahl, S.O., Bakke, J., 2011. A multi-proxy approach to assessing isolation basin stratigraphy from the Lofoten Islands, northwest Norway. Quaternary Research, v. 75, p. 288-300.
Hobbs, W. O., Wolfe, A. P., Telford, R. J., Birks, H. J. B., Saros, J. E., Hazelwinkel, R. R. O., Perren, B. B., Saulnier-Talbot, É. 2010. Quantifying limnological change in the Anthropocene: a comparison of high-altitude and high-latitude ecosystems. PloS One 5 (4):e10026.
Perren, B. B., Douglas, M.S.V., Anderson, N.J. 2009. Diatoms reveal complex spatial and temporal patterns of recent limnological change in West Greenland. Journal of Paleolimnology 42(2): 233-247. DOI: 10.1007/s10933-008-9273-8
Schindler, D.W., Wolfe, A.P., Vinebrooke, R., Crowe, A., Blais, J.M., McSkimmin, B., Freed, R., Perren, B.B. 2008. The cultural eutrophication of Lac la Biche: a paleoecological study. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 65: 2211-2223.
Smol, J.P., Wolfe, A.P., Birks, H.J.B., Douglas, M.S.V., Jones, V.J., Korhola, A., Pienitz, R., Rühland, K., Sorvari, S., Antoniades, D., Brooks, S.J., Fallu, M-A., Hughes, M., Keatley, B., Laing, T., Michelutti, N., Nazarova, L., Nyman, M., Paterson, A. M., Perren, B., Quinlan, R., Rautio, M., Saulnier-Talbot, É., Siitonen, S., Solovieva, N. and J. Weckström. 2005. Climate-driven regime shifts in the biological communities of arctic lakes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A. 102(12): 4397-4402.
Perren, B. B., Bradley, R.S., Francus, P. 2003. Rapid lacustrine response to recent high arctic warming: a diatom record from Sawtooth Lake, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 35: 271-278.
Wolfe, A.P. and Perren, B. B. 2001. Chrysophyte microfossils record marked responses to recent environmental changes in high- and mid-Arctic lakes. Canadian Journal of Botany 79: 742-752.
Publications from NERC Open Research Archive
Tetzner, D., Thomas, E., Allen, C., McCulloch, R., Perren, B., McGuire, A., Segato, D., Moser, D., Humby, J., & Miller, S. (2025). Major ions, Stable water isotopes, Microparticle (dust, diatoms, pollen and spores) and electrical conductivity records from the first Cordillera Darwin ice core 2017 – 2020 CE (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/2d9b5828-45d2-4361-b23b-cf027c15e97c
Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Marion Island, Site PB1 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/931c6618-2755-4243-a0d6-f0d18f8ca9c6
Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Island, Site KER3 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/dc11db5d-7a00-4239-8d8e-858b833698ef
Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Island, Site KER1 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/d712633e-a534-4605-aa34-cc4a8fe16107
Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Isla Hermite, Site HER42PB (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/a0d0df71-f361-4967-a1dd-8dffdbf287b3
Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Bird Island, South Georgia, Site BI10 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/85ee0438-731e-4e51-8d77-53d0ec30a26f
Perren, B., Kaiser, J., Arz, H., Dellwig, O., Hodgson, D., & Lamy, F. (2025). Fossil diatom and geochemistry data from an 11,000 year lake sediment core from Isla Hornos, Cape Horn Archipelago (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/ebb9d50f-94fb-446b-8e90-de91b3201650
Tetzner, D., Temme, F., & Furst, J. (2025). ERA5 daily downscaled surface air temperature and snowfall at two Cordillera Darwin high elevation sites 2000 – 2022 CE (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/eddc907c-f8e9-48c4-9f23-de0f674dbee0
Roberts, S., Pearson, E., Czalbowski, T., Davies, S., Grosjean, M., Arcusa, S., & Perren, B. (2022). Chronological, geochemical and sedimentological data from a lake sediment record extracted from Lake L5 (Matias Lake) on Potter Peninsula, South Shetland Islands in 2011. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/6575cd7a-cfba-4820-9fa6-257161b4d24b
Roberts, S., Pearson, E., Czalbowski, T., Davies, S., Grosjean, M., Arcusa, S., & Perren, B. (2022). Chronological, geochemical and sedimentological data from a lake sediment record extracted from Lake L15 (GPS Lake) on Potter Peninsula, South Shetland Islands in 2011 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/2031310d-1e35-4ea1-a1cc-cd318e82d394
Perren, B., Hodgson, D., Roberts, S., Sime, L., Van Nieuwenhuyze, W., Verleyen, E., & Vyverman, W. (2020). Fossil diatom and geochemistry data from a 700-year core from La Grange Cop, subantarctic Marion Island. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/49a1ec0e-ae5f-4df5-a59b-fa6dff614678
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