Elisabeth Machteld Biersma (Elise Biersma) is an evolutionary ecologist studying plants and microbes, working within the Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation (BEA) research programme. She is currently studying the evolutionary history of Colobanthus quitensis (one of the two vascular plants in the Antarctic) and its associated root microbes in South America and Antarctica.

She recently completed her PhD at the Plant Sciences department at the University of Cambridge and at BAS, in which she investigated the evolutionary origins, spread and length of persistence of Antarctic mosses (the dominant flora in the Antarctic). Her findings so far included the first evidence for long-term (million-year) persistence of extant plants in the Antarctic.

Next to her PhD project, she has a diverse background ranging from evolutionary genetics (population genetics, phylogenetics, biogeography, meta- and transcriptomics and other NGS approaches), polar biology, terrestrial and marine ecology, with expertise ranging from birds, invertebrates to microbes and plants. She has over nine years of field experience in Antarctic, sub-Antarctic and Arctic environments, in all different polar seasons.

• Biersma E.M., Jackson, J.A., Hyvönen, J., Koskinen, S., Linse, K., Griffiths, H. & Convey, P. (2017) Global biogeographic patterns in bipolar moss species. Royal Society Open Science. 4: 170147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170147

• Lewis, L.R., Ickert-Bond, S., Biersma, E.M., Convey, P., Goffinet, B., Hassel, K., Kruijer, H., La Farge, C., Metzgar, J., Stech, M., Villarreal, J.C. & McDaniel, S.F. (2017). Future directions and priorities for Arctic bryophyte research. Arctic Science (ja).

• Dabert, M., Coulson, S.J., Gwiazdowicz, D.J., Moe, B., Hanssen, S.A., Biersma, E.M., Pilskog, H.E. & Dabert, J. (2015) Differences in speciation progress in feather mites (Analgoidea) inhabiting the same host: the case of Zachvatkinia and Alloptes living on arctic and long-tailed skuas. Experimental and Applied Acarology, 1-17.

• Pisa, S. & Biersma, E.M., Convey, P., Patiño, J., Vanderpoorten, A., Werner, O. & Ros, R.M. (2014). The cosmopolitan moss Bryum argenteum in Antarctica: recent colonisation or in situ survival?. Polar Biology, 37(10), 1469-1477.

• Convey, P., Abbandonato, H., Bergan, F., Beumer, L.T., Biersma, E.M., Bråthen, V.S., D’Imperio, L., Jensen, C.K., Nilsen, S., Paquin, K., Stenkewitz, U., Svoen, M.E., Winkler, J., Müller, E. & Coulson, S.J. (2014). Survival of rapidly fluctuating natural low winter temperatures by High Arctic soil invertebrates. Journal of Thermal Biology.

• Coulson, S.J., Convey, P., Aakra, K., Aarvik, L., Ávila-Jiménez, M.L., Babenko, A., Biersma, E.M., Boström, S., Brittain, J.E., Carlsson, A.M., Christoffersen, K., De Smet, W.H., Ekrem, T., Fjellberg, A., Füreder, L., Gustafsson, D., Gwiazdowicz, D.J., Hansen, L.O., Holmstrup, M., Hullé, M., Kaczmarek, Ł., Kolicka, M., Kuklin, V., Lakka, H.K., Lebedeva, N., Makarova, O., Maraldo, K., Melekhina, E., Ødegaard, F., Pilskog, H.E., Simon, J.C., Sohlenius, B., Solhøy, T., Søli, G., Stur, E., Tanasevitch, A., Taskaeva, A., Velle, G., Zawierucha, K. & Zmudczyńska-Skarbek, K. (2014). The terrestrial and freshwater invertebrate biodiversity of the archipelagoes of the Barents Sea; Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 68, 440-470.

• Gilg, O., Moe, B., Hanssen, S.A., Schmidt, N.M., Sittler, B., Hansen, J., Reneerkens, J., Sabard, B., Chastel, O., Moreau, J., Phillips, R.A., Oudman, T., Biersma, E.M., Fenstad, A.A., Lang, J. & Bollache, L. (2013) Trans-equtorial migration routes, staging sites and wintering areas of a high-arctic avian predator: the long-tailed skua (Stercorarius longicaudus). PLoS One 8: e64614.

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

• Newsham, K., Danielsen, B., Biersma, E., Elberling, B., Hillyard, G., Kumari, P., Priemé, A., Woo, C., & Yamamoto, N. (2022). Greenhouse gas exchange, temperatures, bacterial and fungal abundances and the relative abundances of the 40 most frequent bacterial taxa in a soil warming and irrigation experiment on Svalbard (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/71dfd312-a493-42fc-822a-29f3dca66dc0

The evolutionary history of Colobanthus quitensis and its associated root microbes in South America and Antarctica.

The evolutionary history of the Antarctic flora (PhD project)

1. New study explains moss migration across the globe

   A new study on mosses found in the polar regions reveals when and how often they have migrated across the Equator. Mosses are the dominant flora in Antarctica, yet little is known of […]

   Read more of: New study explains moss migration across the globe