Leaving my native Norway in 1995 in search of degree in Ecology, I quickly decided on University of East Anglia. After spending three months working on butterflies in the East Usambara Mountains in Tanzania in 1997, I finally got the opportunity to fulfil a life-long dream of working in a tropical wet forest after finishing my degree in 1998. Carrying out field work for a MSc by Research in the Brazilian Amazon I investigated the effects of wildfires linked to the 1997/98 El Niño event on understorey bird communities. Returning to the Amazon in 2000, I spent two incredible years living and working with a caboclo family at the Uauaçu lake where no previous research had been carried out. Forming the basis for a PhD, I examined the structure and dynamics of the plant and animal communities in a large mosaic of floodplain and terra firme forest. I am currently working as a post-doc in the same area, investigating various aspects of the ecology of the Brazil nut tree. As shown by the wide range of projects I have conducted and participated in, my interests in tropical ecology and conservation are broad and includes plant-animal interactions, ecology and seasonality of floodplain forests, reserve design and selection criteria and ecology and management of tropical non-timber forest resources.
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