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Summer school of Alpine Ecology in Iceland
The second summer school within the project “Modern teaching methods in Alpine Ecology”, took place in Iceland. This time the burden of organization was on the side of our partner from Norway. Before the summer school they did marvelous job in getting in touch with local experts on interesting topics which included lectures on ecology, botany, zoology, effects of grazing, volcanology, management of protected areas and more…They also managed to fix the accommodation and means of transport for our trip, so everything was well prepared and we could leave. Let us present the summer school in form of pictures and descriptions as it was going on day by day.

Day 1 Traveling
On the 24th of July our Slovakian group gathered at the international airport in Vienna to start our journey to Iceland. First flight was connection flight to Dusseldorf where we unfortunately found out that our flight to Iceland had been delayed and postponed to next day due to technical complications, therefore we had to find the accommodation in the city for and unscheduled sleep over. After couple of phone calls we found a place to stay and move there to crush.

Day 2 Traveling
This day we used to get to the airport and get on our plane to Keflavik, we landed in Keflavik in the evening and took a bus to Reykjavik where we met our colleagues and students from partner institution HSN. We had an informal meeting where we introduced ourselves and Christian who was responsible for organizing the program of second summer school gave us an overview of what is ahead of us in following ten days. Afterwards, we went for a short walk together to see the capital city of Iceland.


1 Waiting in Dusseldorf for our delayed flight to Iceland

Day 3 Botanical garden and Natural History Museum of Kópavogur
We got up early and meet up in front of our accommodation, then we walked across the city center to get to our meeting with director of botanical garden in Reykjavik. He was already waiting for us and we spent whole before noon with him. He explained the history and purpose of the garden and gave us presentations at different sectors of the garden.


2 Introduction to history and purpose of the garden

We had chance to introduce our self with Islandic flora in part of the garden dedicated to local Islandic species. Then there was a presentation at the sector of Alpine flora and flora restricted to ecosystems around thermal springs. We also went out of bounds of garden to ascend a small hill which represented semi-natural habitat and director explained us the basics of succession and also his concerns about the abundance of invasive Lupinus species and its biological adaptations for an effective invasive species. Here he spoke mainly about the symbiosis of Lupinus roots with bacteria responsible for binding the nitrogen within the soil layer.


3 We had dug one of the Lupinus species so the director of the Botanical garden could show us and explain the role of the colonies of Nitrogen-fixing bacteria living on its roots

After nice presentations we had some time to study the species in the garden on our own. All students should learn as many species as possible and make a personal report of floristic characterization of the species to use in the vegetation analyses that were planned in the program of the summer school. After lunch we took public transport to Natural History Museum of Kópavogur. Here we had an opportunity to see the expositions of Islandic fauna from totem species of marine mammals to local bird, predators, fish, invertebrates and other interesting expositions. The responsible curator of the museum took us through the exposition and gave English comments on various items within the museum.


4 Arctic chars and other important species of lakes in Iceland. Aquarium in Natural History Museum of Kópavogur

Day 4 Soil conservation day
We hired cars that were our main mean of transport around Iceland for the rest of the trip, and left the Reykjavik. Our destination was the oldest farm in Iceland Gunnarsholt currently serving as a soil conservation center. On the way there we sopped by the famous Geysir for half an hour to see the spectacle. It was a nice relief after some driving and also a lunch break.


5 Geysir eruptions brings together a lot of people. For many of us it was a first time to witness this natural spectacle

In the afternoon we reached our destination in Gunnarsholt where we were expected by local scientist and responsible manager of the center. He had presentation on problems of soil conservation, history of land utilization since the colonization of Iceland and also research because the center serves as a scientific body with aim to examine effects of reforestation and cultivation of various plants in purpose of enhancing soil layer sustainability. The lecture served as a theoretical background for the field work that followed day after. We then moved to place of our accommodation in Þykkvibær.


6 Lecture on Soil conservation and land utilization in Gunnarsholt soil conservation center

Day 5 Soil research and vegetation day
Before noon we went for a field course in soil protection. Where we scoped soil horizons. After lunch we went to Sólheimajökull glacier there under receeding glacier we were shown how to do a quadrat vegetation analysis. Afterwards we worked in the teams with students analyzing our own vegetation plots in the field. The knowledge from botanical garden became really handy here as well as professional guidance of two botanists from Norway and Slovakia Andrea and Steffi.


7 Our guest Steffanie Reinhardt explaining how to do vegetation analysis in the area under the glacier Sólheimajökull

After the field courses we came back to our sleeping place and Steffanie had presentation on impact of climatic change on the biodiversity of Alpine vegetation.

Day 6 Geology, nature protection and grazing day
This day was really productive and rich in provided knowledge. At first we drove back towards the Reykjavik and stopped at Thingvillur national park. Over there local ranger explained the geology of this geological site. She also spoke about the natural and cultural heritage of this place and didn’t forget to mention various aspect of conservation, promotion and management of this precious area.


8 Presentation of local ranger on various topics in connection to National Park Thingvillir

After the presentations we spent some time on our own in the park and then continued towards the Reykjavik to visit Agricultural University where Christian had managed to organize a presentation about grazing. We spent about two hours listening and learning about the grazing and soil conservation problematics in Iceland. The lecture was held by a local expert and employee. It was very interesting and together with presentations from previous days we started to put together a picture on how the Icelandic landscape was affected by humans and what are current challenges in protection of its natural qualities.


9 Lecture on grazing at Agricultural University of Reykjavik

After the interesting lecture we drove to area of Snafelsness close to the town Stykkisholmur where we had reserved accommodation for following two nights.

Day 7 Geology and volcano day
We drove short distance to town of Stykkisholmur where we visited a volcano museum. The museum is uniqe in a way that it brings science of volcanology together with paintings and other artistic items connected to volcanos. Our guide was founder of the museum Dr. Haraldur Sigurðsson, the world-famous volcanologist. In this museum we learned about everything in connection with volcanoes, eruptions and other geological matters. And we also saw how these strong forces of nature have been expressed in art throughout the centuries, in Iceland and around the world. Dr. Sigurðsson had a presentation on geology of Iceland, volcanism, famous volcanos. All the scientific information was sound and the pieces of art within the museum transformed his talk to very nice and profound learning experience.


10 Presentation from Dr. Sigurðsson at Volcano Museu was one of the highlights of this summer school

After the presentation we had lunch and spent the rest of the day observing local colonies of birds at the cliffs in Stykkisholmu and its vicinity. Prof. Janiga gave thorough information on bird species dwelling in this beautiful area and students took notes for later exam.


11 Birdwatching on the cliffs in Stykkisholmur

Day 8 Day off and traveling to Holar
This day we had free time until 15.00 when we started to drive towards Holar where we stayed until the rest of the summer school. Most of the participants used the free time to do what we like looking for interesting natural places in the area of Snafelsness peninsula and searching for local fauna and flora.

Day 9 presentations of Norwegian academics
We woke up in the town of Holar the country center of horse breeding located in Northern part of Iceland. Here Christian managed to get our accommodation and a place to have a presentations and lectures.
The presentations on this day served as a theoretical background to fieldtrips scheduled for the rest of the summer school. Prof. Arvid Odland had two presentations:
1. Ecological differences between the alpine, arctic, and boreal biomes
2. Biologic and ecologic characterization of Islandic birch forests



12 Prof. Arvid Odland explaining the difference between alpine, arctic and boreal biomes

He also explained what he expected from students at planned field courses in vegetation analysis of birch forest.
After Arvid’s presentation Synne Kleiven took word and had a presentation about the ecology of extremophiles specifically cyanobacteria which had been in focus of her research for decades. The presentation brought interesting facts in very understandable way. After these nice presentation Christian explained the program for the rest of our days in Iceland.

Day 10 Seal, birds and wildlife day
We drove to Hvammstangi early in the morning. In this small town there is an Islandic seal center. We spent about one hour browsing the museum reading the slides students were taking pictures and making notes. After seeing the exposition there was a presentation on pinnipeds and pinniped research in Iceland by a resident researcher Alistair Baylis. He spoke total one hour about the life of two main species of seals and other pinnipeds in the world. Great deal of his speech was dedicated to their actual research on effects of tourism on seal populations around the Hvammstangi. In the discussion we spoke about methods that they planning to use in assessing spatial behavior of harbor seals. Theroetically well prepared we board the ship which took us for a roundtrip around the bay to see the colonies of seals.


13 Boat trip to seal colonies in the bay close to the Seal center

After the boat trip we traveled further north to visit birdwatching localities on the cliffs, where we stayed until the evening observing species of birds, students were making their species lists and learned various aspects of birdlife from prof. Janiga.

Day 11 Vegetation analyses and extremophile organisms
We drove to Northwest Iceland to visit geologically adtive area to look for the cyanobacteria. We managed to find numerous colonies on sulphuric smoke sites. Here Synne Kleiven was able to show us in real life what she had been talking about in her presentation on extremophiles.


14 Synne Kleiven speaking about the life of cyanobacteria colonnies

On the way back we stopped in near natural birch forest where students with the help of academics did vegetation analyses and compared the floristic biodiversity on the plots in birch forest and on the plots in the open landscape. The results of these analyses were also part of the final exam.

Day 12 Ecology of lakes - Lake Mývatn
From the ecological point of view Lake Mývatn is quite interesting place to visit. Christian managed a meeting with local scientist Dr. Árni Einarsson from the Mývatn research center. He had presentation on the topography geology and ecology of this rich area. We spent about one hour listening to his talk afterwards we went to the local ornithological exposition and we also spent some time outside at the shore of the lake by observing the bird species. Students were able to add a whole bunch of new species into their species lists.


15 Dr. Árni Einarsson speaking about the ecology of the lake Mývatn and its close vicinity

On the way back we visited Detifoss National Park. This park is famous geological locality and within its territory we can find the largest waterfall in Iceland. It was just a short stop where we read about the National Park and went to see the waterfall.


16 Detifoss waterfall is a crown jewel of this geologically rich National Park



17 One of the information tables at Detifoss National Park

After that it was time to go back to Holar. On the way back we stopped in the study area were Arvid Odland was leading a research to talk about the design of botanical researches.

Day 13 Final exam, evaluation and closing ceremony
After interesting summer school, many lectures, presentations and field courses it was a time to test the newly acquired knowledge of our students. Our Norwegian collegues together with Slovak academics prepared a test covering all important topics of the summer school. Students had one and half hour to finish the test.


18 Moments before the final exam at Holar

Then we spent some time evaluating the performances of students and it was time to close the summer school. At the closure academics have their speeches about the outcomes f the project, financial mechanism behind the project and gave their gratitude towards the managers of both summer schools Michal and Christian. Then we all spent some time packing and getting ready for a last social meeting in the small bar at Holár where we had chance to recapitulate the summer school.

Day 14-15 Traveling home
We packed the rest of our luggage and started a long drive by the cost towards the Reykjavík. Here we delivered cars and said our last goodbyes we had couple of hours to browse the city and then we traveled by bus to Keflavik to catch our flights. Slovakian group reached Vienna airport early in the morning and officially finished the trip.

This project is co-funded by the EEA Grants and the state budget of the Slovak Republic from the EEA Scholarship Programme Slovakia.