Review of my 2020. Why? To develop, learn and be thankful. To appreciate the positives and to learn from the negatives. To plan what to aim for and what to avoid (if possible). Happy 2021 everyone!
In January I started as the head of Terrestrial Ecology Section, https://www1.bio.ku.dk/english/research/te/. The challenge is that there is no limit in how much time I could put on this role. Still learning to find the right balance.
In February I received an Elite Research Award from the Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education. This was a huge honor, but I felt the Imposter Syndrome at its maximum. The whole group was behind this success. https://twitter.com/Riikka_Rinnan/status/1233078038256136192
In March we made the tough decision to cancel fieldwork planned for Samoylov Island, Siberia. The instruments had been shipped earlier and we got everything back as late as in August!

https://twitter.com/Riikka_Rinnan/status/1240530490593021952

Our next attempt for a Siberia campaign will be in 2022.
In April-June we conducted experiments in our custom-built climate chambers. Because of lockdown we had to adjust the ambitions. https://twitter.com/Riikka_Rinnan/status/1265332286003859464
The best thing about the delay was that we could collect insects for the herbivory treatments while in fieldwork.
We ended up conducting fieldwork in two locations with special arrangements, quarantines and lots of corona-tests. We focused on mountain birch herbivory response in Abisko https://twitter.com/Riikka_Rinnan/status/1276973145828835329 and on permafrost and soil VOCs in Finnmark https://twitter.com/Riikka_Rinnan/status/1275336882126237696.
All my grant applications were rejected. Also most of the applications I helped with were rejected. I have a Teflon surface to resist the hits, but I feel sorry for the post docs. The system would benefit from proper feedback, clear guidelines, no unwritten rules.
My favorite own publications this year were our first #eddycovariance study of a peatland and a lake https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13399-2020, our first insect herbivory-mountain birch paper
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.558979, and our modeling study on tundra VOC emissions
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008901117
You can follow @Riikka_Rinnan.
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