Name: Tómas Grétar Gunnarsson
Age: 50
Occupation: Director of the Research Center of the University of Iceland in the South and ecologist.
Your favorite place in Iceland: Veiðivötn
Who does the cooking in your home? Mostly me these years, but my wife Linda takes good sessions in the kitchen too.
What did you want to be when you grew up? Zoologist.
What book do you have on your bedside table? Now I’m reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. A decent book. Robin is an American botanist of Native American descent, and the book discusses how traditional natural science and indigenous knowledge can be combined and how their perspective can be used to create a healthier relationship between man and nature. There is a need for that. So I’m also wading through 100 poems by Þórarinn Eldjárn.
What to do this weekend? Clean the garage.
Do you have pets? Tumi the dog and I are inseparable these years.
Coffee or tea? Have reduced the daily cups of coffee to three and drink tea with it. I learned to appreciate tea when I lived in the UK, but the British drink a lot of tea. I suspect they do it to warm their hands because houses there are generally poorly insulated.
What is your main form of exercise? I have flirted with athletics since I was a child and still try to jump and bounce as my age allows.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten/tasted? I think there are various combinations of food that I have developed myself with great intuition. For example, the children think it’s strange when I eat kale on skyr.
Summer, winter, spring or autumn? All seasons have their own charm, but I was an autumn person for a long time because I enjoy hunting. However, less has been done in recent times.
Do you have a favorite spring bird? The whimbrel has a special place for me, but otherwise it’s always nice to see the migratory bird species come one by one in the spring. So many things have to happen for them to come to Iceland in the spring that it is an endless source of wonder and admiration to see these heavenly warriors fly over the country. I turn into a baby in the spring.
What is your favorite swimming pool (or swimming pool) in the country? Sometimes I go swimming to actually swim, so it’s usually the traditional swimming pool I live next to. Now it is the swimming pool at Laugarvatn. I´m not found for swimming pools and other crowded places.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? In Veiðivötn or on Arnarvatnheiði.
How do you contribute to a better visitation with the environment? Unfortunately, I behave like an average Icelander in most respects. But I try to fly as little as possible and enjoy the things that cannot be bought.
What advice would you give to university students currently studying? Studying follows the same laws as other work and many other subjects in life. You have to work with determination and treat your fellow students with kindness and respect. And then there is the Holy Trinity; exercise, sleep and diet, which must be in good order on most days. Nothing will come of anything in the long run unless these foundations are in order. Persistence is also important. Study projects can be long and stressful, and you have to have faith that they will be completed and keep working hard every day, as my mother says. Then you will succed.
What is the connection of your research to South Iceland? The most recent study we have published results of covers the journeys of Icelandic ibises in their wintering grounds from the time they first arrive there as juveniles until they become adults. Fátt er sunnlenskara en jaðrakaninn. A hundred years ago, they only laid eggs in the South, but have since spread the gospel to other parts of the country. The ibis is the only bird who sings with the hv pronunciation.
Why did you choose this research topic?
Some of us have been running a multinational research project on the Icelandic ibis since just before the turn of the (last) century. This population breeds only in Iceland, but winters along the coasts of Western Europe from the British Isles to Portugal. The ibis population is suitable for studying the double life of migratory birds, but migratory bird populations are controlled by the interaction of factors that act on them throughout the year. My PhD project was about the ibis and this interaction of the seasons in his life, and we have continued to study him ever since.
What did you enjoy most about the research work?
Research work is usually very diverse and now it is almost always teamwork. All kinds of people are needed for scientific research to work. Concept work is heavy, so you need to raise funds to conduct research, collect data and information, write articles and design products, calculate, hold lectures and more. In my job, I have to handle most of these aspects to some extent and I enjoy most of them. Working outside in the summer is fun, but I also enjoy writing and have a sneaky taste in statistics. It is rewarding to see new truths emerge from the numbers like a butterfly from a chrysalis. Probably the best part is the variety of the job.
Briefly tell us about the study and its results (approx. 500 words).
Our latest article was published in the British Journal of Animal Ecology and tells about how wintering migratory birds choose their territory, but the subject was the Icelandic ibis. The areas that are available for birds and other insects tend to be of different quality, and the selection of areas can therefore have diverse effects on individuals and thus on populations. Examining the territorial preferences of migratory birds at the scale of entire ranges, often spanning continents, has proven difficult. The study examined how widely the ibis wanders from the time they first arrive at their wintering grounds as young birds until they become adults. Their wintering grounds extend from Ireland and Great Britain in the north to Portugal in the south. In a concerted effort that has lasted over two decades, hundreds of marsupials were individually tagged in several countries and their readings collected in databases. Over 2000 observers reported marked ibises, and from those observations it was possible to calculate how likely it is that ibises move between areas during different life stages.
It turned out that the ibises move very little, and the overwhelming majority of birds remain in the same area as adults where they took up residence in the first autumn. This happens despite the fact that their winter areas are very different. There seem to be factors that act on the fringes before and during their first flight, which have a great influence on where they land and under what conditions they live for the rest of their lives. This reminds me of the old saying that no one should ever slip.
Which researcher would you like to nominate for next month? Ágústu Helgadottir at Landi og Skógi.
Hver er tenging rannsóknar þinnar við Suðurland? Í mínu starfi vinn ég að mestu við grunnvatns og rennslismælingar á suður hálendinu, en vatnið sem mælt er þar rennur t.d. til sjávar um Suðurland.
Hvers vegna valdir þú þetta rannsóknarefni? Þegar ég útskrifaðist úr Háskóla Íslands, var Landsvirkjun að leita að fólki og ég ákvað að slá til. Breytti smá um kúrs, úr eldfjöllum í vatn.
Hvað fannst þér skemmtilegast við rannsóknarvinnuna? Það er mikil útivinna sem er hressandi, það er gott að vera á fjöllum að vesenast.
Segðu okkar frá rannsókninni og niðurstöðum hennar í stuttu máli. Heilt yfir miðar vinnan að því að safna tímaröðum sem spanna sem mestan breytileika í vatnshæð, hvort sem það er grunnvatnsstaða eða mæld vatnshæð í ám og lónum. Svo er að túlka þessar tímaraðir sem í flestum tilfellum eru að endurspegla náttúrulegan breytileika t.d. í úrkomu og jökulbráð. Stór þáttur er svo að fylgjast með því að tækjabúnaður sé virkur og að sannreyna gæði þeirra með reglubundnum hætti. Þessar upplýsingar fara svo inn í ákvarðanatöku hvort sem það er vegna raforkuvinnslu eða þróunar raforkukosta. Til hliðar hef ég mjög gaman af kortlagningu, hvort sem er með flygildum eða bátum, og hef verið að safna í reynslubankann þar enda mikil tækifæri með græjum sem slíkum.
Hvaða rannsakanda viltu tilnefna fyrir næsta mánuð?
Ég ætla að tilnefna fyrrverandi bekkjarfélaga úr Grunnskólanum í Hveragerði hana Brynju Hrafnkelsdóttur, skordýrafræðing hjá Landi og Skógi.
Myndir eru úr einkasafni Jónasar.