Our division studies the biodiversity, distribution patterns, and evolutionary relationships of benthic organisms, primarily in the subarctic and Arctic regions—with a focus on Iceland and extending to the North Pole—but also in the Southern Hemisphere.
Using an integrative approach that combines classical taxonomy, modern genomics, ecology, and oceanography, we investigate how environmental factors, geological barriers, and oceanic circulation systems shape biodiversity. Our focus is on marine invertebrates. Our research group advocates an integrative taxonomic approach, and the discovery and description of new species for science is one of our main research areas.
Our projects link the Atlantic, the Arctic, and global deep-sea programs such as Challenger 150 and DOOS. Our research contributes to the collection of data that serves as the basis for identifying marine regions worthy of protection, such as ArcNet – WWF Arctic. Two of our projects (IceDivA and ALONGate) have been designated as official contributions to the UN Decade of Ocean Science.
