Academic profile

 

Ilona is a Teaching Associate in the Department of Land Economy, joining in 2024. Her research focuses on using interdisciplinary and systems approaches to understanding land-use changes, particularly in Northern and Arctic environments

 

She is an Institute Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Herbivory Network.

 

 

 

Teaching

 

Ilona is primarily teaching on the Land Economy Mst in Climate, Environment and Urban Policy. She has previous experience teaching about Geographies of the Arctic, and contributing to MPhils in Polar Studies and Anthropocene Studies in the department of Geography. She has also taught introductory ecological lab and field skills, and organised a course on Socio-Ecological Responses to Change.

 

 

Research interests

 

Ilona is interested in how both social and ecological factors come together to affect environmental changes and land management decisions, particularly in Arctic and Northern environments. This has grown out of interdisciplinary training spanning the Natural and Social Sciences. One of her key case studies has been researching how reindeer in Northern Europe are being affected by climatic changes and industrial development, alongside changes to the human environment in terms of how politics, economics and colonisation have affected Indigenous Sámi reindeer herders in the region. Another case study looks at management of natural resources in the Shetland Islands, including the relationships between fisheries, smallholder crofting, and historical economic pressures from land tenure and trade. More recently Ilona has been studying processes of collaboration across academic disciplines, as well as between Western academia and Indigenous/local knowledge systems, considering how we can better communicate information between contexts to avoid misunderstandings and to improve our ability to effectively problem solve with diverse collaborators.

 

 

 

Publications

 

Barbero-Palacios, L.L., Barrio, I.C., García Criado, M., Kater, I. et al. (2024) Herbivore diversity effects on Arctic tundra ecosystems – a systematic review. Environmental Evidence, 13(6), doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-024-00330-9 

 

Kater, I. and Baxter, R. (2022) Abundance and accessibility of forage for reindeer in forests of Northern Sweden: Impacts of landscape and winter climate regime. Ecology and Evolution, 12(4): e8820, doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8820

 

Kater, I. (2022) Natural and Indigenous sciences: literatures and lessons for more effective collaborations. Regional Environmental Change, 22(4), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01967-3 

 

Parker, T., Chomel, M., Clemmensen, K., Friggens, N., Hartley, I., Johnson, D., Kater, I., Krab, E., Lindahl, B., Street, L.E., Subke, J.-A. and Wookey, P. (2022) Resistance of subarctic soil fungal and invertebrate communities to disruption of belowground carbon flux. Journal of Ecology, 110(12), pp.2883-2897, doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13994

 

Soininen, E.M., Barrio, I.C., Bjørkås, R. et al. (2021). Location of studies and evidence of effects of herbivory on Arctic vegetation: a systematic map. Environmental Evidence, 10(1): 25 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-021-00240-0

 

 

 

Category/Classification

 

Environment, sustainability, land-use, interdisciplinary, ecology