Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources

Erasmus mobility at the Arctic University of Norway

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With the support of the ERASMUS+ program three lecturers, from the Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources, SUA in Nitra doc. Ing. Marta Habánová, PhD., doc. Ing. Miroslav Habán, PhD. and Ing. Ján Gažo, PhD. at the turn of May and June completed Erasmus staff mobility at the Arctic University of Norway (UIT) in the Norwegian city Tromsø. Tromsø is located 350 km behind the polar circle and UIT is the most northerly placed university in the world. The polar day is there from 18 May to 26 July, the polar night from 26 November to 15 January. The University consists of 7 faculties operating in 10 university campuses in the in the different cities of northern Norway. Every year, about 600 foreign students study at the University for shorter and longer-term study stays. Representatives of the faculty visited the Holt Climate Laboratory. Laboratory is managed by the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology where experiments with controlled growth in 10 phytotrons are running. Phytotrons can regulate temperature, humidity, light intensity and CO2 levels. All research activities are funded by the Institute of Arctic and Marine Biology, UIT and Bioforsk Nord (Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research). The head of research team is prof. Laura Jaakola. She is studying growing of small fruit species under extreme Arctic summer conditions and impact of fruits on nutrition and health of people.

In the campus of UIT is also situated Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden. It is the northernmost botanical garden in the world. Garden is specialized on plants from Polar Regions or high mountains that have difficulty surviving in the milder climate where most of the world's botanical gardens are located. Ing. Martin Hajman, from the Department of Natural Sciences is curator for collection of rare alpine plant species. He worked for many years at Průhonice Chateau Park near Prague and currently cooperates with prof. Laura Jaakola on research.

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