Anna Qvarnström honoured for her contributions to research
Anna Qvarnström has been awarded the Rosén Linnaeus Prize for her research on flycatchers on the island of Öland. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, Uppsala University
Anna Qvarnström, Professor of the Department of Ecology and Genetics, has been awarded the Rosén Linnaeus Prize. She is receiving this distinction for “her groundbreaking ecological and evolutionary research on speciation”. The prize is awarded every three years by the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund.
“I am delighted and proud to receive this award. It means a great deal that the research my group and I have conducted to gain further knowledge of how new species are formed is being recognised,” says Anna Qvarnström.
In her research, she focused on two bird species, the European pied flycatcher and the collared flycatcher. They once belonged to the same species, but began to diverge a million years ago when the Earth’s climate underwent repeated ice ages. Populations became isolated from each other and gradually began to develop different characteristics, such as different songs, behaviours and plumage. The two groups eventually differed so much that they were reluctant to mate with each other. And if they did, their offspring were sterile.
Flycatchers on the island of Öland
Anna Qvarnström has studied both flycatchers on the island of Öland for many years and has been able to follow their ongoing adaptation to recent environmental changes. By analysing the birds’ genes, she also gains insight into what happened long ago when they evolved into different species.
For two new species to coexist, they must also begin to utilise the environment in which they live in different ways so as not to compete with each other.
“When I teach, I usually compare flycatcher species to Porsches and Volvos. Which of these cars wins a race depends on the surface they’re driving on. A Porsche, the collared flycatcher, wins when conditions are optimal. But in poor road conditions, it is better to choose a Volvo, the pied flycatcher,” explains Anna Qvarnström.
Anna Qvarnström shares the 2025 Rosén Linnaeus Prize with Christer Löfstedt, Professor of Ecology at Lund University. The award comes with SEK 650,000 in prize money.
Åsa Malmberg