New publication on biological diversity in Koltur
Bird count from Hamarsgarður on Koltur. Photo: Agnes-Katharina Kreiling.
A species inventory was conducted on the island of Koltur (Faroe Islands) between 2019 and 2024, serving as a baseline for future monitoring of the terrestrial ecosystem of the island.
The inventory focussed on terrestrial species of birds, plants and invertebrates and resulted in a total of 520 species recorded from the island since 2019. Among those, 56 were birds, 146 plants, and 317 invertebrates, mainly insects. A high number of invertebrates were new records for Koltur (242) as well as for the Faroe Islands in general (49).
The project was funded by Aage V. Jensens Fonde and conducted by the Departments of Terrestrial Zoology and Botany at the Faroe Islands National Museum, in collaboration with scientists in the Faroes and abroad. After having concluded the baseline study at the end of last year, the first scientific publication has now come out in the Faroese science journal Fróðskaparrit. It is publicly available and can be read here: https://ojs.setur.fo/index.php/frit/article/view/905
The results from the study give us important information about the terrestrial ecosystem of Koltur, as well as the Faroe Islands in general. The Faroe Islands National Museum is continuing to monitor the terrestrial ecology of the island, in order to build up a long-term data set which will enable us to detect and understand changes in relation to e.g., climate change and biodiversity crisis.
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