Jotunheimen is the highest mountain range in Europe north of the Alps and west of the Urals; and Jostedalsbreen is the largest ice-cap on mainland Europe.  Both are National Parks, as are many of the neighbouring regions.  There is immense potential for research in these varied mountain landscapes, which extend over an altitudinal range from sea level to >2,000 metres.  Natural environments and habitats range from the deciduous (nemoral) woodlands of sheltered fjords, through evergreen (boreal) pine forests and sub-alpine birch woodlands, to low-alpine heathlands, and the fjellfields, snowbeds and glaciers of the mid- and high-alpine zones of the high mountains.  The climate correspondingly extends from a mild, temperate climate at sea-level to high-alpine permafrost, and includes one of the steepest west-east precipitation gradients in the world (ranging from >5,000 mm per year near the west coast to <300 mm per year in some of the eastern valleys.  Thus, the Jotunheimen Research Expeditions are investigating environments as varied as those on any continent in an area of around 100 km x 100 km.