Funded projects

Project Objectives:
1. Identify lichen microbiomes interacting with GHGs, including nitrous oxide and methane, considering environmental factors.
2. Sample common lichens of Finnish forests, incubate in labs for GHG study.
3. Measure gas consumption/emission using stable isotopes and mass spectrometry.
4. Correlate gas data with lichen transcriptomes and microbial communities.
5. Trace GHG uptake for lichen biomass in diverse environments.
6. Analyze microbial communities across seasons and sites.
7. Identify enzymatic pathways via transcriptomics.
8. Describe lichen ultrastructure to locate GHG-related microbes.
9. Upscale GHG findings to assess boreal forest contribution

The main objective of the PhD is in contributing to sustainability transitions by studying the reality and wellbeing of individual sustainability change agents as well as new discourses and practices that could help support and sustain their active agency. The PhD aims to offer a novel perspective on the importance and transformative power of slowing down and turning inwards. In doing so, clarifying the necessary inner transformational processes as we strive towards a conscious and sustainable way of being and living in relation to ourselves, others, and nature. In addition, the study seeks to offer practical proposals on how sustainability agents wellbeing, thriving, and inner transformation could be supported, and by doing so multiplying their outer transformational potential.

In my study I investigate the immediate effects of restoration on the emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases (GHG), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in a nutrient-rich forestry-drained peatland. The continuous GHG-flux data, measured with eddy covariance- technique, starting more than one year before, and continuing long after the restoration, will be unique. Together with other data, it will reveal more about the changes happening in the carbon cycle during the restoration in the soil and in the whole ecosystem-level. From the peat samples I will investigate how the restoration affects CH4 production and oxidation potential in the soil. In addition, the goal is to improve HIMMELI-methane model, to better predict GHG-fluxes from drained and restored peatlands.

The objectives of this project are to increase awareness and understanding of the Baltic Sea ecosystem, complex interactions humans have with it, and the role of biodiversity as the cornerstone of resilient natural systems.
This project intends to:

1) Adapt an existing cooperative strategy game to incorporate key elements of the Baltic Sea marine ecosystem, collaborating with the original developers.
2) Use a reference group including scientists, policy makers, educators, and children to identify potential modifications (e.g. difficulty levels), include accessible supporting materials for educators, and to ensure accuracy of ecological interactions.
3) Develop a tabletop and digital version (freely accessible) and make widely available.

This research aims to understand the role that local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play in implementing wildlife conservation in authoritarian regimes, and in which ways they influence and are influenced by international environmental networks. It further aims to understand how local NGOs operating in authoritarian settings introduce democratic principles into their conservation activities, effectively creating unique, local democratic spaces, and how these spaces can be used to promote transformational social and ecological change. The research findings will enhance conservation policy and practice in the fight against mass biodiversity loss.

The project will be based on the port cities of Dunkirk and Rotterdam as two extreme examples of the oil industry’s impact on space and people. The objective is to answer: how did past petroleum activities impact policies, port cities and their inhabitants? One aim is to illustrate the early influence of oil actors on policies, space, and health based on an analysis of archives and past transitional practices to identify oil actors’ influence and pollution. A second objective is to bridge between disciplines by linking historical and spatial data with epidemiologic evidence from health institutions while analyzing policies and regulations. Thus, this project also contributes to current debates toward a just transition leaving no one behind.

The food chain is the single biggest driver of biodiversity (BD) loss. We create a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based toolkit in collaboration with national and global partners for food service operators to help to stop BD- loss. The LCA-based toolkit includes a ranking chart for the 50 most important ingredients based on their BD footprint and provides guidance for food professionals to create biodiversity-friendly meals, model meal recipes for an easy start in food services, and promotional and educational materials that visualize the reduction in BD footprint resulting from changes within food categories. The tool enables food service operators in strategic planning to achieve their sustainability objectives and enhance customers’ confidence in making eco-conscious food choices.

To achieve a good state of aquatic environments, reducing the agricultural phosphorus runoff is needed. However, the recent environmental protection policies do not necessarily take into account the different forms of phosphorus nor the runoff of phosphorus-binding substances. In addition, the effect of chemical qualities of water on the slow desorption of particular phosphorus is poorly understood. This study aims to answer whether phosphorus-driven eutrophication can be managed with one all-round solution, or should the solution follow the specific qualities of the aquatic systems and their runoff areas.

To achieve the systemic change embedded in the sustainability transition, power structures and perspective must be changed. That’s why this project directs its attention to the diverse needs, hopes, and potential of the citizens. The purpose is to strengthen their agency in creating sustainable urban areas. In the shadows of the currently dominant urban planning narratives, alternative citizen-driven approaches and action for environmentally sound and socially just urban spaces can be found. This project explores these alternatives. Further, this project strengthens the science-citizen interface in the hopes of empowering both citizens and researchers.

In this project, I develop a research program for analyzing the class politics of climate change and the strategic role of labour unions in the sustainability transformation. Recent academic debates have cast a critical light on environmental thought and its inability to interrogate the class dynamics of the climate crisis. The objective of the project is to, first, theoretically refocus environmental thought from consumption to production and, second, empirically examine two labour unions in key sectors of the sustainability transformation – electricity and the forest industry. The project’s results will refocus environmental thought on the social relations of production and strategically aid the environmental movement by teasing out the productive relations between environmental action and the labour unions.

A consumer perspective is key in developing ecologically and nutritionally sustainable foods, since the products may succeed and contribute to dietart shifts and sustainability transformation only if they gain acceptance and are adopted by consumers. Such products, particularly plant-based alternatives to animal-based, are already available, and new innovations constantly enter the market. However, new products do not easily become part of everyday routines. Current understanding of the processes through which new, more sustainable food products may be established in diets is limited. This project seeks to understand the processes of social normalization in the context of plant-based foods and examine how foods become ‘normal’.

In transboundary river basins, where countries share water resources, a lack of trust and collaboration often leads to unsustainable management of hydropower dams and other water infrastructure. This research aims to develop a collection of open computational models that assess the impacts of hydropower operations on agriculture, floods, and ecosystem health. With the help of artificial intelligence, an innovative method employs these models to develop strategies for operating dams in transboundary basins more sustainably. The strategies reveal practical opportunities for enhanced water collaboration among the countries and thus contribute to a more sustainable future for our freshwater systems.

The climate crisis necessitates the development of educational tools to promote sustainability transformation. This study centers on intergenerational climate conversations and their potential to enhance the reshaping of worldviews and behaviors to more sustainable. The core objective is to establish a theory of reverse pedagogical relationships (RPR) within the field of environmental education. This research explores the construction and dynamics of such relationships in intergenerational climate discussions, offering an innovative approach for implementing and practicing environmental educational methods grounded in RPR, with the aim of advancing a sustainable future.

This project utilizes the attention on microbes that emerged during the design of a new microbial daycare in Tampere. The microbial daycare is a response to our collaborators’ research demonstrating that children’s weak interaction with environmental microbes in urban environments is linked to an imbalance in immune regulation. We introduce a new understanding of the child’s body as a ‘nested ecosystem’ highlighting its constitution by and connectedness with diverse microbes in the environment. We seek, first, to understand the complex perceptions about and relations between humans and microbes in daycare education. Second, we foster new pedagogical attention and practices that consider children’s diverse biology beyond the current focus on children’s social life. We make the microbes visible and relatable through a participatory metagenomics led by an ecologist with teachers and children. We also use arts to develop participants’ sensory perspective on microbes to be able to think, feel and sense the world from a microbial view. The pedagogical stories, scientific article and artworks created through these engagements communicate to scholars, professionals and the public that human life and health are connected to thriving biodiverse environments hence fostering those is a key to human wellbeing. Pedagogical encounters seek to promote ethical relations with and foster microbial diversity, an area still unrecognized in conservation yet plays a crucial role in changes to ecosystems.

Young people make plans and choices regarding education and working life in a situation where working life is changing at an accelerating pace. Old industries and professions are left behind when new ones are born. The education system is challenged to stay up to date with these changes. At the same time, young people need information about opportunities to influence the future through various work tasks and professions. It is important to take steps that green transition does not increase gender segregation in the labor market. Hence, training for subject teachers and guidance counsellors as well as company representatives so that youth would see the variety of possibilities in working life is critical. In this implementation project, we train and conduct workshops for teachers and company representatives for pedagogical working life visits.

My study aims to support restoration of disturbed peatland ecosystems guiding them toward a path to undisturbed ecosystems. Addressing 4 critical issues: climate change, forestry, restoration and raising awareness about peatland restoration while inspiring positive change. As proxy for ecosystem state, I use composition and functional traits of testate amoebae. To define the target ecosystem state, I will sample a set of pristine peatlands. To assess how disturbances impact peatlands, I will sample a drainage experiment simulating impact of climate change and forestry drained peatlands. To assess the success of restoration efforts and effectiveness of different methods, I will sample a set of restored peatlands and experimental restoration site.

Utilization of green hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources in industry requires storing hydrogen in large-scale and there are still open questions in how this can be achieved in practice. The goal of this research is to increase understanding of limitations in hydrogen gas storage and what practical steps need to be taken for a storage system to operate flawlessly. During the project, hydrogen storages are analyzed on a system- level as a part of hydrogen economy in terms of sizing and economics. Additionally, the behavior of hydrogen gas inside a storage container is studied both through simulation and experimental research.

In the project, the results of eco-anxiety research will be made available to the general public through cooperation with young social media influencers. The main product is a short animated film about the Process Model of Eco-anxiety (2022). The project’s driving forces are the research results of the internationally renowned eco-anxiety researcher Panu Pihkala, the networks of the international thought-leader for evidence- based hope Elin Kelsey, and a distinguished animation team. Social media collaboration is done with the widely known QueerBrownVegan account. Utilizing the Process Model of Eco-anxiety increases capabilities for sustainability transitions by preventing exhaustion, increasing functional capacity and channeling the energy of eco-emotions in a constructive way.

The general objective of this research is to innovate ways of collaborative governance in policy domains where public interest demands rapid precaution but traditional regulation struggles due to inconclusive evidence on chemical hazards. Specific goals are to recognize science-policy tensions in Finnish chemicals governance, innovate ways to include end-users as prudent actors in collaborative governance, and imagine regulatory reconfigurations to systemically lower the burden of risky contaminants to humans, animals and the environment.

In this project the effects of Hiitolanjoki dam removals on riverine ecosystem are under investigation. Tasks concentrate on changes is salmon and brown trout juvenile habitat area and quality, fish community, fish migration and food web structure and energy flow. The goal of the project is to present the concrete effects Hiitolanjoki dam removals and rapid restorations have and help forward future national and international riverine restoration actions.

The main goal of the research is the development of electric vehicle smart charging solutions from user centric perspective. The research also investigates the suitability of these solutions from flexibility market perspective. The aim is to promote the fluent use of smart charging solutions as part of everyday life.

The primary goal of this research is to support citizen engagement in contaminated land remediation and restoration processes. When land (and water) becomes contaminated, the nearby communities suffer from beneficial use impairments, as well as potential well-being impacts. When citizens are engaged in these processes, through workshops, training, citizen science, and other methods, the restored sites can yield benefits for the community beyond risk reduction. In this research, I will analyze two chosen sites that have undergone remediation efforts to uncover and find best practices for engaging citizens in these restoration processes. My aim is to develop an ecological justice framework for this analysis, which can then be applied to further sites and communities.

The “Carbon Conscious Greenspaces” project has a crucial goal: to understand how urban greenspaces can help fight climate change. I will focus on how different ways of managing lawns – the most common open greenspace in cities – affect their ability to store carbon, a major contributor to global warming. By studying practices like regular mowing and letting lawns become meadows with only rare cutting, I aim to figure out the best approach for maximizing carbon storage in these green areas. I will use data of plants and soil microorganisms in the soil, seeing how they impact carbon storage. This knowledge will help us develop smarter ways to manage urban parks and open spaces, making them powerful tools for reducing carbon in the air and creating a more sustainable future for our cities.

This study will provide new combining models and tools to assess preferable wastewater treatment strategy for controlling antibiotics in cold regions. AOPs can attain complete conversion of contaminants into more biodegradable intermediates or complete mineralization of pollutants. Thus, the potential advantages of combining AOPs with biological processes appear to be a promising alternative for the treatment of a range of difficult-to-degrade pollutants, as microbes can readily consume the numerous oxidation products of these compounds. These data will be used by water utilities, environmental authorities, project engineers and process development companies for wastewater treatment in the Nordic countries.

The doctoral dissertation explores the social and political capacity for change in sustainability transition from the perspective of a just ecological shift in planning. The research aims to uncover the barriers to a just ecological transition posed by current economic norms that define the planning system, and aims to present strategic approaches to overcome these barriers in land-use planning. Nature restoration is used as an example, as it rarely aligns with the typical economic growth or efficiency goals of neoliberal economic thinking.As part of the doctoral studies I will be part of organizing a course about economic policy and urban planning. The course is organized for planners and other interested parties in shrinking regions.

The aim is to develop a biomonitoring web service which visualizes a two-day bird migration forecast and radar- based real-time bird and insect migration analyses in Finland. Intensity and altitudinal distribution of bird and insect migrations and bird-associated collision risk will be shown as grid-based maps and graphs. The service provides new data sources for bird and insect monitoring in biodiversity and climate change research and applications. The project is a collaboration between meteorologists and biologists and addresses stakeholders from the wind energy sector, aviation, science and the public as end users of the web service. It promotes the multidisciplinary use of the Finnish weather radars beyond weather services.