Centre of excellence in Anthropocenic Chemical Ecology of Forests (ACE-Forest)

The Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Anthropocenic Chemical Ecology of Forests (ACE-Forest) is an eight-year consortium project funded by the Research Council of Finland. It comprises Finnish universities and research institutes, including the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Åbo Akademi University, the University of Turku (UTU), and is coordinated on the Kuopio campus of the University of Eastern Finland (UEF).

ACE-Forest will run from 2026-2033 and is designed to explore chemically-mediated intra- and interspecific interactions in forests. A core concept of the research programme is to understand the spatial and temporal signalling dynamics of these interactions using state-of-the-art analytical techniques. The approach is based fundamentally on understanding the chemical ecology of forests in the Anthropocene, but crosses spatial scales from the cellular formation of specialised metabolites, via the tree canopy, to the ecosystem-wide movement and modulation of chemical cues and signals.

ACE-Forest is anticipated to yield outcomes with substantial importance in academia and beyond. These will include (i) scientific advances on ecosystem services provided by forests to society; (ii) science advocacy related to urban forests and their role in urban green spaces according to the EU Nature Restoration Law; (iii) new knowledge for policymakers related to air pollution mitigation and public health; and (iv) practical implications for sustainable forestry and agriculture.

ACE-Forest is developed and will be implemented via joint efforts of eight principal investigators (PIs). They are Professor James Blande (UEF) (the director of CoE), Professor Juha-Pekka Salminen (UTU), Docent Minna Kivimäenpää (LUKE), Docent Jorma Joutsensaari (UEF), Senior Researcher Liqing Hao (UEF), Docent Heidi Hellén (FMI), Senior Researcher Delia Pinto Zevallos (UEF), and Associate Professor Tan Phat Huynh (Åbo Akademi). Docent Oksana Skaldina will act as the Research Coordinator of ACE-Forest.