Several mechanistic models are developed in the research group
+ Peatland simulator SUSI – optimization of drainage, forest growth and yield, nutrient and carbon balance of peatland forests, nutrient export to water courses
+ Plantation simulator – nutrient management of plantation forests, fertilization, peatland plantation carbon balance and subsidence
+ NutSpaFHy – distributed nutrient balance model for assessing nutrient exports to water courses
+ Tropical peatland tools: canal block optimization for landscape-scale restoration, hydrological models
+SuoSima – Forest production and carbon balance in boreal peatlands
My work has been related to emissions of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide and to processes regulating emissions. Method development related to gas measurement and stable isotope methods (C & N) is also related to my work.
I started in the biogeochemistry research group (now BGC) in 1990. I have studied the greenhouse gas emissions of Finnish naturaql and drained peatlands. I have participated in greenhouse gas balance studies in reservoirs and in projects related to the use of peat and peatlands. I participated in an joint EU project to study greenhouse gas balances in the northern peatlands at Kevo. In 2003, I eventually finalized my PhD thesis about the change in greenhouse balances of natural and drained peatlands. I continued my greenhouse gas balance research on the production of reed canary grass. I have worked as a laboratory manager at the National Institute for Public Health in Kuopio related to the purification of drinking water. I participated in an environmental risk assessment project related to the sudden acidification of a lake with a mining influence. I have been a researcher and teacher at Savonia University of Applied Sciences in Kuopio. In the spring of 2008, I moved to University of Jyväskylä to study lake food webs and biogeochemistry using stable carbon isotopes and carbon dioxide and methane emission measurements. As an academy researcher (2010-2015), I studied the carbon storage in the in oxic and anoxic interfaces. As a spin of from this – application made during unemployment period – I got personal funding to study fish feed production based on methanotrophs and algae. I worked as university researcher stydying sediment gas production and also was a short period resposible of the IRMS system in BGC-group. I started as coordinator in research community UEF Water in autumn 2021.
I am a broadly interested biogeochemist and environmental chemist. My current research studies the the role of boreal forests and peatlands in the methane cycle, and the nitrogen cycle in agricultural and natural environments. I also direct the SIG Stable Isotope Laboratory maintained by our group.
My research interests have been: Greenhouse gas (GHG ) fluxes and biogeochemical cycles in drained or disturbed peatlands; GHG fluxes from agricultural and forest soils under different management (e.g. manure, min. N or ash fertilization); GHG fluxes from geothermal areas; Nitrous oxide dynamics at low soil temperatures; HONO (nitrous acid) emissions and production mechanisms in boreal soils
Originally from western Canada, Nicola studied Forest Engineering at the University of British Columbia and completed her Bachelors studies in 2009. After a few years working in the forestry in central and northern British Columbia, she returned to her studies participating in the Trans-Atlantic Forestry Masters program (TransFor-M). In 2013 Nicola received her M.Sc. in Forest Biology and Management from the University of Alberta and M.Sc. in Agriculture and Forestry from the University of Eastern Finland (UEF). She competed her D.Sc. in Forestry and Agriculture at UEF in February 2024. Her doctoral dissertation focused on peatland vegetation ecology and dynamics with special attention to the potential effects of a changing climate on peatland ecosystems.
Currently, Nicola is working as a post-doctoral researcher in the Disturbances and Biogeochemistry group in the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Here, her research focusses on greenhouse gas emissions from forest soils following fire.
MSc, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Peatlands play an important role as carbon storages, but in addition, they offer numerous other beneficial ecosystem services. Still, a big part of peatlands has been drained. This has altered ecosystem functioning, especially greenhouse gas and carbon dynamics. In my doctoral research, I will develop a new method for peatland restoration, which aims to enhance the recovery of functional diversity of a peatland and limit methane emissions. Sphagnum translocation will play an important role in this method development.
Previously I have studied the communication between the tadpoles of the dyeing poison frog (Dendrobates tinctorius) and how lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) affects beetle species diversity and a number of beetles living on the road verges.
Peatlands form a natural archive that store not only a huge amount of carbon, but also information about past vegetation, hydrology and carbon dynamics. In my PhD project, I investigate the recent climate-induced changes in peatland vegetation and testate amoeba communities, which are tightly connected with the peatland carbon cycle. My aim is to quantify the impacts of the ongoing climate change, particularly the suggested drying trend, on the functioning of peatland plant and microbial communities. By providing an insight to the past changes, my research will contribute to understanding the ongoing and future changes in northern peatlands.
I graduated as a Master of forest sciences from the University of Helsinki majoring in environmental change.
PhD student in the area of microbial biogeochemistry. In my project I work in permafrost peatlands where I investigate how, and to what extend. the presumed feedback of global warming has its influence on microbial processes in the mineralization of carbon and nitrogen. I focus in my work on how microbes respond to thawing of permafrost and subsequent changes of the physical and chemical stage of the peat soil in lower soil layers and how that influences possible changes of greenhouse gas release of Arctic permafrost peatlands in future.
