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Information on research projects: - Landscape Lab
- The European Union LIFE Environment supported project: ‘Tourist Destinations as Landscape Laboratories – Tools for Sustainable Tourism’, LANDSCAPE LAB, is a three year project ongoing in Finnish Lapland. The objective of the LANDSCAPE LAB Project is to create and demonstrate a tool package and a monitoring system for the assessment of the sustainability of outdoor nature-based tourism. More information: www.arcticcentre.org/landscapelab.
- Forest fire history and post-disturbance recovery of northern boreal pine forest
- Disturbances, specifically fire and wind, play a significant role in all boreal forests, and have a strong impact on structure and dynamics of forests. Some ecologists have pointed out that total fire suppression in wilderness landscapes eventually reduces the heterogeneity of this landscape: patches of young forest gradually disappear through succession, and older forest stands become increasingly predominant. This kind of situation is prevailing e.g. in Urho Kekkonen National Park in eastern Finnish Lapland, whereas in Russia more frequent occurrence of forest fires has maintained heterogeneity in natural forest areas. Comparision of Finnish and Russian forests provides a good basis for evaluation of the magnitude of successional changes caused by fire and fire prevention.
Two windstorms blew across Urho Kekkonen National Park in October 1985. Stand densities were reduced by 0-85 % depending on topography and tree height. Uprooted trees exposed mineral soil and created new microsites on the forest floor. The role of recently distributed seeds and non-established seedlings in the recovery of the disturbed forests has been studied since 1990. - Observing the effects of climate change in timberlines
- In forest ecosystems, the impacts of the expected climate change are first seen in the timberline regions. In 1983 Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and the northern experiment stations of the Universities of Helsinki, Oulu and Turku launched "The Timberline Monitoring Project", which targets are to monitor the growth, regeneration and survival rate of the dominant tree species and changes in the position of timberlines and tree lines under the prevailing climate. The first mapping in each of 16 study areas was performed in 1983, and next measurements on the same plots were done in 1994 and 1999. The latest inventory was performed in the summer of 2004, so the monitoring period now covers 21 years.
- Autumnal moths
- The Kilpisjärvi-region of North-westernmost Finnish Lapland and surrounding areas in Sweden and Norway, is experiencing the largest outbreak of Mountain birch defoliation caused by Autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata) for many decades. In co-operation with the Finnish Forest Research institute (Kolari, Rovaniemi and Vantaa) and University of Helsinki, we are studying the intensity and area affected by the damage with the aid of satellite images.
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