Changing northern environment; seasonal weather; snow structure observations and modelling; climate change impacts; operational environment of reindeer husbandry; adaptation to climate change.
What and why:
I have my background in geophysics and especially in snow studies; in observing
and simulating snow cover structure and its annual evolution. This has meant
both digging a lot of snow pits, and also studying the impacts of warming
climate by combining regional climate model outputs with snow structure
modelling.
Ecology of snowy environments has always fascinated me, and during the
post-doctoral years I worked in research groups studying winter ecology of
plants and animals. This included studying interactions between snow and boreal
vegetation, and effects of snow conditions on voles and forest grouse.
This path led me inevitably into reindeer research. It started as a
collaboration between geoscientists and ecologists: how does snow affect
reindeer well-being, and how to observe and simulate snow properties relevant to
reindeer? Effects on reindeer herding as a livelihood followed, meaning
broadening my working methods to finding, going through and interpreting
archived material, like old annual reports of herding districts, and
interviewing people who know more about the subject than researchers do. All
this has raised so many new questions.
At the moment I see the operational environment of reindeer husbandry as a complex
system with endless interactions between biotic and abiotic nature, human decisions
and actions, and society. I feel that there is so much to learn and understand.
There are questions like changing forestry and forest pastures,
reindeer-herder-society-predator –dynamics, understanding conflicts, adapting wisely. And in the
background, there are always questions about seasonal weather and its changes,
and about snow; how our environment and society has adapted to winter and snow,
and how will it respond to future changes.
I am part of the Global Change Research Group of the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. During years 2021-2023 I work half-time in the Past Present Sustainability Research Unit (PAES; University of Helsinki, Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme).
I work in - or collaborate closely with - these projects:
CLIMINI (Adaptation of reindeer management to climate change)
CLIMINI (Adaptation of reindeer management to climate change)
AROSS (Arctic Rain on Snow Study)
Recent projects and collaborations:
NCoE ReiGN (Reindeer husbandry in a Globalizing North – resilience, adaptations and pathways for actions)
PALOMA -project (Poronhoidon, asutuksen, lomarakentamisen ja maatalouden välisistä ristiriidoista ratkaisuihin).
Gradual changes and abrupt crises - changing operational environment of
Finnish reindeer herding (Vähittäisiä muutoksia ja äkillisiä kriisejä - Suomen poronhoidon
muuttuva toimintaympäristö). 2016-2017, funded by Finnish Cultural Foundation
and carried out at University of Jyväskylä.
Snow conditions and reindeer winter mortality and calf production – snow
related changes in a changing climate, and scenarios and adaptation potentials
of reindeer herding in different reindeer herding districts (2012-2015, funded
by Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry)
Tieteen ja taiteen tunturit
BALTEX Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea Basin (BACC II)
Personal interests:
BALTEX Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea Basin (BACC II)
Personal interests:
Four active "children", born
1999-2009
Reading and writing; masters athletics
