Contrasting tree-ring data with fire record in a pine-dominated landscape in the Komi Republic (Eastern European Russia) : recovering a common climate signal

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Empirical errors of small area estimates from the multisource National Forest Inventory in Eastern Finland

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Stand dynamics modelling approaches for multicohort management of eastern Canadian boreal forests

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European Union Eastern Enlargement - Expectations and Experiences of Doing Business in the New Member States

This publication deals with various aspects of European Union enlargement effects faced by the companies from EU15 and especially from Finland when doing business in the ten transitional economies which joined European Union in 2004 and 2007

External Location Factors of Finnish Direct Investment in Central and Eastern European Transitional Economies

Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena oli selvittää suomalaisten suorien investointien maan valintaan vaikuttavia tekijöitä Itä- ja Keski-Euroopan kymmenessä siirtymätaloudessa. Empiirisessä osuudessa tarkasteltiin suomalaisten yritysten tärkeimpiä sijaintitekijöitä alueella ja yrityskohtaisten tekijöiden vaikutusta sijaintitekijöihin. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin myös yritysten päämotiiveja investoida maihin. Laaditun investointikriteeristön mukaan maat pystyttiin laittamaan paremmuusjärjestykseen suomalaisen investoijan kannalta. Empiirisen osuuden aineisto kerättiin postikyselylomakkeella yrityksiltä, joilla on tai jotka ovat suunnittelemassa investointeja näihin maihin. Tutkimusote oli kvantitatiivinen. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että suomalaiset investoijat valitsevat Itä- ja Keski-Euroopan maan investointikohteeksi pääasiassa markkinapotentiaalin ja edullisten kustannusten perusteella. Myös infrastruktuuri vaikuttaa maan valintaan. Eri aloilla toimivien yritysten sijaintitekijöiden painotuksissa havaittiin eroja. Yrityksen koko ja päämotiivi vaikuttivat sijaintitekijöiden painotuksiin. Investointikriteereiden mukaan kaksi parasta investointimaata suomalaisille investoijille ovat Puola ja Viro. Vertailtaessa investointikriteereitä toteutuneisiin investointeihin voidaan todeta, että suomalaiset investoijat eivät ole hyödyntäneet investoinneilla saatavia etuja kaikissa kohdemaissa.

Molluscan radiations and landscape evolution in Miocene Amazonia

This PhD study aims to exploit the rich archive provided by the Miocene mollusc fauna of the Pebas Formation and other inland Miocene Amazonian formations to reconstruct landscape evolution and biotic development in lowland Amazonia during the Neogene. Over 160 samples from more than 70 Pebas Formation outcrops mostly collected by the author were processed for this study. Additional samples were collected in Andean areas of Colombia and Venezuela and further material from other northwestern South American basins was studied in museums. Pebas Formation samples and well log data made available by Occidental Peru from three wells in the Marañon Basin in Peru were also investigated. During this study four genera and 74 species from the Pebas Formation have been described and a further 13 species have been introduced in open nomenclature, and several species were reported for the first time. The number of mollusc species attributed to the Pebas fauna has increased from around 50 to 156. The Pebas fauna is characterised as aquatic, endemic and extinct, and is a typical representative of a long-lived lake fauna. Fluvial taxa are not common, (marginal) marine taxa are rare. An additional molluscan fauna from the Miocene Solimões Formation of Brazil, containing 13 fresh water species was also described. The newly documented fauna was used to improve biostratigraphic framework of Miocene Amazonian deposits. Twelve mollusc zones were introduced, the upper eleven of which cover a time interval of approximately seven million years covered previously by only three pollen zones. An age model calculated for the borehole data indicates that the Pebas Formation was deposited between c. 24 and 11 Ma. The areal distribution of the outcropping mollusc zones uncovered a broad dome structure, termed here the Iquitos-Araracuara anteclise in the study area. The structure appears to have influenced river courses and also contributed to edaphic heterogeneity that may have been in part responsible for the current high biodiversity in the study area. The Pebas system was a huge system (> one million km2) dominated by relatively shallow lakes, but also containing swamps and rivers. The system was fed by rivers draining the emergent Andes in the west and lowlands and cratons to the east. The Pebas system was located at sea level and was open to marine settings through a northern portal running through the Llanos Basin and East Venezuela Basin towards the Caribbean. Cyclical baselevel changes possibly related to Mylankhovitch cycles, have been documented in depositional sequences of the Pebas Formation. The composition of the Pebasian mollusc fauna implies that the system was mostly a fresh water system. Such an interpretation is matched by strontium isotope ratios as well as very negative δ18O ratios found in the shells, but is at odds with oligohaline and mesohaline ichnofacies found in the same strata. The mollusc fauna of the Pebas Formation diversified through most of the existence of the lake system. The diversification was mostly the result of in-situ cladogenesis. The success of some of the Pebasian endemic clades is explained by adaptation to fresh water, low oxygen, common unconsolidated lake bottoms (soup grounds) as well as high predation intensity. Maximum diversity was reached at the base of the late Middle to early Late Miocene Grimsdalea pollen zone, some 13 Ma. At the time some 85 species co-occurred, 67 of which are considered as Pebasian endemics. A subsequent drop in species richness coincides with indications of elevated salinities, although a causal relation still needs to be established. Apparently the Pebas fauna went (almost) entirely extinct with the replacement of the lake system into a fluvio-tidal system during the Early Late Miocene, some 11 Ma.

Genera compendiosa nobilissimi von Linne plantarum Fennicarum

Invocatio: D.D.

Holocene Varved Lake Sediments as Records of Palaeoenvironmental Change and Geomagnetic Palaeosecular Variation in Eastern Finland

This dissertation discusses Holocene palaeoenvironmental and palaeomagnetic secular variation (PSV) records reconstructed from sediments preserved in Lake Lehmilampi (63º37´N, 29º06´E) and Lake Kortejärvi (63º37´N, 28º56´E) in eastern Finland. Several piston and freeze cores were obtained from both lakes for varve and magnetic analyses. Sediment samples were impregnated in low-viscosity epoxy and physical parameters of varves, including varve thickness and relative grey-scale values, were recorded using x-ray densitometry combined with semiautomatic digital image analysis. On average, varve records of Lehmilampi and Kortejärvi cover 5122 and 3902 years, respectively. Past solar activity, as estimated by residual ₁₄C data, compares favourably with varve thicknesses from Lehmilampi during the last 2000 years. This indicates the potential of clastic-organic varves to record sensitively climatic variations. Bulk magnetic parameters, including magnetic susceptibility together with natural, anhysteretic and isothermal remanent magnetizations, were measured to describe mineral magnetic properties and geomagnetic palaeosecular variation recorded in the sediments. Main stages in the development of the investigated lakes are reflected in the variations in the mineral magnetic records, sediment lithology and composition. Similar variations in magnetic parameters and sediment organic matter suggest contribution of bacterial magnetite in the magnetic assemblages of Lehmilampi. Inclination and relative declination records yielded largely consistent results, attesting to the great potential of these sediments to preserve directional palaeosecular variation in high resolution. The PSV data from Lehmilampi and Kortejärvi were stacked into North Karelian PSV stack, which may be used for dating homogenous lake sediments in the same regional context. Reconstructed millennial variations in relative palaeointensity results are approximately in agreement with those seen in the absolute palaeointensity data from Europe. Centennial variations in the relative palaeointensity, however, are influenced by environmental changes. Caution is recommended when using varved lake sediments in reconstructing relative palaeointensity.

Effects of Foreign Direct Investment inflows on growth in Central and Eastern European transition countries

The aim of this master’s thesis is to analyze the effects of Foreign Direct Investments on growth in selected Central and Eastern European transition countries. The theoretical part of this thesis, introduces growth theories and how FDI is covered in those theories. In addition, the results from previous studies, which have studied FDI’s effect on growth, are presented in this master’s thesis. This work introduces also the economical progress during the transition period in selected countries. In the empirical part’s regression model, it will be searched for the direct effect of FDI on growth with panel data collected from nine transition countries.