Itsenäisen Suomen puolesta : Sotilaskomitea 1915-1918

For Independent Finland. The Military Committee 1915–1918 In the course of the First World War, several organizations were founded with the purpose of making Finland independent or, at least, restoring her autonomous status. The Military Committee was the most significant active independence organization in Finland in the First World War, in addition to the activist student movement, i.e., the Jaeger Movement. The Military Committee was an organization founded in 1915 by officers who had attended the Hamina Cadet School, with the goal of creating a national army for a liberation war against the Russian troops. It was believed that the liberation war should succeed only with the help of the German Army. With the situation in society continually tensing up in the autumn 1917, the Military Committee also had to figure on the possibility of a Civil War. The activities of the Military Committee started in the early part of 1915 when they were still small-scale, but they gained significant momentum after the Russian Revolution in March 1917. In January 1918, the Military Committee formed the general staff for the White Army, the Senate’s troops. The independence-related activities of the Hamina cadets in the years of the First World War were more extensive and multifaceted than has been believed heretofore. The work of the Military Committee was divided into preparations for a liberation war in Finland, on one hand, and in Stockholm and Berlin, on the other hand. In Finland, the Military Committee took part in intelligence gathering for Germany and in supporting the recruiting Jaegers, and later in founding the civil guard organization, in solving the law and order authorities issue, and finally in selecting the Commander-in-Chief for the Senate’s troops. The member of the Military Committee, especially Captain Hannes Ignatius of the Cavalry contributed greatly to the drafting of the independence activists’ national action plan in Stockholm in May 1917. This plan preceded the formation of the civil guard organization. The Military Committee’s role in founding the civil guards was initially minor, but in the fall of 1917, the Military Committee started to finance the activities of the civil guards, named several former officers as commanders of the civil guards and finally overtook the entire civil guard movement. In Stockholm and Berlin, the representatives of the Military Committee were in active contact with both the high command of the German Army and with the representatives of the Swedish Army. Colonel Nikolai Mexmontan, who was a representative of the Military Committee, collaborated with Swedish officers and Jaeger officers in Stockholm in coming up with comprehensive and detailed plans for starting the Liberation War. Under Mexmontan’s leadership, there were serious negotiations to enter into a confederation with Germany. Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Thesleff, on the other hand, became the commander of the Jaeger Battalion 27. The influence and importance of the Military Committee came to the forefront in independent and conflict-torn Finland. The Military Committee became a Senate committee on the 7th of January 1918, with its chairman, for all practical purposes, as the Commander-in-Chief in an eventual war. Lieutenant General Claes Charpentier was the chairman of the Military Committee from mid-December 1917 onwards, but on the 15th of January 1918 he had to resign in favour of Lieutenant General Gustaf Mannerheim. Soon after that, Mannerheim got an order from the chairman of the Senate P. E. Svinhufvud to organize and assume the leadership of the law and order authorities. The chairman of the Military Committee became the Commander-in-Chief of the Senate troops in January 1918, and the Military Committee became the Commander-in-Chief’s general staff. The Military Committee had turned from a clandestine organization into the first general staff of the independent Finnish Army.

Spatial and temporal determinants of Finnish farmland bird populations

During the past decades agricultural intensification has caused dramatic population declines in a wide range of taxa related to farmland habitats, including farmland birds. In this thesis, I studied how boreal farmland landscape characteristics and agricultural land use affect the abundance and diversity of farmland birds using extensive field data collected by territory mapping of breeding farmland birds in various parts of Finland. My results show that the area and openness of agricultural areas are key determinants of farmland bird abundance and distribution. A landscape composition with enough open farmland combined with key habitats such as farmyards and wetland is likely to provide essential prerequisites for the occurrence of a rich farmland avifauna. In Finland, the majority of large areas suitable for open habitat specialists are located in southern and western parts of the country. However, the diversity of the species with an unfavourable conservation status in Europe (SPECs) had notable hotspot areas in northern and north-western agricultural areas. I found that in boreal agroecosystems farmland birds favour fields with springtime vegetative cover, especially agricultural grasslands and set-asides. Hence, in the spring cereal dominated Finnish agroecosystems it is the absence of field vegetation that may limit populations of many farmland bird species. It is likely that the decrease of crops providing vegetative cover in the spring, such as permanent grasslands, cultivated grass, and autumn-sown cereals, has greatly contributed to the declines of Finnish farmland birds. Grass crops have persistently declined in Finland as a consequence of specialization in crop production and the large-scale decline in livestock husbandry. Small-scale non-crop habitats, especially ditches and ditch margins, are also important for many bird species in the Finnish agroecosystems, but have dramatically declined during the last decades. A major problem for farmland bird conservation in Finland is the conflict between landscape structure and agricultural management. Areas with mixed and cattle farming are virtually absent from the large agricultural plains of southern and south-western Finland, where the landscape structure is more likely to be favourable for rich farmland bird assemblages. On the other hand, mixed and cattle farming is still rather frequent in northern and central parts of the country, where the landscape structure is not suitable for many farmland specialist birds requiring open landscapes. My results provide useful guidelines for farmland bird conservation, and imply that considerable attention needs to be paid to landscape factors when selecting areas for various conservational management actions, such as agri-environment schemes. Actions promoting the abundance of set-asides, grass crops, and ditches would markedly benefit Finnish farmland bird populations. Organic farming may benefit farmland birds, but it is not clear how general its beneficial effect is in boreal agroecosystems. The most urgent action aiming to preserve farmland biodiversity would be to support re-introducing and sustaining cattle farming by environmental subsidies. This would be especially beneficial in the southern parts of Finland, where the landscape characteristics and abundance of agricultural areas are most suitable for farmland birds and where cattle farming is currently rare.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Finland: recent changes in the epidemiology, long-term facility aspects, and phenotypic and molecular detection of isolates

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important bacteria that cause disease in humans, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) has become the most commonly identified antibiotic-resistant pathogen in many parts of the world. MRSA rates have been stable for many years in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands with a low MRSA prevalence in Europe, but in the recent decades, MRSA rates have increased in those low-prevalence countries as well. MRSA has been established as a major hospital pathogen, but has also been found increasingly in long-term facilities (LTF) and in communities of persons with no connections to the health-care setting. In Finland, the annual number of MRSA isolates reported to the National Infectious Disease Register (NIDR) has constantly increased, especially outside the Helsinki metropolitan area. Molecular typing has revealed numerous outbreak strains of MRSA, some of which have previously been associated with community acquisition. In this work, data on MRSA cases notified to the NIDR and on MRSA strain types identified with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing at the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) in Finland from 1997 to 2004 were analyzed. An increasing trend in MRSA incidence in Finland from 1997 to 2004 was shown. In addition, non-multi-drug resistant (NMDR) MRSA isolates, especially those resistant only to methicillin/oxacillin, showed an emerging trend. The predominant MRSA strains changed over time and place, but two internationally spread epidemic strains of MRSA, FIN-16 and FIN-21, were related to the increase detected most recently. Those strains were also one cause of the strikingly increasing invasive MRSA findings. The rise of MRSA strains with SCCmec types IV or V, possible community-acquired MRSA was also detected. With questionnaires, the diagnostic methods used for MRSA identification in Finnish microbiology laboratories and the number of MRSA screening specimens studied were reviewed. Surveys, which focused on the MRSA situation in long-term facilities in 2001 and on the background information of MRSA-positive persons in 2001-2003, were also carried out. The rates of MRSA and screening practices varied widely across geographic regions. Part of the NMDR MRSA strains could remain undetected in some laboratories because of insufficient diagnostic techniques used. The increasing proportion of elderly population carrying MRSA suggests that MRSA is an emerging problem in Finnish long-term facilities. Among the patients, 50% of the specimens were taken on a clinical basis, 43% on a screening basis after exposure to MRSA, 3% on a screening basis because of hospital contact abroad, and 4% for other reasons. In response to an outbreak of MRSA possessing a new genotype that occurred in a health care ward and in an associated nursing home of a small municipality in Northern Finland in autumn 2003, a point-prevalence survey was performed six months later. In the same study, the molecular epidemiology of MRSA and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) strains were also assessed, the results to the national strain collection compared, and the difficulties of MRSA screening with low-level oxacillin-resistant isolates encountered. The original MRSA outbreak in LTF, which consisted of isolates possessing a nationally new PFGE profile (FIN-22) and internationally rare MLST type (ST-27), was confined. Another previously unrecognized MRSA strain was found with additional screening, possibly indicating that current routine MRSA screening methods may be insufficiently sensitive for strains possessing low-level oxacillin resistance. Most of the MSSA strains found were genotypically related to the epidemic MRSA strains, but only a few of them had received the SCCmec element, and all those strains possessed the new SCCmec type V. In the second largest nursing home in Finland, the colonization of S. aureus and MRSA, and the role of screening sites along with broth enrichment culture on the sensitivity to detect S. aureus were studied. Combining the use of enrichment broth and perineal swabbing, in addition to nostrils and skin lesions swabbing, may be an alternative for throat swabs in the nursing home setting, especially when residents are uncooperative. Finally, in order to evaluate adequate phenotypic and genotypic methods needed for reliable laboratory diagnostics of MRSA, oxacillin disk diffusion and MIC tests to the cefoxitin disk diffusion method at both +35°C and +30°C, both with or without an addition of sodium chloride (NaCl) to the Müller Hinton test medium, and in-house PCR to two commercial molecular methods (the GenoType® MRSA test and the EVIGENETM MRSA Detection test) with different bacterial species in addition to S. aureus were compared. The cefoxitin disk diffusion method was superior to that of oxacillin disk diffusion and to the MIC tests in predicting mecA-mediated resistance in S. aureus when incubating at +35°C with or without the addition of NaCl to the test medium. Both the Geno Type® MRSA and EVIGENETM MRSA Detection tests are usable, accurate, cost-effective, and sufficiently fast methods for rapid MRSA confirmation from a pure culture.

From the river to the open sea - a critical life phase of young Atlantic salmon migrating from the Simojoki river

Long-term monitoring data collected from wild smolts of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the Simojoki river, northern Finland, were used in studying the relationships between the smolt size and age, smolt and postsmolt migration, environmental conditions and postsmolt survival. The onset of the smolt run was significantly dependent on the rising water temperature and decreasing discharge of the river in the spring. The mean length of smolts migrating early in the season was commonly higher and the mean age always older than among smolts migrating later. Many of the smolts migrating early in the season and almost all smolts migrating later had started their new growth in spring in the river before their sea entry. Among postsmolts, the time required for emigration from the estuary was dependent on the sea surface temperature (SST) off the river, being significantly shorter in years with warm than cold sea temperatures. After leaving the estuary, the postsmolts migrated southwards along the eastern coast of the northern Gulf of Bothnia, the geographical distribution of the tag recoveries coinciding with the warm thermal zone in spring in the coastal area. After arriving in the southern Gulf of Bothnia in late summer the postsmolts mostly migrated near the western coast, reaching the Baltic Main Basin in late autumn. Until the early 1990s there was only a weak positive association between smolt length and postsmolt survival. However, following a subsequent decrease in the mean smolt size, a significant positive dependence was observed between smolt size and the reported recapture rate of tagged salmon. The differences in recapture rates between smolts tagged during the first and second half of the annual migration season were insignificant, indicating that the seasonal variation in smolt size and age seem to be too small to affect survival. Among the climatic factors examined, the summer SST in the Gulf of Bothnia was most clearly related to the survival of the wild postsmolts. Postsmolt survival appeared to be highest in years when the SST in June in the Bothnian Bay varied between 9 and 12 ºC. In addition, the survival of wild postsmolts showed a significant positive dependence on the SST in July in the Bothnian Sea, but not on the abundance of the prey fish (0+ herring, Clupea harengus and sprat, Sprattus sprattus) in the Bothnian Sea and in the Baltic Main Basin. The results suggest, that if the incidence of extreme weather conditions were to increase due to climatic changes, it would probably reduce the postsmolt survival of wild salmon populations. For improving the performance of hatchery-reared smolts, it could be useful to examine opportunities to produce smolts that are in their smolt traits and abilities more similar to the wild smolts described in this thesis.

Environmental effects of thermal and radioactive discharges from nuclear power plants in the boreal brackish-water conditions of the northern Baltic Sea

During recent decades, thermal and radioactive discharges from nuclear power plants into the aquatic environment have become the subject of lively debate as an ecological concern. The target of this thesis was to summarize the large quantity of results obtained in extensive monitoring programmes and studies carried out in recipient sea areas off the Finnish nuclear power plants at Loviisa and Olkiluoto during more than four decades. The Loviisa NPP is located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland and Olkiluoto NPP on that of the Bothnian Sea. The state of the Gulf of Finland is clearly more eutrophic; the nutrient concentrations in the surface water are about 1½ 2 times higher at Loviisa than at Olkiluoto, and the total phosphorus concentrations still increased in both areas (even doubled at Loviisa) between the early 1970s and 2000. Thus, it is a challenge to distinguish the local effects of thermal discharges from the general eutrophication process of the Gulf of Finland. The salinity is generally low in the brackish-water conditions of the northern Baltic Sea, being however about 1 higher at Olkiluoto than at Loviisa (the salinity of surface water varying at the latter from near to 0 in early spring to 4 6 in late autumn). Thus, many marine and fresh-water organisms live in the Loviisa area close to their limit of existence, which makes the biota sensitive to any additional stress. The characteristics of the discharge areas of the two sites differ from each other in many respects: the discharge area at Loviisa is a semi-enclosed bay in the inner archipelago, where the exchange of water is limited, while the discharge area at Olkiluoto is more open, and the exchange of water with the open Bothnian Sea is more effective. The effects of the cooling water discharged from the power plants on the temperatures in the sea were most obvious in winter. The formation of a permanent ice cover in the discharge areas has been delayed in early winter, and the break-up of the ice occurs earlier in spring. The prolonging of the growing season and the disturbance of the overwintering time, in conditions where the biota has adjusted to a distinct rest period in winter, have been the most significant biological effects of the thermal pollution. The soft-bottom macrofauna at Loviisa has deteriorated to the point of almost total extinction at many sampling stations during the past 40 years. A similar decline has been reported for the whole eastern Gulf of Finland. However, the local eutrophication process seems to have contributed into the decline of the zoobenthos in the discharge area at Loviisa. Thermal discharges have increased the production of organic matter, which again has led to more organic bottom deposits. These have in turn increased the tendency of the isolated deeps to a depletion of oxygen, and this has further caused strong remobilization of phosphorus from the bottom sediments. Phytoplankton primary production and primary production capacity doubled in the whole area between the late 1960s and the late 1990s, but started to decrease a little at the beginning of this century. The focus of the production shifted from spring to mid- and late summer. The general rise in the level of primary production was mainly due to the increase in nutrient concentrations over the whole Gulf of Finland, but the thermal discharge contributed to a stronger increase of production in the discharge area compared to that in the intake area. The eutrophication of littoral vegetation in the discharge area has been the most obvious, unambiguous and significant biological effect of the heated water. Myriophyllum spicatum, Potamogeton perfoliatus and Potamogeton pectinatus, and vigorous growths of numerous filamentous algae as their epiphytes have strongly increased in the vicinity of the cooling water outlet, where they have formed dense populations in the littoral zone in late summer. However, the strongest increase of phytobenthos has extended only to a distance of about 1 km from the outlet, i.e., the changes in vegetation have been largest in those areas that remain ice-free in winter. Similar trends were also discernible at Olkiluoto, but to a clearly smaller extent, which was due to the definitely weaker level of background eutrophy and nutrient concentrations in the Bothnian Sea, and the differing local hydrographical and biological factors prevailing in the Olkiluoto area. The level of primary production has also increased at Olkiluoto, but has remained at a clearly lower level than at Loviisa. In spite of the analogous changes observed in the macrozoobenthos, the benthic fauna has remained strong and diversified in the Olkiluoto area. Small amounts of local discharge nuclides were regularly detected in environmental samples taken from the discharge areas: tritium in seawater samples, and activation products, such as 60Co, 58Co, 54Mn, 110mAg, 51Cr, in suspended particulate matter, bottom sediments and in several indicator organisms (e.g., periphyton and Fucus vesiculosus) that effectively accumulate radioactive substances from the medium. The tritium discharges and the consequent detection frequency and concentrations of tritium in seawater were higher at Loviisa, but the concentrations of the activation products were higher at Olkiluoto, where traces of local discharge nuclides were also observed over a clearly wider area, due to the better exchange of water than at Loviisa, where local discharge nuclides were only detected outside Hästholmsfjärden Bay quite rarely and in smaller amounts. At the farthest, an insignificant trace amount (0.2 Bq kg-1 d.w.) of 60Co originating from Olkiluoto was detected in Fucus at a distance of 137 km from the power plant. Discharge nuclides from the local nuclear power plants were almost exclusively detected at the lower trophic levels of the ecosystems. Traces of local discharge nuclides were very seldom detected in fish, and even then only in very low quantities. As a consequence of the reduced discharges, the concentrations of local discharge nuclides in the environment have decreased noticeably in recent years at both Loviisa and Olkiluoto. Although the concentrations in environmental samples, and above all, the discharge data, are presented as seemingly large numbers, the radiation doses caused by them to the population and to the biota are very low, practically insignificant. The effects of the thermal discharges have been more significant, at least to the wildlife in the discharge areas of the cooling water, although the area of impact has been relatively small. The results show that the nutrient level and the exchange of water in the discharge area of a nuclear power plant are of crucial importance.

Phytoplankton ecology of subarctic lakes in Finnish Lapland

Climate is warming and it is especially seen in arctic areas, where the warming trend is expected to be greatest. Arctic freshwater ecosystems, which are a very characteristic feature of the arctic landscape, are especially sensitive to climate change. They could be used as early warning systems, but more information about the ecosystem functioning and responses are needed for proper interpretation of the observations. Phytoplankton species and assemblages could be especially suitable for climate-related studies, since they have short generation times and react rapidly to changes in the environment. In addition, phytoplankton provides a good tool for lake classifications, since different species have different requirements and tolerance ranges for various environmental factors. The use of biological indicators is especially useful in arctic areas, were many of the chemical factors commonly fall under the detection limit and therefore do not provide much information about the environment. This work brings new information about species distribution and dynamics of arctic freshwater phytoplankton in relation to environmental factors. The phytoplankton of lakes in Finnish Lapland and other European high-altitude or high-latitude areas were compared. Most lakes were oligotrophic and dominated by flagellated species belonging to chrysophytes, cryptophytes and dinoflagellates. In Finnish Lapland cryptophytes were of less importance, whereas desmids had high species richness in many of the lakes. In Pan-European scale, geographical and catchment-related factors were explaining most of the differences in species distributions between different districts, whereas lake water chemistry (especially conductivity, SiO2 and pH) was most important regionally. Seasonal and interannual variation of phytoplankton was studied in subarctic Lake Saanajärvi. Characteristic phytoplankton species in this oligotrophic, dimictic lake belonged mainly to chrysophytes and diatoms. The maximum phytoplankton biomass in Lake Saanajärvi occurs during autumn, while spring biomass is very low. During years with heavy snow cover the lake suffers from pH drop caused by melt waters, but the effects of this acid pulse are restricted to surface layers and last for a relatively short period. In addition to some chemical parameters (mainly Ca and nutrients), length of the mixing cycle and physical factors such as lake water temperature and thermal stability of water column had major impact on phytoplankton dynamics. During a year with long and strong thermal stability, the phytoplankton community developed towards an equilibrium state, with heavy dominance of only a few taxa for a longer period of time. During a year with higher windiness and less thermal stability, the species composition was more diverse and species with different functional strategies were able to occur simultaneously. The results of this work indicate that although arctic lakes in general share many common features concerning their catchment and water chemistry, large differences in biological features can be found even in a relatively small area. Most likely the lakes with very different algal flora do not respond in a similar way to differences in the environmental factors, and more information about specific arctic lake types is needed. The results also show considerable year to year differences in phytoplankton species distribution and dynamics, and these changes are most likely linked to climatic factors.

Microbiological, environmental and proteolytic aspects in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis

Chronic rhinosinusitis is one of the most common chronic respiratory tract diseases affecting up to 15% of the adult population in the Western world. It may be perpetuated by factors predisposing to sinus ostial obstruction together with inflammatory changes in the sinus mucosa. Chronic rhinosinusitis is associated with asthma, and it may represent the same disease process. Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) and asthma share also the characteristic inflammatory features and histopathologic feature of airway remodelling. Remodelling is considered as a key event in the pathogenesis of asthma. It is controlled by a delicate balance between the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their regulators. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the microbiological findings, inflammatory features and MMP and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) expression in CRSwNP. The results were related to the patient history, exposure to moisture and clinical outcome in order to find out possible explanations for the etiology and chronicity of CRSwNP. Bacterial culture results were similar in patients and in controls and do not explain the chronic course of CRSwNP. The presence of fungi seems to be more common in CRSwNP than chronic rhinosinusitis in general, and they should be actively searched for using microbiological as well as histological methods. Typical outdoor fungal species were found in nasal lavage samples taken from controls in the autumn but not in the winter, reflecting environmental exposure. Exposure to moisture was reported by 46% of the CRSwNP patients, which is in accordance to the Finnish general population. Exposed patients did not differ significantly from non-exposed subjects with regards to microbiological findings, tissue eosinophilia and clinical outcome. Significantly elevated levels of collagenase-2 (MMP-8) and interleukin (IL)-8 but not tumour necrosis factor-α were found in CRSwNP patients. In particular, the activation of mesenchymal-type MMP-8 but not polymorphonuclear-type MMP-8 was associated with elevated IL-8 levels. IL-8 and MMP-8 may form an inductive cytokine-proteinase cascade in CRSwNP pathogenesis and provide a target for novel therapies and a diagnostic tool for monitoring CRSwNP treatment. The proteolytic spectrum is different in eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic CRSwNP with the up-regulation of MMP-8 and MMP-9 in non-eosinophilic CRSwNP, suggesting different pathophysiology in these subgroups. The lack of MMP up-regulation was associated with a poor prognostic factor and worse clinical outcome, representing a possible synergic anti-inflammatory function of MMP-8 and MMP-9 in CRSwNP. This study provides new information about possible immunologic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of CRSwNP. The recently discovered anti-inflammatory/ defensive properties of MMP-8 and MMP-9 in animal models are reported for the first time in a clinical setting in human inflammatory diseases.

Development of biogenic VOC emission inventories for the boreal forest

Luonnosta haihtuvat orgaaniset yhdisteet, joita pääsee ilmaan etenkin metsistä, voivat vaikuttaa paikalliseen ja alueelliseen ilmanlaatuun, koska ne reagoivat ilmakehässä. Niiden reaktiotuotteet voivat myös osallistua uusien hiukkasten muodostumiseen ja kasvuun, millä voi olla vaikutusta ilmakehän säteilytaseeseen ja tätä kautta myös ilmastoon. Hiukkaset absorboivat ja sirottavat auringon säteilyä ja maapallon lämpösäteilyä minkä lisäksi ne vaikuttavat pilvien säteilyominaisuuksiin, määrään ja elinikään. Koko maapallon mittakaavassa luonnosta tulevat hiilivetypäästöt ylittävät ihmistoiminnan aiheuttamat päästöt moninkertaisesti. Tämän vuoksi luonnon päästöjen arviointi on tärkeää kun halutaan kehittää tehokkaita ilmanlaatu- ja ilmastostrategioita. Tämä tutkimus käsittelee boreaalisen metsän hiilivetypäästöjä. Boreaalinen metsä eli pohjoinen havumetsä on suurin maanpäällinen ekosysteemi, ja se ulottuu lähes yhtenäisenä nauhana koko pohjoisen pallonpuoliskon ympäri. Sille on tyypillistä puulajien suhteellisen pieni kirjo sekä olosuhteiden ja kasvun voimakkaat vuodenaikaisvaihtelut. Työssä on tutkittu Suomen yleisimmän boreaalisen puun eli männyn hiilivetypäästöjen vuodenaikaisvaihtelua sekä päästöjen riippuvuutta lämpötilasta ja valosta. Saatuja tuloksia on käytetty yhdessä muiden boreaalisilla puilla tehtyjen päästömittaustulosten kanssa Suomen metsiä varten kehitetyssä päästömallissa. Malli perustuu lisäksi maankäyttötietoihin, suomen metsille kehitettyyn luokitukseen ja meteorologisiin tietoihin, joiden avulla se laskee metsien hiilivetypäästöt kasvukauden aikana. Suomen metsien päästöt koostuvat koko kasvukauden ajan suurelta osin alfa- ja beta-pineenistä sekä delta-kareenista. Kesällä ja syksyllä päästöissä on myös paljon sabineenia, jota tulee etenkin lehtipuista. Päästöt seuraavat lämpötilan keskimääräistä vaihtelua, ovat suurimmillaan maan eteläosissa ja laskevat tasaisesti pohjoiseen siirryttäessä. Metsän isopreenipäästö on suhteellisen pieni – Suomessa tärkein isopreeniä päästävä puu on vähäpäästöinen kuusi, koska runsaspäästöisten pajun ja haavan osuus metsän lehtimassasta on hyvin pieni. Tässä työssä on myös laskettu ensimmäinen arvio metsän seskviterpeenipäästöistä. Seskviterpeenipäästöt alkavat Juhannuksen jälkeen ja ovat kasvukauden aikana samaa suuruusluokkaa kuin isopreenipäästöt. Vuositasolla Suomen metsien hiilivetypäästöt ovat noin kaksinkertaiset ihmistoiminnasta aiheutuviin päästöihin verrattuna.

Measurements of Volatile Organic Compounds - from Biogenic Emissions to Concentrations in Ambient Air

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) affect atmospheric chemistry and thereafter also participate in the climate change in many ways. The long-lived greenhouse gases and tropospheric ozone are the most important radiative forcing components warming the climate, while aerosols are the most important cooling component. VOCs can have warming effects on the climate: they participate in tropospheric ozone formation and compete for oxidants with the greenhouse gases thus, for example, lengthening the atmospheric lifetime of methane. Some VOCs, on the other hand, cool the atmosphere by taking part in the formation of aerosol particles. Some VOCs, in addition, have direct health effects, such as carcinogenic benzene. VOCs are emitted into the atmosphere in various processes. Primary emissions of VOC include biogenic emissions from vegetation, biomass burning and human activities. VOCs are also produced in secondary emissions from the reactions of other organic compounds. Globally, forests are the largest source of VOC entering the atmosphere. This thesis focuses on the measurement results of emissions and concentrations of VOCs in one of the largest vegetation zones in the world, the boreal zone. An automated sampling system was designed and built for continuous VOC concentration and emission measurements with a proton transfer reaction - mass spectrometer (PTR-MS). The system measured one hour at a time in three-hourly cycles: 1) ambient volume mixing-ratios of VOCs in the Scots-pine-dominated boreal forest, 2) VOC fluxes above the canopy, and 3) VOC emissions from Scots pine shoots. In addition to the online PTR-MS measurements, we determined the composition and seasonality of the VOC emissions from a Siberian larch with adsorbent samples and GC-MS analysis. The VOC emissions from Siberian larch were reported for the fist time in the literature. The VOC emissions were 90% monoterpenes (mainly sabinene) and the rest sesquiterpenes (mainly a-farnesene). The normalized monoterpene emission potentials were highest in late summer, rising again in late autumn. The normalized sesquiterpene emission potentials were also highest in late summer, but decreased towards the autumn. The emissions of mono- and sesquiterpenes from the deciduous Siberian larch, as well as the emissions of monoterpenes measured from the evergreen Scots pine, were well described by the temperature-dependent algorithm. In the Scots-pine-dominated forest, canopy-scale emissions of monoterpenes and oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs) were of the same magnitude. Methanol and acetone were the most abundant OVOCs emitted from the forest and also in the ambient air. Annually, methanol and mixing ratios were of the order of 1 ppbv. The monoterpene and sum of isoprene 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO) volume mixing-ratios were an order of magnitude lower. The majority of the monoterpene and methanol emissions from the Scots-pinedominated forest were explained by emissions from Scots pine shoots. The VOCs were divided into three classes based on the dynamics of the summer-time concentrations: 1) reactive compounds with local biological, anthropogenic or chemical sources (methanol, acetone, butanol and hexanal), 2) compounds whose emissions are only temperaturedependent (monoterpenes), 3) long-lived compounds (benzene, acetaldehyde). Biogenic VOC (methanol, acetone, isoprene MBO and monoterpene) volume mixing-ratios had clear diurnal patterns during summer. The ambient mixing ratios of other VOCs did not show this behaviour. During winter we did not observe systematical diurnal cycles for any of the VOCs. Different sources, removal processes and turbulent mixing explained the dynamics of the measured mixing-ratios qualitatively. However, quantitative understanding will require longterm emission measurements of the OVOCs and the use of comprehensive chemistry models. Keywords: Hydrocarbons, VOC, fluxes, volume mixing-ratio, boreal forest

Hydrogen soil deposition and atmospheric variations in the boreal zone

This research has been prompted by an interest in the atmospheric processes of hydrogen. The sources and sinks of hydrogen are important to know, particularly if hydrogen becomes more common as a replacement for fossil fuel in combustion. Hydrogen deposition velocities (vd) were estimated by applying chamber measurements, a radon tracer method and a two-dimensional model. These three approaches were compared with each other to discover the factors affecting the soil uptake rate. A static-closed chamber technique was introduced to determine the hydrogen deposition velocity values in an urban park in Helsinki, and at a rural site at Loppi. A three-day chamber campaign to carry out soil uptake estimation was held at a remote site at Pallas in 2007 and 2008. The atmospheric mixing ratio of molecular hydrogen has also been measured by a continuous method in Helsinki in 2007 - 2008 and at Pallas from 2006 onwards. The mean vd values measured in the chamber experiments in Helsinki and Loppi were between 0.0 and 0.7 mm s-1. The ranges of the results with the radon tracer method and the two-dimensional model were 0.13 - 0.93 mm s-1 and 0.12 - 0.61 mm s-1, respectively, in Helsinki. The vd values in the three-day campaign at Pallas were 0.06 - 0.52 mm s-1 (chamber) and 0.18 - 0.52 mm s-1 (radon tracer method and two-dimensional model). At Kumpula, the radon tracer method and the chamber measurements produced higher vd values than the two-dimensional model. The results of all three methods were close to each other between November and April, except for the chamber results from January to March, while the soil was frozen. The hydrogen deposition velocity values of all three methods were compared with one-week cumulative rain sums. Precipitation increases the soil moisture, which decreases the soil uptake rate. The measurements made in snow seasons showed that a thick snow layer also hindered gas diffusion, lowering the vd values. The H2 vd values were compared to the snow depth. A decaying exponential fit was obtained as a result. During a prolonged drought in summer 2006, soil moisture values were lower than in other summer months between 2005 and 2008. Such conditions were prevailing in summer 2006 when high chamber vd values were measured. The mixing ratio of molecular hydrogen has a seasonal variation. The lowest atmospheric mixing ratios were found in the late autumn when high deposition velocity values were still being measured. The carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratio was also measured. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide are highly correlated in an urban environment, due to the emissions originating from traffic. After correction for the soil deposition of H2, the slope was 0.49±0.07 ppb (H2) / ppb (CO). Using the corrected hydrogen-to-carbon-monoxide ratio, the total hydrogen load emitted by Helsinki traffic in 2007 was 261 t (H2) a-1. Hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide are connected with each other through the atmospheric methane oxidation process, in which formaldehyde is produced as an important intermediate. The photochemical degradation of formaldehyde produces hydrogen and carbon monoxide as end products. Examination of back-trajectories revealed long-range transportation of carbon monoxide and methane. The trajectories can be grouped by applying cluster and source analysis methods. Thus natural and anthropogenic emission sources can be separated by analyzing trajectory clusters.

Uusien opiskelijoiden integroituminen yliopistoon : Sosiaalipsykologinen näkökulma

The first year at the university is critical in shaping the student s future academic development. Student integration has been shown to affect learning, motivation, persistence, and ultimately, graduation. Most importantly, however, integration affects how students academic expertise develops. In this study a social-psychological assumption was made: one cannot grow into academic expertise in isolation, without interaction with teachers and peers. Integration happens via engagement. In this research, social and academic integration among Finnish freshmen was studied. How much did freshmen interact with their teachers and peers; how interested did they think their teachers were in students; how committed did they feel; and how did they assess their own academic development? In addition to integration, students were asked about their identification with the university and the frequency of actual contacts with teachers and peers. Lastly, students personal epistemologies were studied to see if they were related to integration or frequency of contacts. The data was collected at the University of Helsinki in the autumn of 2001 and spring of 2002 at three faculties: the faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities and Science. In the autumn, 270 freshmen, and in the spring, 400 freshmen, completed the questionnaire. In addition to the cross-sectional data a longitudinal data was formed from 77 of the respondents. The results showed differences in how students were integrated. Freshmen at the faculty of Science were the least integrated whereas freshmen at the faculty of Humanities were the most integrated. Identification to the university was positively related to integration. The frequency of contacts with faculty and peers was positively related to integration and identification. A more developed personal epistemology was also positively related to integration and frequency of contacts. Differences were also found between the sexes in frequency of peer interaction and level of epistemology. This study has both theoretical and practical implications. Positive correlations between integration, identification, frequency of contacts and personal epistemology were found. The guiding assumption of the significance of social interaction was thus supported. The practical relevance of the study is for how teaching is carried out. In this data, over 50% of new university students at the end of their first year said they had never received feedback from an exam, never had a discussion with their teacher about a scientific topic, and had never discussed with a teacher how their studies were going.

Itämafia : Uhkakuvapolitiikka, rikosilmiöt ja kulttuuriset merkitykset

The Eastern Mafia Threat policy, crime phenomena, and cultural meanings An interdisciplinary research on the crime phenomena and the threat policy relating to the organized crime and the mafia of Russia and Estonia is based on 151 expert interviews, statistics, documents, research literature, and press material. The main part of the material consists of interviews of the Finnish, Estonian and Russian police authorities specialized in the problem of organized crime, and the reports on the crime situation drawn up in the Finnish diplomatic representations in Tallinn and St Petersburg. The interviews have been gathered in the years 1996-2001. The main theoretical tools of the research are constructivist research on social problems, and political psychology. Definitional processes of social problems and cultural semantic structures behind them are identified in the analysis and connected to the analysis of the crime cases. Both in the Anglo-American and Russian cultural frames there appears an inflated and exaggerated talk, according to which the mafia rules everything in Russia and is spreading everywhere. There is the traditional anti-Semitic paranoia in the core of this cultural symbiosis produced by Russian legal nihilism, the theory of totalitarianism of Sovietology, and the inertia of Russian anti-capitalism. To equate the Sicilian Mafia with Russia is an anachronism, since no empirical proof of systematic uncontrolled violence or absolute power vacuum in Russia can be found. In the Anglo-American policy of threat images, "the Russian mafia" was seen as a commodified conspiracy theory, which the police, the media, and the research took advantage of, blurring the line between fact and fiction. In Finland, the evolution of the policy of threat images proceeded in three phases: Initially, extensive rolling of refugees and criminals from Russia to Finland was emphasized in the beginning of the 1990's. In the second phase, the eastern mafia was said to infiltrate all over Finnish society and administration. Finland was, however, found immune to this kind of spreading. In the third phase, in the 21st century, the organized crime of Finland was said to be lead from abroad. In Finland, the policy of threat images was especially canalised to moral panics connected to "eastern prostitution". In Estonia, the policy of threat images emphasized the crime organized by the Russian authorities and politicians in order to weaken Estonia. In Russia, the policy of threat images emphasized the total criminalizing of society caused by criminal capitalism. In every country, the policy of threat images was affected by a so-called large-group identity, a term by Vamik Volkan, in which a so-called chosen trauma caused a political paranoia of an outer and inner danger. In Finland, procuring, car theft, and narcotics crimes were at their widest arranged by the Finnish often with the help of the Estonians. The Russians had no influence in the most serious violent crimes in Finland, although the number of assassinations were at least 5, 000 in Russia in the 1990's. In Russia, the assassinations were on one hand connected to marital problems, on the other hand to the pursuit of public attention and a hoped-for effect by the aid of the murder of an influential person. In the white-collar crime phenomena between Finland and Russia, the Finnish state and Finnish corporations gained remarkable benefit of the frauds aimed at the states of the Soviet Union and Russia in 1980's-21st century. The situation of Estonia was very difficult compared to that of Russia in the 1990's, which was manifested in the stagnation of the Estonian police and judicial authorities, the crimes of the police and the voluntary paramilitary organization, bomb explosions, the rebellion called "the jaeger crisis" in the voluntary paramilitary organization, and the "blood autumn" of Eastern Virumaa, in other words terror. The situation of Estonia had a powerful effect on the crime situation of Finland and on the security of the Finnish diplomats. In the continuum of the Finnish policy of threat images, Russia and the Russians were, however, presented as a source of a marked danger.

Canopy processes, fluxes and microclimate in a pine forest

Interaction between forests and the atmosphere occurs by radiative and turbulent transport. The fluxes of energy and mass between surface and the atmosphere directly influence the properties of the lower atmosphere and in longer time scales the global climate. Boreal forest ecosystems are central in the global climate system, and its responses to human activities, because they are significant sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and of aerosol particles. The aim of the present work was to improve our understanding on the existing interplay between biologically active canopy, microenvironment and turbulent flow and quantify. In specific, the aim was to quantify the contribution of different canopy layers to whole forest fluxes. For this purpose, long-term micrometeorological and ecological measurements made in a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forest at SMEAR II research station in Southern Finland were used. The properties of turbulent flow are strongly modified by the interaction between the canopy elements: momentum is efficiently absorbed in the upper layers of the canopy, mean wind speed and turbulence intensities decrease rapidly towards the forest floor and power spectra is modulated by spectral short-cut . In the relative open forest, diabatic stability above the canopy explained much of the changes in velocity statistics within the canopy except in strongly stable stratification. Large eddies, ranging from tens to hundred meters in size, were responsible for the major fraction of turbulent transport between a forest and the atmosphere. Because of this, the eddy-covariance (EC) method proved to be successful for measuring energy and mass exchange inside a forest canopy with exception of strongly stable conditions. Vertical variations of within canopy microclimate, light attenuation in particular, affect strongly the assimilation and transpiration rates. According to model simulations, assimilation rate decreases with height more rapidly than stomatal conductance (gs) and transpiration and, consequently, the vertical source-sink distributions for carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) diverge. Upscaling from a shoot scale to canopy scale was found to be sensitive to chosen stomatal control description. The upscaled canopy level CO2 fluxes can vary as much as 15 % and H2O fluxes 30 % even if the gs models are calibrated against same leaf-level dataset. A pine forest has distinct overstory and understory layers, which both contribute significantly to canopy scale fluxes. The forest floor vegetation and soil accounted between 18 and 25 % of evapotranspiration and between 10 and 20 % of sensible heat exchange. Forest floor was also an important deposition surface for aerosol particles; between 10 and 35 % of dry deposition of particles within size range 10 30 nm occurred there. Because of the northern latitudes, seasonal cycle of climatic factors strongly influence the surface fluxes. Besides the seasonal constraints, partitioning of available energy to sensible and latent heat depends, through stomatal control, on the physiological state of the vegetation. In spring, available energy is consumed mainly as sensible heat and latent heat flux peaked about two months later, in July August. On the other hand, annual evapotranspiration remains rather stable over range of environmental conditions and thus any increase of accumulated radiation affects primarily the sensible heat exchange. Finally, autumn temperature had strong effect on ecosystem respiration but its influence on photosynthetic CO2 uptake was restricted by low radiation levels. Therefore, the projected autumn warming in the coming decades will presumably reduce the positive effects of earlier spring recovery in terms of carbon uptake potential of boreal forests.

A physical mechanism for North Atlantic SST influence on the Indian summer monsoon

A link between the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and multidecadal variability of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall is unraveled and a long sought physical mechanism linking Atlantic climate and monsoon has been identified. The AMO produces persistent weakening (strengthening) of the meridional gradient of tropospheric temperature (TT) by setting up negative (positive) TT anomaly over Eurasia during northern late summer/autumn resulting in early (late) withdrawal of the south west monsoon and persistent decrease (increase) of seasonal monsoon rainfall. On inter-annual time scales, strong North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) or North Annular mode (NAM) influences the monsoon by producing similar TT anomaly over Eurasia. The AMO achieves the interdecadal modulation of the monsoon by modulating the frequency of occurrence of strong NAO/NAM events. This mechanism also provides a basis for explaining the observed teleconnection between North Atlantic temperature and the Asian monsoon in paleoclimatic proxies. Citation: Goswami, B. N., M. S. Madhusoodanan, C. P. Neema, and D. Sengupta (2006), A physical mechanism for North Atlantic SST influence on the Indian summer monsoon

European aspen and hybrid aspen under changing environment : Leaf traits, growth and litter decomposition

Understanding the responses of species and ecosystems to human-induced global environmental change has become a high research priority. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate how certain environmental factors that relate to global change affect European aspen (Populus tremula), a keystone species in boreal forests, and hybrid aspen (P. tremula × P. tremuloides), cultivated in commercial plantations. The main points under consideration were the acclimatization potential of aspen through changes in leaf morphology, as well as effects on growth, leaf litter chemistry and decomposition. The thesis is based on two experiments, in which young aspen (< 1 year) were exposed either to an atmospheric pollutant [elevated ozone (O3)] or variable resource availability [water, nitrogen (N)]; and two field studies, in which mature trees (> 8 years) were growing in environments exposed to multiple environmental stress factors (roadside and urban environments). The field studies included litter decomposition experiments. The results show that young aspen, especially the native European aspen, was sensitive to O3 in terms of visible leaf injuries. Elevated O3 resulted in reduced biomass allocation to roots and accelerated leaf senescence, suggesting negative effects on growth in the long term. Water and N availability modified the frost hardening of young aspen: High N supply, especially when combined with drought, postponed the development of frost hardiness, which in turn may predispose trees to early autumn frosts. This effect was more pronounced in European aspen. The field studies showed that mature aspen acclimatized to roadside and urban environments by producing more xeromorphic leaves. Leaf morphology was also observed to vary in response to interannual climatic variation, which further indicates the ability of aspen for phenotypic plasticity. Intraspecific variation was found in several of the traits measured, although intraspecific differences in response to the abiotic factors examined were generally small throughout the studies. However, some differences between clones were found in sensitivity to O3 and the roadside environment. Aspen leaf litter decomposition was retarded in the roadside environment, but only initially. By contrast, decomposition was found to be faster in the urban than the rural environment throughout the study. The higher quality of urban litter (higher in N, lower in lignin and phenolics), as well as higher temperature, N deposition and humus pH at the urban site were factors likely to promote decay. The phenotypic plasticity combined with intraspecific variation found in the studies imply that aspen has potential for withstanding environmental changes, although some global change factors, such as rising O3 levels, may adversely affect its performance. The results also suggest that the multiple environmental changes taking place in urban areas which correspond closely with the main drivers of global change can modify ecosystem functioning by promoting litter decomposition, mediated partly by alterations in leaf litter quality.