Post Doc Minna Malmivaara-Lämsä

minna.malmivaara(at)metla.fi

Tel: +358 102112683
Fax: +358 102112202

Finnish Forest Research Institute,
P.O. Box 18, 01301 Vantaa, Finland

(I am on a maternity leave, please contact me
by e-mail.)

My research | Selected publications

In my PhD thesis I studied the impacts of fragmentation and recreational use on the understorey vegetation and soil microbial communities of urban forests. Main findings were
that the trampling tolerance of forest vegetation increased with the productivity of the site and that the level of wear correlated positively with the number of residents around the forest patch.

Due to trampling and edge effects, resilient herb and grass species are replacing sensitive dwarf shrubs, mosses and lichens in urban forests. Furthermore, microbial activity is decreasing at forest edges and on paths and in their surroundings. This implies diminishing litter decomposition rates, and thus, a change in nutrient cycling in the soil.

Therefore, my future research interests include to study if these effects – decreased litter decomposition and changed nutrient cycling - exist and what are the possible impacts on nutrient supply of urban forest plants.

Selected publications

Malmivaara-Lämsä, M., Hamberg, L., Haapamäki, E., Liski, J., Kotze, J., Lehvävirta, S. & Fritze, H. 2008. Edge effects and trampling in boreal urban forest fragments - impacts on the soil microbial community. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 40(7): 1612-1621.
doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2008.01.013

Malmivaara-Lämsä, M., Hamberg, L., Löfström, I., Vanha-Majamaa, I. & Niemelä, J. 2008. Trampling tolerance of understorey vegetation in different hemiboreal urban forest site types in Finland. Urban Ecosystems 11: 1-16.
doi: 10.1007/s11252-007-0046-3

Malmivaara-Lämsä, M. & Fritze, H. 2003. Effects of wear and above ground forest site type characteristics on the soil microbial community structure in an urban setting. Plant and Soil 256: 187-203.

Malmivaara, M., Löfström, I. & Vanha-Majamaa, I. 2002. Anthropogenic effects on understorey vegetation in Myrtillus type urban forests in southern Finland. Silva Fennica 36(1): 367-381.

>> My all publications