The Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry has awarded PhD Kaisa Rissanen a dissertation prize of one thousand euros for her dissertation completed in 2020. The dissertation Scots pine resin and BVOC emissions in relation to tree water dynamics investigates the effect of environmental factors such as temperature and water on the production of pine resin and biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC). Rissanen has developed novel measurement methods for studying the properties of resin and, based on field measurements, compiled models of the processes related to the formation and transport of pine resin. The results are new and relevant to global climate change research and will help clarify the role of boreal coniferous forests in climate change mitigation.
After her dissertation, Kaisa Rissanen has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Montreal, Canada, at the Department of Biological Sciences, Université du Québec à Montréal. The subject of the study is the physiology of trees in urban environment.
– The urban environment is an interesting experimental set-up to continue research on the interaction between tree activity and their environment, as, for example, water availability and tree water use can vary widely within a small area. In my current research, I use field measurements to understand how strongly climate change and, for example, longer droughts in urban environments affect the water transport and evaporation of trees, and thus their ability to cool urban air, Rissanen says.
Dissertation award of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry
The Faculty of Agricultural Forestry Deans annually select the recipient of the dissertation award. The prize-winner will be selected from dissertations with the grade approved with distinction. In 2021, the recipient of the faculty dissertation award was selected from the dissertations with the grade approved with distinction in 2020.