Mari Pihlatie works on understanding the role of boreal forests as sinks and sources of green house gases, and lately she has been concentrated especially on dynamics of methane in the interactions between vegetation, soil processes and atmosphere. She has also been involved in creating the protocolls and standards for green house gas measurements as a part of ICOS.
The role of forests is crucial in discussion on climate change and carbon sinks, yet it has been concentrated on the growth of forest biomass and neglegted the role of forest soil as an active carbon sink, or the role of forests in dynamics of other greenhouse gases. Mari Pihlatie notes that it is good that this kind of fundamental research gets recognicion for its social impact.
She also wants to thank INAR and Ecophysiology group for being the basis and support for her research and own CH4 N20 forests group.
Check her presentation video above (made by Academy of Finland), and more on the award at UH news or Academy of Finland news.