Research themes

Wide-ranging research has been conducted at Lammi Biological Station for nearly a century, with the focus on food webs in inland waterways, the ecology of boreal forests and wetlands, as well as metapopulation biology.
Lake food webs

We investigate lakes and their catchment areas to understand the effects of climate change and land use on lake quality, structure, and functioning. In the case of fish communities in particular, we examine their nutritional quality, for example, through mercury, lipid  and amino acid analyses.

Metapopulation ecology

Using the Glanville fritillary butterfly as a model organism, we investigate how human-induced environmental changes, such as climate change and habitat fragmentation, affect natural populations. We are particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms, ranging from genetic variation to landscape structure, that different species rely on to potentially reduce the adverse effects of these changes and adapt to the changing environment.

Ecology & Evolution of Interactions

Research project studies how prey phenotypes are shaped by interactions with predators. With focus on avian predators, we run experiments asking birds which types of prey they can find and are willing to eat. In the new bird facilities in LBS it is possible run predator assays with wild birds that are held briefly in captivity. Using a variety of different experimental setups, birds will encounter stimuli that vary in appearance, chemical composition, or behaviour, to determine how these characteristics can help to protect prey from their enemies. Project uses also this system for more applied behavioural assays with a focus on avian conservation. 

Ecology of forest bird populations

For more than 40 years, an uninterrupted project has been ongoing in Lammi’s forest landscapes on the habitat choices, changes in abundance, regional variation, mutual relations and general biodiversity indicator species of nesting birds. A particular focus is on hole nesters and their habitat structure, as well as on the significance of hollow trees and hole nests to the biodiversity of the forest environment.

Zoonoses spread by voles

Understanding how individuals and populations differ in terms of the contagiousness and spread of pathogens is key to predicting and preventing the effects of diseases among humans and the rest of nature. Among other areas, the focus in this context is on how environmental factors and simultaneous pathogenic infections affect the spread of the Puumala  virus and the hantavirus  in the vole population. Such knowledge is directly linked to people’s risk of contracting a disease. Disease ecology is investigated through laboratory and field experiments as well as mathematical modelling.

 

 

Wetland ecology

The ecology of wetlands has been studied primarily in the Evo region of Lammi for 40 years. Key research themes include the population ecology of ducks and the role of beavers as ecosystem engineers. The beaver is a significant species in small water systems and coastal forests, affecting, among other things, the carbon cycle, forest structure and the variability of wetland patches in the landscape. The research focuses on, among other things, how beavers enrich wetland speci es. This can be seen, for example, through lichens and insects living within fallen trees as well as water beetles, amphibians, aquatic birds, bats and land mammals living in the flood basin  and on its edges.

Mosquitoes of Northern Europe

Mosquitoes are well understood to be of both medical and veterinary importance around the world due to many species ability to act as a vector of disease-causing pathogens. Having access to basic and more advanced knowledge of each species is therefore of increasing interest, particularly in the face of a changing climate and the expected changes in mosquito and pathogen distributions that are predicted to occur as a result. This four-year Koneen-Säätiö funded project is focused on increasing our overall understanding of the 52 species of mosquitoes present in Finland, Sweden and Norway by employing a multidisciplinary approach to examine multiple aspects of their biology. Individual species treatments will be published in a comprehensive and richly illustrated book at the end of the project, detailing all life stages of these much-maligned species.

Slow growing pikeperch stocks

Pikeperch is becoming more abundant in Finland. At the same time there are increasing signs that pikeperch are growing slower. Pikeperch is one of the most important catch species in the lakeland region of Finland, and decrease in growth rate may cause significant challenges for fisheries. 

Project focuses on studying the growth rate of pikeperch in lake Pääjärvi in Lammi, and how large is the proportion of stocked pikeperch in the population. Project analyses how stocking and other factors have affected to current state. 

Project aims to analyse effect of different measures for management of slow growing pikeperch stocks, to sustain the productivity and sustainability of pikeperch fishing.

 

 

Ecology and evolution of Eurasian lynx

We investigate habitat selection, behavioral and sensory landscapes, cryptic morphology, and social interactions of the Eurasian lynx, exploring how these elements depend on forest environments. We use a combination of behavioural data, Finnish wildlife snow tracking data, GPS collar data, visual scene analysis and national forest data to gain insight into the ecology and evolution of this large predator. 

 

 

WaterShed Safety Plan for controlling diffuse pollution – WSSP project

The Baltic Sea and its surrounding areas are exposed to pollution from rural and urban catchment areas. The pollution often contains nutrient inflows, hazardous substances, and pathogens. Whereas point pollution sources are often easy to identify and address, diffuse pollution is less obvious and therefore harder to identify and mitigate. The WSSP project’s goal is to develop a generally applicable operational model that helps to reduce the amount of diffuse pollution in the Central Baltic sea. 

Lammi biological station is participating in this project by estimating past and present nutrient loading, through analysis of long-term data series and source-tracking campaigns in the pilot catchment area. LBS is also conducting a small-scale pilot experiment aimed to test common agricultural methods and their effect on nutrient loading, pathogen propagation and plankton food web dynamics.

Research groups and projects

Here we introduce a selection of studies and research projects that are ongoing or have been previously completed at Lammi Biological Station. You can read more about research projects at Lammi Biological Station in the University of Helsinki Research Portal.