Severity, frequency, and unpredictability of environmental change has increased dramatically in recent years due to human caused phenomena, such as habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation and climate change. Species in the wild are constantly experiencing stress due to this environmental variation, for example, when their resource availability becomes limited or they experience sub-optimal thermal conditions. We aim to assess variation in the possible strategies that allow individuals to cope with such environmental stresses in wild populations. We couple laboratory and field-based studies with molecular approaches to unravel the significance of different mechanisms – genetics and intestinal microbial communities – potentially influencing individual responses to environmental challenges.
Fast and large-scale environmental changes, including climate change and habitat fragmentation, are leading to worldwide biodiversity declines. We use the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) as a study system to investigate which factors influence the adaptive potential of wild populations under such global change. The system is exceptional as more than 25 years of large-scale survey data exist for the butterfly metapopulation in the Åland islands of Finland. By combining these fine-scale spatial and temporal ecological data with extensive genomic resources, we answer a wide range of questions about population persistence. We use spatial and temporal genomics studies to assess eco-evolutionary dynamics in real-time, focusing on how ecological processes such as population dynamics influence the population’s genomic composition. Identifying genomic regions associated with key performance related traits (e.g. fitness, life-history and dispersal) and assessing how their allele frequencies vary across space and time will give key insights into the factors that determine a population’s ability to cope with environmental change.
Insects are vital to most terrestrial ecosystems. Large population declines of insects are currently ongoing due to anthropogenic causes, such as intensified land use, habitat loss and fragmentation. However, we know very little about the implications for genetic diversity. Loss of genetic diversity can amplify population extinction risk, reduce the functions that insects perform, and decrease their adaptive potential in future. We are currently investigating the population genetic consequences of the changes observed in insect diversity and abundance, and the potential consequences for their performance. In Finland, butterflies are an excellent target group to address these questions due to their strong association with agricultural environments, as well as the availability of long-term monitoring data and digitized museum collections. Thus, they help us assess how the factors behind insect decline — such as climate change — have shaped genetic diversity in space and time.
Our two main approaches:
Both the natural environment and humanity are changing at an unprecedented rate. The changes are driven by multiple factors, such as global warming, habitat fragmentation and declining biodiversity. The response from ecosystems and ecosystem processes (e.g. pollination and decomposition) to this change—and the subsequent consequences to food safety and human health—are challenges that urgently need solutions.
As core members of the Research Centre for Ecological Change, we strive to understand the impacts of land-use and climate change on natural communities and the ecosystem services they provide. The ultimate goal is to accumulate fundamental knowledge that guides the development of solid solutions to these challenges.
To this end, we utilize a unique knowledge reserve of long series of nature observations in Finland. The datasets have been carefully gathered by universities, volunteers and, especially, Finnish research institutes, with whom we closely collaborate. This data allows us to use time series and multi-taxa analyses across Finland, and to produce results of broad significance that can ultimately impact on policies.