I coordinate the Finnish common bird monitoring schemes and lead my research group the Helsinki Lab of Ornithology in the Finnish Museum of Natural History. I wrote my first bird observations in year 1987. I started my biology studies in 1999 and finished my MSc thesis about population dynamics and diet of the Great Cormorant in 2003. In my PhD thesis (2009), I studied impact of climate and food availability on timing of breeding and breeding success of eight bird species. I have been working in the Finnish Museum of Natural History since November 2009. I'm also a board member of the European Bird Census Council and a member of the Finnish Nature Panel (Luontopaneeli in Finnish). I am also an active ringer and observer at the Hanko Bird Observatory (website in Finnish).
In my PhD, I am exploring the effects of agriculture and climate change on farmland biodiversity indicators, with a focus on birds and butterflies. Through this, I aim to be able to direct conservation strategies and policy making. My thesis supervisors are Johan Ekroos, Aleksi Lehikoinen and Laura Bosco and I am funded by the Wihuri foundation. During my free time, I can be found volunteering in NUOLI (young people’s climate and nature group) or popularizing science such as through writing nature articles into kid’s magazines.
I am a researcher at Helsinki Lab of Ornithology HelLO, where I have been working since 2020. My research focuses on understanding avian responses to climate and land-use changes in relation to habitat loss and fragmentation at various spatial scales. I am particularly interested how landscape ecological aspects play into species responses to global change. I graduated in 2018 from the University of Bern (Switzerland) where I researched effects of vineyard management and landscape structure on Woodlarks and their arthropod prey. Afterwards I worked at the Swiss Ornithological Institute as scientific collaborator in a project on increasing vineyard biodiversity in southern Switzerland. I am President-Elect of the Society for Conservation Biology Europe Region since 2024, chair of the Policy Committee and board member-at-large of the SCB Nordic Chapter. For the BES journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence, I have been contributing as an Associate Editor since 2023.
I started my PhD thesis at the beginning of 2022. My project aims at understanding altitudinal shifts in avian communities under climate change across European mountains and the implications for the conservation. The project takes a macroecological approach to understand the broad impacts of climate change on species communities. My thesis is supervised by Aleksi Lehikoinen, Emma Marjakangas and Andrea Santangeli and is funded by the Kone Foundation. During my free time, I like to knit sew and walk in the nature.
In my PhD project I have used different types of online questionnaire data to create new information on human-bird interactions. The main part of the work has been to create a metric for the aesthetic value of all the bird species to humans. I use this new data set to understand the role of the aesthetics of birds in different biodiversity conservation issues such as wildlife trade. Also, I have studied the change in bird-feeding habits in Finland over a long time. The work is supervised by Aleksi Lehikoinen and Andrea Santangeli and is funded by the Kone Foundation. I have a background in ecology, geography, and pedagogics. I’m in general interested in biodiversity conservation and especially in human interactions with their environment and other species. In addition to research, I work in the field of education.
Currently I´m studying what kind of forest landscapes are attractive to bird species. I want to understand which features in the forest are affecting abundances of forest tits (crested, willow and coal tit) during the breeding season in boreal area. The research is carried out jointly with the University of Jyväskylä and the Finnish Forest Centre. Before this project, I defended my thesis entitled “The role of protected areas for boreal bird populations and communities in the face of climate change” in 2024. In my spare time, I move from computer to the field to do bird ringing. HelLO member since 2019!
I'm an ecologist who graduated from the University of Helsinki in 2020 and I started my PhD in the Helsinki Lab of Ornithology in 2022. In my work, I investigate how population dynamics of European birds are affected by survival and productivity by analyzing European long-term bird ringing datasets of EURING. I aim to deepen the understanding of the population dynamics of European birds for better conservation planning and implementation. My work is supervised by Aleksi Lehikoinen, Laura Bosco, and Markus Piha and funded by Koneen Säätiö. In my free time, I like watching birds and exploring nature.
I am investigating which factors related to climate change and land use are affecting breeding populations of endangered bird species and also the risk of becoming endangered. I will also try to predict which currently general species might become endangered in the future and figure out with what measures the protection of these species could be enhanced. The thesis is supervised by Jari Valkama, Markus Piha and Aleksi Lehikoinen. I obtained her MSc in 2014 in the University of Helsinki. I did my Master’s thesis in Kenya, studying the co-operative breeding behavior of Cabanis’s greenbul. After graduation I acquired additional training in GIS and spent 4 months at the FMNH working with Jari Valkama on various GIS tasks. When not at the office I can be found outside either running, mountain biking, skiing or kayaking.
I began my PhD in the Helsinki Lab of Ornithology in 2025. My research aims to examine cumulative responses of avian species to climate change and determine how those responses vary spatially and seasonally. My thesis is supervised by Aleksi Lehikoinen, Laura Bosco, Yanjie Xu, and Emma-Liina Marjakangas. Prior to starting my PhD, I completed my master’s thesis at Ohio State University in the USA studying drivers of spring phenology in the Prothonotary Warbler. Outside of work, I enjoy writing stories, reading novels, and hiking.
I coordinate the 100 Species Challenge (100 lajia -haaste), a citizen science project led by Aleksi Lehikoinen. The challenge encourages participants to observe and identify at least 100 species of plants, insects, or fungi within a year. Our goal is to inspire people to explore nature, improve their species identification skills, and potentially become lifelong citizen scientists. I joined the project and HelLO in early 2024, shortly after completing my master’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Helsinki. My role involves communicating with participants and sharing information about the challenge and Finnish species through social media, outreach events, and various media outlets. The project is funded by Kone Foundation.
I started my PhD project in 2023. In my project I study bats in a boreal setting, specifically trying to identify possible latitude-dependent factors that influence bat activity. My questions focus on habitat use, predation (bottom-up and top-down) and weather. I am using acoustic technology and passive ultrasound recorders to record echolocation calls and collect activity data on a large spatio-temporal scale across Finland. My thesis is supervised by Thomas Lilley and Aleksi Lehikoinen and funded by Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica.
I am coordinating the Complete checklists -project, which is a part of BIOMON program for monitoring biological diversity. Complete checklists -project aims to collect monitoring data from different taxa, such as plants, mushrooms, amphibians and reptiles, and various insect groups. Complete checklists tell us not only what species were observed, but what species were not. This data is useful for ecological modelling of species distributions, changes and environmental needs. Complete checklists are particularly useful for providing data about common species. BIOMON program is funded by Finnish Ministry of the Environment.
I am a macroecologist broadly interested in different research topics on macro-spatial ecological dynamics. I joined HelLO from 2020 and have been working on climate-driven dynamics of wildlife and zoonotic diseases in European birds and bats; pan-European conservation prioritization for birds under global change; waterbird diversity and abundance trends with wetland restoration practices in Finland. Before joining HelLO, I worked on connectivity of global bird migration networks and defended my PhD thesis entitled ‘Unravelling Networks: Causes and Consequences of Decreasing Connectivity in Bird Migration Pathways’ at Wageningen University & Research (the Netherlands).
Pilvi Ahonen
Jenni Heiskanen
Wilma Munter
Noora Andersson investigated how climatic variables can influence the body condition of breeding birds.
Sebastian Andrejeff studied in his MSc thesis how phenology of autumn migration has changed due to climate change.
Ulisses Camargo worked with the animal sound identifier (ASI) software in the group in 2018–2019.
Purabi Deshpande did her PhD in the group during 2019–2023. Read more about her research in Google scholar.
Sara Fraixedas Nuñez did her PhD in the group during 2013-2017. Read more about Sara's research: Sara's publications in Google scholar.
Petteri Hauta-aho finished his MSc thesis in the group in 2018. He investigates the dispersal distances of bird species.
Juan Gallego did his BSc thesis in Helsinki during one-year Erasmus exchange from autumn 2014 till spring 2015. In the thesis he investigated does the weather conditions explain the spatial and temporal synchrony in crop size of trees and how this is connected with berry eating bird species. Juan's publications in Google Scholar. Juan in X (former Twitter)
Samuli Haapalainen finished his MSc thesis on population trends of migratory birds 2021.
Antti Halkka finished his PhD thesis on changing climate and Baltic biota in 2020.
Sari Holopainen did his post-doc studies in the group in 2020–2022 on factors affecting waterbird population trends. Sari's publications in UH Research Portal
Anni Jylhä-Vuorio did her MSc thesis on plastic debris found nests of great cormorants in 2023.
Edward Kluen worked as a post-doc in the group especially with the nest card data. Read more about Ed's work: Ed's publications in UH Research Portal
Katja Koskenpato finished her PhD on colour polymorphism of tawny owls in the group in 2022. Katja's publications in UH Research Portal
Janne Koskinen coordinated the complete checklist project on plants, animals and fungi in 2022–2023.
Petteri Lehikoinen finished his PhD entitled 'Avian conservation in a changing environment: species' responses and the efficiency of conservation measures' in the group in 2020. Petteri's publications in Research Portal. Pepe in X (former Twitter)
Valtteri Lehto finished his MSc thesis on impact of temperature and habitat quality on winter survival of forest birds in 2019.
Emma-Liina Marjakangas did her post-doc studies on climate driven bird community changes in the group during 2020–2022. Emma-Liina's publications in Google Scholar
Sanna Mäkeläinen did her post-doc studies on ienvironmental impact assessments and role of grazing on biodiversity. Sanna's publications in Google Scholar.
Kalle Meller defended his PhD about climate change and birds in the group in 2016. Kalle's publications in ResearchGate
Aleksi Mikola did his MSc thesis on male biased sex-ratios of spring migrating waterbirds at the Hanko Bird Observatory.
Veronica Nanni was an exchange student in 2019. Veronica's publications in Google Scholar
Nico Ordax did his MSc thesis on trace elements of feathers in migratory birds. Nico's publications in ResearchGate
Andreas Otterbeck finished his PhD about population responses of birds to climate change in 2023. Andrea's publications in UH Research Portal
Juuli Paananen finished her MSc thesis in the group in 2017. The thesis dealt about spatial variation in changes in population sizes of forest birds in Finland.
Diego Pavón Jordán finished his PhD project entitled 'Waterbirds in a changing world: effect of climate, habitat and conservation policy on European waterbirds' in the group in 2017. He continued as a post-doc in HelLO till the end of 2018. Diego's Publications in Google Scholar. Diego in X (former Twitter)
Miia Pietiläinen finished her MSc thesis in HelLO in 2017. Her thesis show how cyclic vole abundance influence autumn migration behaviour of owls in Finland.
Dominique Potvin worked as a post-doc in HelLO in 2015. She investigated range shifts in wintering grounds across numerous migratory species using historical bird-ringing data. Dominique's publications in Google Scholar
Aapo Salmela finished his master thesis in the group in 2018. He is investigating are the changes in Finnish bird communities linked with climatic fluctuations.
Jarkko Santaharju did his MSc thesis on sex-specific differences in timing of autumn passerine migration using ringing data of the Hanko Bird Observatory. Jarkko's Publications in UH Research Portal
Andrea Santangeli did his post-doctoral research on various conservation issues in the group between 2017–2020. Andrea's publications in Google Scholar. Andrea in X (former Twitter)
Päivi Sirkiä worked as a postdoc and research coordinator in the group between 2014 and 2020. Päivi's publications in Google Scholar. Päivi in X (former Twitter)
Maria Tiusanen finished her MSc thesis in the group in 2018. The thesis concentrates on the effects of climate change on bird communities within protected areas during the last few decades.
Ari Turula investigated changes of winter bird communities in Finland in his MSc thesis (2019).
Martijn Versluijs worked a post-doct in the group on the cumulative impact of forestry and climate change. Martins's publications in Google Scholar
Lauri Viitanen did his MSc thesis on factors affecting abundances of wintering sparrows in University of Jyväskylä in 2021.
Esmeralda Villon did her MSc thesis on window collissions of birds.
Kaisa Välimäki did her post-doctoral research in the group in 2013–2015. She studied factors affecting species-specific variation in density shifts in birds and mammals. Kaisa in X (former Twitter)