High Arctic vegetation lowers soil temperatures on sunny days despite low stature The impact of vegetation on soil temperatures in low Arctic and boreal regions is well documented, where dense vegetation reduces soil temperatures. However, equivalent empirical evidence for influ...

New publication! Does vegetation cover and height lower soil temperatures in the high-Arctic? 🌱🌡️ We show that effect size depends both on the functional group and weather conditions 🌿🌞 Paper: Sil Schuuring et al. 2026 AAAR doi.org/10.1080/1523...

New article! By Määttänen, @mariahallfors.bsky.social & me :-)

New PhD opportunities! Call for thirty (30) PhD positions at RESDOC programme of the University of Helsinki will open in June 2026, and the positions begin in January 2027. The applicants will propose their own PhD project topics relevant to RESDOC. Stay tuned for details!

New preprint! There is substantial spatial heterogeneity in growing season dynamics across northern environments, and we show this for Fennoscandia 2020-2024 🌡️🌡️🌡️ We found great variation in growing season onset and documented record warm summers 🥵@mikarantane.bsky.social @niittynen.bsky.social

Thanks Laura for providing the link! And for reading :-) Much appreciated! 🌿

New publication! Do leaf traits vary in time? 🌿🍃☘️ We sampled 6 traits of 11 species over 15 weeks and found that traits vary greatly, and every growth form followed their own pattern 🦄 Species rank remained somewhat same! @niittynen.bsky.social 🌱 @oikosjournal.bsky.social 🌱 doi.org/10.1002/oik.11849

Proud supervisor moment! Aino-Maija Määttänen published her first PhD article!! 🥳 Määttänen et al. 2026 @ecography.bsky.social Congrats to Aino-Maija, and congrats to us supervisors @mariahallfors.bsky.social 😎nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecog.07768

Extended submission deadline! Spread the good news! And make sure to drop an abstract by 1.3.2026 at www.meb-network.com/meb-2026 ❄️🌡️💧🌱

Pre-defence symposium hosted by @josephinecouet.bsky.social! The Biodiversity Change research group is invited to give a lab talk ☘️🌿🍃 Come see all the cool stuff by PhD researchers Aino-Maija Määttänen, Camilla Reinikainen and Adam Williamson, and postdoc @adm0n.bsky.social ❄️🌡️💧

@adm0n.bsky.social!

Huge congratulations Dr. Chytrý! 🥳

@jonastrepel.bsky.social this is the thing i was talking about! matches nicely your thesis timeline too ;-)

I know! It is really hard to find society-journals that take registered reports (or data articles, like in my previous post).

Ecologists! Give me ideas where to publish a registered report on plant-microclimate experiments :-) It is hard to find OA journals that are society-owned and read by ecologists ☘️💚🌿💚🍃

Ecologists! Give me ideas where to publish beautiful plant functional trait datasets :-) Criteria: OA journals that are society-owned and read by ecologists ☘️💚🌿💚🍃

Registration open! Pack your talks, posters and sunhats for Montpellier, France 🌴🌞🏖️ This is the 3rd edition of the best conference on the planet - and of all time. And yes, I am completely biased as the organiser of the previous edition in Helsinki 😎 meb-network.com/meb-2026/

One week to go! I am recruiting a postdoc, call ends October 7 🍃🌿☘️ In ecology, University of Helsinki is the leading university in Finland and the Nordics and the fifth-best in Europe (ShangaiRanking's 2024). And for 8 years in a row, Finland is still the happiest country in the world :-)

Impacts of Global Change on Polar Terrestrial Biodiversity This collection examines how human activities and global change stressors are transforming the composition and functioning of terrestrial Arctic and Antarctic ...

Extended deadline! Submissions welcomed until 1st December to the npj biodiversity collection: Impacts of Global Change on Polar Terrestrial Biodiversity 🐻‍❄️🐧 Edited by: @annebeejay.bsky.social, Daly Noll Vergara, Luis Pertierra and me www.nature.com/collections/...

:-) thanks for sharing the post!

Postdoctoral Researcher, Biodiversity Change Postdoctoral Researcher, Biodiversity Change

I am recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to conduct experiments on tundra plants and microclimates 🌱🌡️💧❄️ Call ends October 7! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

I made new friends this summer ☘️🌿🍃

New article! To what extent community-level knowledge on species abundances helps in predicting species traits? 🌿☘️🍃 We used joint species-trait distribution modeling to link species abundances to trait variation. By Nerea Abrego, @niittynen.bsky.social, me & Otso Ovaskainen doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

For sure! I am really looking forward to learn more about writing and publishing :-)

I will be placing my first ever Amazon order next week 🤓

New preprint! How do leaf functional traits vary within a growing season? 🌿🍃☘️ We sampled 6 traits of 11 species over 15 weeks, and found that traits vary greatly, and every growth form followed their own pattern 🦄 Species rank remained somewhat same! @niittynen.bsky.social doi.org/10.22541/au....

Whose Nature? – On Shared Trails 17.5.–7.9.2025Nature and forests are deeply embedded in Finnish identity and remain central to the visual language of Finnish art. Yet our relationship with nature is far from unambiguous — while its ...

Art exhibition: Whose nature? Our artist-scientist group Saxifraga has a collaborative display at Jyväskylä Art Museum, Finland 17.5.–7.9.2025. Our work involves over a thousand samples of the beautiful Arctic flora @niittynen.bsky.social 🌿☘️🍃 Welcome! www.jyvaskyla.fi/en/jyvaskyla...

New article! How nutrient inputs from seabird colonies affect plant traits and communities? 🐧 Plants closest to the nesting sites, were taller and had higher resource-acquisitive trait values, such as larger and thicker leaves and higher leaf nutrient contents ☘️🍃🌿 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Doctoral Researcher, Biodiversity Change Doctoral Researcher, Biodiversity Change

I am recruiting a doctoral researcher to conduct research on tundra plants and microclimates 🌱🌡️💧❄️ Call ends April 25! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...