Program 2023

Next edition of the AURA Symposium will happen in 2025. Details of the 2023 edition below.

Book of abstracts and schedule: Click here to load the book of abstracts.

Symposium Schedule

Thursday, the 30th

Friday, the 31st

Session 1

Species-to-ecosystem level changes in the Baltic Sea during the past 100 years

Laura Kauppi, PhD, University of Helsinki, Tvärminne Zoological Station

Long time-series are extremely valuable in observing and studying of environmental change, as well as making future predictions. The observations also give rise to questions that can be studied experimentally for a better understanding of the functioning of the ecosystem in question. The Baltic Sea ecosystem has undergone major changes during the past hundred years. Abiotic changes include a shift from oligotrophic to eutrophic state, and, more recently, a rapid warming of the water column due to global climate change. The abiotic changes have given rise to changes in the biota from individual to ecosystem-level. Using evidence from nearly a hundred years of observations from Tvärminne Zoological Station, combined with modeled data and evidence from manipulative experiments, I will demonstrate changes in the Baltic Sea benthic ecosystem from species to community level following changes in the environment, and how these changes have modified the associated ecosystem functioning.

Session 2

Studying rights to/of nature

Ari Lehtinen, Professor, Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern Finland

This presentation will focus on some geographical concerns and approaches contributing to topical socio-environmental emergencies. I will lean on a few key conclusions from my research projects dealing with environmental justice issues, forest rights and rewilding. The shared question in these projects has been: how to inspire and promote ’politics of nature’ that is both ecologically and socially just?

The projects, and the question, have pushed me towards a posthuman ontology which operates with such hybrid conceptualisations as lived nature, human/non-human co-being, land-and-lifescapes and places of culture-nature. Followingly, by this framing, nature should not be seen as a sole asset, i.e. a realm to be further annihilated by measures of expansive exploitation and control. Instead, it should be (conceptually and practically) freed from the currently dominating polarisation of economic and ecological accounting. Hence, it should be valued as an existential space.

Consequently, according to these premises, nature conservation and forestry politics, for example, could be renewed by adding understanding and knowledge of posthuman prospects. Therefore, suggestions to broaden the restoration policy (launched by the EU Commission and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity framework) could be strengthened by acts of hydro-social/landscape rewilding – as is done in our Boreal Rewilding project). Similarly, the advisory services for those private forest owners who are willing to apply and develop ecological logging methods (ca. 20% of all private forest owners) should be radically amplified – as has been suggested in our Forestry Services project). Moreover, Indigenous and NGO demands for decolonising nature conservation and related ‘compensation models’ should be taken seriously – as is explicated and motivated in our Endemic landscapes project and in our Degrowth & Sufficiency cooperation.

Session 3

Thermoregulation in birds

Jan-Åke Nilsson, Professor, Evolutionary Ecology, Life History and Functional Ecology, Lund University

Birds belong to the group of organisms that is considered to be homeothermic. This means that at high or low environmental temperatures, they need to use energy to stay within a body temperature range that is compatible with life. When the need for energy is high, as for example during growth or breeding, birds may consider to trade-off strict homeothermy against other energy consuming activities. It has been known that birds can reduce their body temperature when resting (hypothermia) when the environment is cold and thereby reduce the thermoregulatory cost. However, more recently, it has been shown that birds can also let their body temperature increase (hyperthermia) in hot environments or when working hard. It, thus, turns out that birds can operate at a much greater range of body temperatures than mammals. In a global environment with increasing temperatures and an increasing incidence of extreme weather, such plasticity may become important. During my talk, I will discuss these strategies mostly with examples from tit species.

Session 4

Early diagenesis in human-impacted sedimentary systems: a multidecadal perspective

Tom Jilbert, Associate Professor, Ecosystems and Environment Research Program, University of Helsinki

In unconsolidated sedimentary environments, microbially mediated redox reactions control the burial and regeneration of carbon, nutrients and other sedimentary components. The principal driver of this reaction network is organic matter, accumulating in sediments from the overlying water column and undergoing remineralization. Microbes derive energy from the primary redox reactions by which organic matter is respired, and from secondary reactions in which the products of remineralization are utilized. Abiotic precipitation and dissolution of mineral phases may also occur dependent on Eh-pH phase equilibria in porewaters. A key characteristic of early diagenetic processes is a vertical gradient of chemical zones. In human impacted aquatic systems, this gradient has been disturbed by eutrophication and increased loading of organic matter, which has elevated the demand on electron acceptors. The consequences of this disturbance vary per system and are not fully understood, but are critical to understanding the role of modern sediments in long-term carbon storage and nutrient cycling.

In this presentation I will show examples of our recent research demonstrating human impacts on sediment biogeochemistry in coastal marine and boreal lake systems. I will focus on processes affecting the cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, the key bioactive elements, but also touch on the use of other elements as tracers of environmental change and human impacts. A running theme will be question of how to address legacy effects of past (e.g. multidecadal timescale) human impacts when interpreting observations from modern environments, and how to simulate future changes on similar timescales. Early diagenesis controls, among other phenomena, the carbon sink function of sediments, production and release of methane, and regeneration of the nutrients that drive internal loading and harmful algal blooms in eutrophied aquatic systems. Therefore, an improved understanding of early diagenetic processes is essential for environmental management and the attainment of global sustainability goals.