North Finland Research Articles

Tree growth history, legacy of large-scale forest management and climatic variability in North Finland

Tree growth history was investigated in North Finland to study the recently observed reduction in Scots pine growth. Tree-ring records from the National Forest Inventory (NFI) were compared to changes that have occurred in forest management activities and to variations in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), as similar comparisons have not been previously made with NFI data. A phase of increased growth was dated to the early 1970s when the forest management activities were intensified on a large scale. More recently, growth has notably declined since the early 2000s which coincides with reduced activity to clean the ditches to ensure they are draining the substrate adequately. The growth reduction appeared greater for trees from stands with higher basal area. Trees representing sites where the first cleaning of the stand (thinning) had been carried out did not show reduced growth. NAO indices correlated positively with growth, especially during the cold season. An interpretation on the value of snow conditions in a dynamic interaction with management history/stand density is put forth to explain the growth decline observed in NFI data over the past two decades.

Forests of Finland 2019–2023 and their development 1921–2023

In 2019–2023 the 13th Finnish National Forest Inventory (NFI) was implemented by measuring a total of 62 266 sample plots across the country. The methodology of the sampling and measurements was similar as in the previous inventory, but the proportion and number of remeasured permanent plots was increased to improve the monitoring of annual increment and other changes in the forests. Only 6.2 M ha (14%) of Finland’s total land area (30.4 M ha) is other land than forestry land. Productive and poorly productive forests cover 22.9 M ha (75%) of the total land area. The forest area has remained stable in recent decades but the forest area available for wood supply (FAWS) has decreased due to increased forest protection – 23% of the forestry land and 10% of the productive forest are not available for wood supply. Compared to the previous inventory, forest resources have continued to increase but the average annual increment has declined from 107.8 M m3 to 103.0 M m3. The quality of forests from the timber production point of view has remained relatively good or improved slightly. The area of observed forest damage on FAWS is 8.4 M ha (46% of FAWS area), half of these minor damages with no impact on stand quality. Although the area of forest damage has not increased, the amount of mortality has continued to increase, and is now 8.8 M m3 year–1. The amount of dead wood has continued to increase in South Finland, while in North Finland the declining trend has turned into a slight increase. Since the 1920s, the area of forestry land has remained stable, but the area of productive forest has increased due to the drainage of poorly productive or treeless peatlands. The total volume of growing stock has increased by 84% and annual increment has more than doubled.

Experiences from seasonal Arctic solar photovoltaics (PV) generation- An empirical data analysis from a research infrastructure in Northern Finland

The European Union's highly anticipated “solar strategy” to equip the new and existing building stocks with solar PV panels displays a promising trend in the solar PV industry. However, from Finland's perspective, generating solar PV energy in an Arctic setting is characterised by a few common ambiguities, further lowering the motivation. There are several methodologies for identifying and bridging the gaps to provide accurate conclusions. This article employs the observational and empirical approach in presenting the solar PV energy generation data from the research infrastructure in Oulu, a North Finland city. Empirical evidence from a solar PV system from an Arctic background with a macro to micro-level analysis and documentation is expected to bridge the gap between uncertainties and reality and improve the understanding of the region's seasonal, monthly and annual solar PV generation. Spring was the best period for generating solar PV energy, and autumn was the least favourable for generating solar PV energy in the Arctic. Rooftop inclined solar PV have a better potential during spring and summer, and vertical PV quantitatively generate more energy in autumn and winter. Lower tilt angles proved optimal, as these angles eminently capture the spring and summer irradiation.

Multiple meanings and boundaries of growth in shrinking regions in East and North Finland

Growth stands out as a key development object in contemporary green economy policies. It is particularly interesting in the Nordic context such as in East and North Finland, where many regions are rich in natural resources, but also shrinking and lagging. Therefore, their regional development is simultaneously framed by an expected sustainability transition that alternates between green growth and degrowth agendas, and the socio-economic phenomenon of shrinkage. This article examines how growth is understood and framed among regional development actors, with special interest placed on different meanings, possible critics, and the boundaries of growth. The interviewed actors are positioned as intermediaries who possess special knowledge regarding regional development. The interviews show that the understanding of growth in this context requires various framings that combine global, regional, and local perspectives on sustainable development, as well as the burdens of shrinking and lagging regions balanced against cohesive and inclusive promises of green growth. The hegemonic frame is approached through a lens of green growth, yet the shrinking population remains in the background. Growth appears as a favoured means to tackle societal problems, which reflects a mission-oriented goal setting. Critical statements are directed at growth policies and funding instruments that do not seem to promote cohesive and inclusive growth. The clearest boundary for growth relates to nature, but it is far too early to make interpretations on an intentional degrowth agenda. From the regional actors’ perspective, setting boundaries for growth in a context of long-term shrinkage, sparse population, and extensive natural surroundings seems trivial. Handling the peripheries’ societal problems related to shrinkage and their struggle for resources appears as the more relevant mission that also requires growth in various forms.

Regional sustainability transition through forest-based bioeconomy? Development actors' perspectives on related policies, power, and justice

Forests and forest-based bioeconomy have central roles in the contemporary sustainability transition. However, the transition towards a bioeconomy is loaded with tensions regarding economic growth, ecological integrity, and social justice. These tensions reproduce varying transition discourses. Political actors at the level of the European Union (EU) and nation states take part in the processes creating the discourses and aim to govern the forest bioeconomy-based transition in certain directions viewed as favourable.The transition tensions are strongly felt in regions that are rich with forest resources but poor in terms of economic and political power, called ‘forest peripheries’. In this study, we explored how the forest bioeconomy discourses are downscaled in the development of the forest peripheries in East and North Finland. We examined the ways in which the regional development actors interpret prevailing forest-related policies and reproduce or challenge associated forest discourse(s). The focus was on the linkages between the macro-policies and the regional development, uncertainties that relate to the practical implementation and realisation of the policies, and the conflicts and power relations between the policies, practices, and the actors behind them. As a research strategy, we used embedded triangulation, where the interviews of development actors as initial data were contrasted with policy documents as the supportive data.For the analysis, we used the critical discourse analysis.From the policy documents, we identified the ‘You can have it all (if you close your eyes)’ discourse as the most hegemonic discourse, which aims to merge all the sides under the sustainable forest bioeconomy that favours the biomass regime. From the interviews, we identified three interlinked regional forest bioeconomy discourses: 1) ‘You can have it all is possible’, 2) ‘You can have it all is dependent on many ifs’, and 3) ‘You can have it all runs into conflicts’. The first discourse reproduced the hegemonic discourse, power relations appeared to be vertically unproblematic, and relatively manifested just transition for the forest peripheries. The second discourse produced an alternative discourse, which displayed more dependencies on the qualities of economic actors under the biotech regime. Power relations appeared to be more horizontal and complex, with a random just transition. The third discourse manifested tensions between the ideological aspirations of the policies and the practical reality in the forest peripheries. Conflicts arise from disharmonies between policy implementation and regional needs, cultural clashes, and misrecognition of the regional perspectives. The discourse reflected skewed power relations in vertical and horizontal manners. The transition appeared to be unjust in many ways because the external benefits seemed to be regarded over the regional ones.

Recent unexpected decline of forest growth in North Finland: examining tree-ring, climatic and reproduction data

After a decades-long increasing trend, the recent results of the National Forest Inventory (NFI) reported a decline of forest growth in North Finland. The aim of this study was to assess climatic and reproduction influences behind the growth decline. We used tree-ring data that had been collected by NFI using systematic sampling. The tree-ring width series were detrended using the regional curve standardisation (RCS) removing age-related trends. The resulting tree-ring indices of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) showed decadal variations with low increment in the 1990s, and high increment in the 1980s and the early years of the current century. Thereafter, a prolonged growth reduction for pine started both on the mineral soil sites and peatlands. The tree-ring indices of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) had less pronounced decadal variations and no trend-like reduction over the last 15 years. High spring and summer temperatures were found to enhance radial growth, but high winter temperatures were related to low growth for pine and spruce in the following summer. Temperature variation, accompanied by variables indicating years of drought and intensive flowering, accounted for 34% annual growth variance of pine and 21–44% for spruce. Thus, the results imply that climatic factors may have to some extent contributed to the recent growth reduction of pine. Due to its ecological and economic consequences growth decline needs to be further monitored and investigated. Moreover, analyses of stand and age structure, potentially affecting the growth decline, were beyond the scope of this paper, but also warrant further investigation.

Strong Interactive Effects of Warming and Insect Herbivory on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics at Subarctic Tree Line

Warming will likely stimulate Arctic primary production, but also soil C and N mineralization, and it remains uncertain whether the Arctic will become a sink or a source for CO2. Increasing insect herbivory may also dampen the positive response of plant production and soil C input to warming. We conducted an open-air warming experiment with Subarctic field layer vegetation in North Finland to explore the effects of warming (+3°C) and reduced insect herbivory (67% reduction in leaf damage using an insecticide) on soil C and N dynamics. We found that plant root growth, soil C and N concentrations, microbial biomass C, microbial activity, and soil NH4+availability were increased by both warming and reduced herbivory when applied alone, but not when combined. Soil NO3–availability increased by warming only and in-situ soil respiration by reduced herbivory only. Our results suggest that increasing C input from vegetation under climate warming increases soil C concentration, but also stimulates soil C turnover. On the other hand, it appears that insect herbivores can significantly reduce plant growth. If their abundance increases with warming as predicted, they may curtail the positive effect of warming on soil C concentration. Moreover, our results suggest that temperature and herbivory effects on root growth and soil variables interact strongly, which probably arises from a combination of N demand increasing under lower herbivory and soil mineral N supply increasing under higher temperature. This may further complicate the effects of rising temperatures on Subarctic soil C dynamics.

Two-phase sample selection strategies for design and analysis in post-genome-wide association fine-mapping studies.

Post‐GWAS analysis, in many cases, focuses on fine‐mapping targeted genetic regions discovered at GWAS‐stage; that is, the aim is to pinpoint potential causal variants and susceptibility genes for complex traits and disease outcomes using next‐generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Large‐scale GWAS cohorts are necessary to identify target regions given the typically modest genetic effect sizes. In this context, two‐phase sampling design and analysis is a cost‐reduction technique that utilizes data collected during phase 1 GWAS to select an informative subsample for phase 2 sequencing. The main goal is to make inference for genetic variants measured via NGS by efficiently combining data from phases 1 and 2. We propose two approaches for selecting a phase 2 design under a budget constraint. The first method identifies sampling fractions that select a phase 2 design yielding an asymptotic variance covariance matrix with certain optimal characteristics, for example, smallest trace, via Lagrange multipliers (LM). The second relies on a genetic algorithm (GA) with a defined fitness function to identify exactly a phase 2 subsample. We perform comprehensive simulation studies to evaluate the empirical properties of the proposed designs for a genetic association study of a quantitative trait. We compare our methods against two ranked designs: residual‐dependent sampling and a recently identified optimal design. Our findings demonstrate that the proposed designs, GA in particular, can render competitive power in combined phase 1 and 2 analysis compared with alternative designs while preserving type 1 error control. These results are especially evident under the more practical scenario where design values need to be defined a priori and are subject to misspecification. We illustrate the proposed methods in a study of triglyceride levels in the North Finland Birth Cohort of 1966. R code to reproduce our results is available at github.com/egosv/TwoPhase_postGWAS.

Ethical considerations for community-based participatory research with Sami communities in North Finland.

This study examines the perspectives of Sami community members and university researchers regarding the ethical considerations for engagement in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with Sami communities in northern Finland. Key informant interviews were conducted with Sami people from Finland who were exposed to or participated in research in their communities as well as with researchers who have conducted research with the Sami in Finland across diverse topics. Five themes were identified: establishing trust, research preparation, research comprehension, research ethics, and inclusion in research. The differences in participant perspectives were compared based on their community versus researcher roles. Our findings emphasize the need for (1) strategies to develop and maintain trust between Sami communities and researchers; (2) methods to bridge concepts of bias projected onto Sami communities and researchers by the others' differing world views and beliefs about research; and (3) increased education in community-engaged methods for social and natural scientists working with Sami communities. This study supports the need for the development of formalized ethical protocols for conducting community-based engaged research with and for Sami people in Finland that ensure mutually beneficial research for all involved.

Forests of Finland 2014–2018 and their development 1921–2018

We describe the methodology applied in the 12th national forest inventory of Finland (NFI12) and describe the state of Finland’s forests as well as the development of some key parameters since 1920s. According to the NFI12, the area of forestry land (consisting of productive and poorly productive forest, unproductive land, and other forestry land) is 26.2 M ha. The area of forestry land has decreased from 1920s to 1960s due to expansion of agriculture and built-up land. 20% of the forestry land is not available for wood supply and 13% is only partly available for wood supply. The area of peatlands is 8.8 M ha, which is one third of the forestry land. 53% of the current area of peatlands is drained. The volume of growing stock, 2500 M m, is 1.7 times the volume estimated in NFI1 in the 1920s for the current territory of Finland. The estimated annual volume increment is 107.8 M m. The increment estimate has doubled since the estimate of NFI2 implemented in late 1930s. The annual mortality is estimated to 7 M m, which is 0.5 M m more than according to the previous inventory. Serious or complete damage was observed on 2% of the productive forest available for wood supply. The amount of dead wood is on average 5.8 m ha in productive forests. Since the NFI9 (1996–2003) the amount of dead wood has increased in South Finland and decreased in North Finland both in protected forests and forests available for wood supply (FAWS). The area of natural or almost natural forests on productive forest is 380 000 ha, out of this, 42 000 ha are in FAWS and 340 000 ha in protected forests.33333–1

Investigation of the Cosmic Rays Associated with Ground Level Enhancement Events during Solar Cycle 24

In the Sun, particles mostly protons (positively charged) with energies up to several hundred (MeV) are escaped during periods of intense flare activity. These particles are solar cosmic radiation, which are very small particles move at nearly the speed of light through space. The flare and coronal mass ejection (CME) may also cause a sharp rise in the cosmic ray intensity (CRI) at the Earth atmosphere. There are indications that the most energetic events occurred in the minimum phase of solar activity. When cosmic rays enter the Earth’s atmosphere they collide with atoms and molecules, as the Sun’s magnetic field became weak the cosmic rays are flooding into the solar system from deep space, causing health risks to space travelers. Sudden increases in the cosmic ray intensity called Ground level enhancements (GLEs) are measured or recorded on Earth’s sea level by neutron monitor (NM). The main objective of this research is to find the relation between cosmic ray and the GLE events and other solar activity parameters during the period years (2008-2019) for solar cycle (24). In this work satellite data of GLE based on ground level station Oulu NM (ONM) are taken is situated in north Finland at the height of 15m above sea level in the geographic coordinates (65.05°N; 25.47°E). The observational spectrum of two GLEs occurred during solar cycle 24 are investigated, one in 17 May 2012 which known as GLE71 and the other in 10 September 2017 as GLE72, in which the solar energetic particle was the larger in this solar cycle. Data of these two events indicate that the presence of different between them are due to populations of different energy spectrum, period of time occurrence, and increasing rate of (CRI).

At what carbon price forest cutting should stop

The carbon sink of boreal forests can be increased by paying forest landowners for carbon sequestration and taxing carbon releases. The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of carbon pricing on optimal forest management when forests are managed for maximal discounted benefits from timber production and carbon payments. A 0.5% random sample of all private forest stands of Finland was used in the analyses (48,842 stands). Calculations were performed for a 100-year time horizon. It was assumed that the carbon balance (difference between sequestrated carbon and released carbon) in the forest (trees and soil) or the carbon balance of forestry (trees, soil and wood-based products) was subsidized (positive balance) or taxed (negative balance) by 0, 50, 100 or 150 € t−1, corresponding to CO2 prices of 0, 13.6, 27.3 or 40.9 € t−1, respectively. The results showed that paying forest landowners 150 € t−1 of carbon sequestrated in forests would lead to the cessation of all cuttings everywhere in Finland for at least 100 years. In the northern part of the country, a carbon price of 100 € t−1 would be enough to make the no-cutting management economically optimal. A low carbon price had the highest relative impact (value of increased sequestration divided by the cost of carbon payments). The benefit/cost ratio of carbon subsidies was higher in the northern part of boreal zone than in the southern parts. Subsidizing within-forest carbon sequestration by 50 € t−1 would increase the carbon sequestration of Finnish forestry by 50%, ranging from 36% (south Finland) to 116% (north Finland). A payment of 100 € t−1 or more would increase carbon sequestration by 70%, which is nearly the maximum possible increase that can be obtained by carbon subsidies.

Tick-borne pathogens in Finland: comparison of Ixodes ricinus and I. persulcatus in sympatric and parapatric areas

BackgroundAlmost 3500 tick samples, originally collected via a nationwide citizen science campaign in 2015, were screened to reveal the prevalence and distribution of a wide spectrum of established and putative tick-borne pathogens vectored by Ixodes ricinus and I. persulcatus in Finland. The unique geographical distribution of these two tick species in Finland allowed us to compare pathogen occurrence between an I. ricinus-dominated area (southern Finland), an I. persulcatus-dominated area (northern Finland), and a sympatric area (central Finland).ResultsOf the analysed ticks, almost 30% carried at least one pathogen and 2% carried more than one pathogen. A higher overall prevalence of tick-borne pathogens was observed in I. ricinus than in I. persulcatus: 30.0% (604/2014) versus 24.0% (348/1451), respectively. In addition, I. ricinus were more frequently co-infected than I. persulcatus: 2.4% (49/2014) versus 0.8% (12/1451), respectively. Causative agents of Lyme borreliosis, i.e. bacterial genospecies in Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato) group, were the most prevalent pathogens (overall 17%). “Candidatus Rickettsia tarasevichiae” was found for the first time in I. ricinus ticks and in Finnish ticks in general. Moreover, Babesia divergens, B. venatorum and “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis” were reported for the first time from the Finnish mainland.ConclusionsThe present study provides valuable information on the prevalence and geographical distribution of various tick-borne pathogens in I. ricinus and I. persulcatus ticks in Finland. Moreover, this comprehensive subset of ticks revealed the presence of rare and potentially dangerous pathogens. The highest prevalence of infected ticks was in the I. ricinus-dominated area in southern Finland, while the prevalence was essentially equal in sympatric and I. persulcatus-dominated areas. However, the highest infection rates for both species were in areas of their dominance, either in south or north Finland.

Education research for the Anthropocene: the (micro)politics of researcher becoming (2017 Radford Lecture)

This lecture asks: How can education research address the big questions of our time, and what has politics got to do with it? It will trace moments and movements of researcher-(un)becoming to explore the (micro)politics of a lifetime of educational research. Politics is understood as both intimate and immense, as the intertwined politics of global conditions, and of the nation, with the intimately personal. It is about the researcher lives we all live. The approach was generated in a recent visit to Oulu, north Finland, where doctoral students asked me to present ‘tales’ of a researcher life. The lead student wanted to know how to manage a doctorate while raising three young children. As I have wandered back and forth over a lifetime of presentations, the shapes of key influences emerged. Relations with Aboriginal people and Country have been there since before the beginning, and are incorporated into my ways of being in the world. Feminist theories and their libidinal flows have been fundamental in shaping both my life and research, including their uneasy alliance with Aboriginal onto-epistemologies. Doctoral students have emerged as a strong generative force in my intellectual directions, moving me into all sorts of worlds I would never have entered otherwise. And finally, Place, the places where I have lived and worked have been the crucial grounding of my body and being, primal and prior, but also the basis of thought. In further elaborating these different influences, they culminate in the contemporary force of the Anthropocene, calling us to consider how the world is asking to be named, and how we can learn to be human differently, for the wellbeing of the planet. In developing this address into a paper, I have decided, in consultation with, and supported by the editor Nicole, to preserve its original content as far as possible. The knowledge contained in the address belongs with the oral performance and images as much as with the very few written words that were used in the powerpoint slides. A small selection of images is also included.

Finding associated variants in genome-wide association studies on multiple traits.

MotivationMany variants identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been found to affect multiple traits, either directly or through shared pathways. There is currently a wealth of GWAS data collected in numerous phenotypes, and analyzing multiple traits at once can increase power to detect shared variant effects. However, traditional meta-analysis methods are not suitable for combining studies on different traits. When applied to dissimilar studies, these meta-analysis methods can be underpowered compared to univariate analysis. The degree to which traits share variant effects is often not known, and the vast majority of GWAS meta-analysis only consider one trait at a time.ResultsHere, we present a flexible method for finding associated variants from GWAS summary statistics for multiple traits. Our method estimates the degree of shared effects between traits from the data. Using simulations, we show that our method properly controls the false positive rate and increases power when an effect is present in a subset of traits. We then apply our method to the North Finland Birth Cohort and UK Biobank datasets using a variety of metabolic traits and discover novel loci.Availability and implementationOur source code is available at https://github.com/lgai/CONFIT.Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Winter and spring climatic conditions influence timing and synchrony of calving in reindeer.

In a context of climate change, a mismatch has been shown to occur between some species’ reproductive phenology and their environment. So far, few studies have either documented temporal trends in calving phenology or assessed which climatic variables influence the calving phenology in ungulate species, yet the phenology of ungulates’ births affects offspring survival and population’s recruitment rate. Using a long-term dataset (45 years) of birth dates of a semi-domesticated reindeer population in Kaamanen, North Finland, we show that calving season has advanced by ~ 7 days between 1970 and 2016. Advanced birth dates were associated with lower precipitation and a reduced snow cover in April and warmer temperatures in April-May. Improved females’ physical condition in late gestation due to warmer temperatures in April-May and reduced snow conditions in April probably accounted for such advance in calving date. On the other hand, a lengthening of the calving season was reported following a warmer temperature in January, a higher number of days when mean temperature exceeds 0°C in October-November and a decreasing snow cover from October to November. By affecting the inter-individual heterogeneity in the plastic response of females’ calving date to better climatic conditions in fall and winter, climatic variability contributed to weaken the calving synchrony in this herd. Whether variability in climatic conditions form environmental cues for the adaptation of calving phenology by females to climate change is however uncertain, but it is likely. As such this study enhances our understanding on how reproductive phenology of ungulate species would be affected by climate change.

Metabolomic signatures of low birthweight: Pathways to insulin resistance and oxidative stress.

Several studies suggest that low birthweight resulting from restricted intrauterine growth can leave a metabolic footprint which may persist into adulthood. To investigate this, we performed metabolomic profiling on 5036 female twins, aged 18–80, with weight at birth information available from the TwinsUK cohort and performed independent replication in two additional cohorts. Out of 422 compounds tested, 25 metabolites associated with birthweight in these twins, replicated in 1951 men and women from the Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS, aged 66) and in 2391 men and women from the North Finland Birth 1986 cohort (NFBC, aged 16). We found distinct heterogeneity between sexes and, after adjusting for multiple tests and heterogeneity, two metabolites were reproducible overall (propionylcarnitine and 3-4-hydroxyphenyllactate). Testing women only, we found other metabolites associated with lower birthweight from the meta-analysis of the three cohorts (2-hydroxy-butyric acid and γ-glutamylleucine). Higher levels of all these metabolites can be linked to insulin resistance, oxidative stress or a dysfunction of energy metabolism, suggesting that low birthweight in both twins and singletons are having an impact on these pathways in adulthood.

Controlling the Rate of GWAS False Discoveries.

With the rise of both the number and the complexity of traits of interest, control of the false discovery rate (FDR) in genetic association studies has become an increasingly appealing and accepted target for multiple comparison adjustment. While a number of robust FDR-controlling strategies exist, the nature of this error rate is intimately tied to the precise way in which discoveries are counted, and the performance of FDR-controlling procedures is satisfactory only if there is a one-to-one correspondence between what scientists describe as unique discoveries and the number of rejected hypotheses. The presence of linkage disequilibrium between markers in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) often leads researchers to consider the signal associated to multiple neighboring SNPs as indicating the existence of a single genomic locus with possible influence on the phenotype. This a posteriori aggregation of rejected hypotheses results in inflation of the relevant FDR. We propose a novel approach to FDR control that is based on prescreening to identify the level of resolution of distinct hypotheses. We show how FDR-controlling strategies can be adapted to account for this initial selection both with theoretical results and simulations that mimic the dependence structure to be expected in GWAS. We demonstrate that our approach is versatile and useful when the data are analyzed using both tests based on single markers and multiple regression. We provide an R package that allows practitioners to apply our procedure on standard GWAS format data, and illustrate its performance on lipid traits in the North Finland Birth Cohort 66 cohort study.

Crush: mapping historical, material and affective force relations in young children's hetero-sexual playground play

ABSTRACTDrawing on ethnographic multi-modal data of the gendered and sexual dynamics of pre-school play (age 6) in a rapidly declining fishing and farming community in North Finland, this paper offers a glimpse into our sense-making of a short video-recorded episode in which three boys repeatedly pile up on and demand a kiss from one of their girl classmates. Our analyses resonate with a wider community of feminist and queer scholars who are bringing affective methodologies and posthuman approaches to re-invigorate how we might understand the complexities of gender and sexual power relations in the early years. Inspired by the writings of Guattari and his concept of ‘existential refrains’, we create three ‘crush’ assemblages to map the more-than-human territorialising and de-territorialising force relations at play. Each assemblage offers a thinking Otherwise about gender, sexuality, violence and consent in which place, space, objects, affect and history entangle in predictable and unpredictable ways.

Comparative analyses of fungal biota carried by the pine shoot beetle (Tomicus piniperda L.) in northern and southern Finland

The pine shoot beetle, Tomicus piniperda, is a secondary colonizer of pines and other conifers. Although it is necessary to understand interactions of this insect with other organisms, few studies have focused on its fungal associates. This study focused on the effect of geographical distance on the occurrence of fungi carried by the beetle. Adult beetles were collected from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in North (Rovaniemi) and South (Hyytiälä) Finland. The mycota was isolated and identified using a combination of morphological and molecular data. The results revealed a great diversity of fungal taxa isolated from T. piniperda, with a total of 3073 isolates representing 20 taxonomic units. The most frequently isolated fungi in the bark beetles from North Finland were Beauveria bassiana, Kuraishia sp., whereas Penicillium velutinum was mostly observed in the insects from South Finland. Ophiostoma canum and Ophiostoma minus were also isolated from the beetles from both North and South Finland. The number of fungi isolates per insect was 2.58 in the North and 3.74 in the South, respectively. Significant differences were found between South and North Finland in fungal taxa isolated from the beetles. The highest richness and diversity of the fungal taxa was observed in the South. However, the overall fungal diversity index analysis revealed that the mycobiota was under-sampled which suggests that a proportion of the fungal species may have remained undetected.