1/2019: On the photo from left top: Markku Koskinen, Tatu Polvinen, Elisa Vainio (Halmeenmäki), Lukas Kohl, left middle: Iikka Haikarainen, Anuliina Putkinen, left low: Minna Santalahti (alumni), Mari Pihlatie, Salla Tenhovirta.
Mari Pihlatie
Academy Research Fellow (2015-2020), ERC starting grant holder (2018-2023), Associate professor in Environmental Soil Science (2017), Principal Investigator (PI) in Viikki Plant Science Center (ViPS), and PI for soil research at SMEAR II station at Hyytiälä, University of Helsinki. Leading the team working on CH4 and N2O oxide exchange in forest ecosystems.
Expertise in plant-soil interactions, soil biogeochemical processes of carbon and nitrogen cycles, with a strong focus on developing greenhouse gas flux measurement methods from plot to ecosystem scales. I’m also a cross country skier and a mother of three kids.
Lukas Kohl
I am an isotope biogeochemist with a background in soil and environmental chemistry. I use the tools of analytical chemistry to understand the world around us and solve important problems. More specifically, I am interested in ecosystem processes and how the shape the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nutrients around us. I am enticed by learning how microorganisms and plants shape their environment one molecule at a time, thus shaping ours as well.
I am also interested in how pollutants are produced, transported, and degraded in the environment. In the past, I studied how nutrients influence microbial processes during plant litter decomposition, investigated how climate shapes soil formation of centuries, searched for the source of methane in ultra-basic, reducing groundwaters (pH>11, eH -500 mV) at Mars analogue sites, and tested how long wildfire-derived pollutants are retained in house
My work in the Forest CH4 and N2O goup focus on distinguishing between different sources of methane released by plants, like aerobic methane production within trees or microbial methane produced in soils and released through trees, and in understanding the biochemistry behind these processes.
When I am not working, I make, listen, and dance to music and try to spend as much time in nature as possible.
Markku Koskinen
I’m an environmental scientist (ScD 2017) with experience in peatlands, hydrology, soil gas exchange research and building measurement devices. In the project my responsibilities first include building an automated soil gas exchange measurement system at the SMEAR II station in Hyytiälä and later studying and designing soil methane exchange process models. My research interests include the role of redox conditions in the carbon and nutrient fluxes in ecosystems.
I play the drums and used to play the violin, and enjoy outdoor activities such as walking our dogs and trekking in all seasons. I also try to instil some sense of respect and wonder for the natural world in my child.
Anuliina Putkinen
I started in the group in 2016 and currently work as a post-doc. I’m a microbiologist and thus in this project my responsibility is to analyze the role of microbes in the methane cycle of boreal forests. In my PhD thesis, I explored these same processes in boreal peatlands, which continue to be a “pet” topic of mine.
Forest is my environment also during my free time – you can often find me there either with a compass, a camera or a mushroom basket.
Salla Tenhovirta
PhD Student. Agronomist (MSc 2012) with a background in plant and forest pathology and forest ecology. Current research interests are the sources of methane emissions from trees in boreal forests. Working for the project From Processes to Modelling of Methane Emissions from Trees (MEMETRE). As a mother of three, I usually have my hands full, but the spare time I have is spent knitting and sewing or tending for my ever-growing collection of houseplants.
Alumni:
PhD students
Elisa Vainio (2014-2019) (postdoc 1/2020-8/2020)
Minna Santalahti (2012-2018)
Iikka Haikarainen (2017-2019)
MSc students
Iikka Haikarainen (2015-2016)
Petteri Pyykkö (2016-2018)
Homa Ghasemi (2017-2019)
Nandita Rajan (2017-2018)
Interns, summer workers, and trainees
Luca Galeotti (MSc student/intern, University of Bologna, Italy, 2018)
Rodrigue Friaud (MSc research intern, 2019)
Nadine Freistetter (Erasmus+ 2019-2020)