Members

Team members

Dr. Päivi Lyytikäinen-Saarenmaa, Assoc. Prof. She is the head of the Forest Health group at the University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences.  Lyytikäinen-Saarenmaa acts as a senior lecturer in forest entomology at the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki. She gain her MSc (1984) and Phil.Lic. (1992) in ecology at the University of Turku, and MSc (For.) (1988) and PhD (For.) (1993) in forest zoology at the University of Helsinki. She holds Assoc. professorship of forest entomology at the Universities of Eastern Finland and Helsinki. She supervises several master and Ph.D. students in the field of forest ecology and forest resource management. Lyytikäinen-Saarenmaa has experienced into scientific career at research institutes in Finland (Universities of Turku, Helsinki and Eastern Finland, Metla, EFI), USA (US Forest Service, Hamden, CT), Denmark (The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen) and Sweden (Lund University). Her central scientific field covers e.g. effects of climate change on insect performance, insect-induced growth losses and mortality of trees, forest disturbance monitoring, forest health management planning, bioclimatic modeling, and applications of remote sensing and GIS on insect outbreaks and damages. She has participated in EU projects (e.g. PHERODIP and currently BioVeL, see www.biovel.eu) and has headed and participated in several national and international projects, funded by different foundations and organizations.


Markus Holopainen is professor in geoinformatics at the University of Helsinki. He received his PhD in Forestry in 1998 at the University of Helsinki and degree of Doctor of Science in Technology in 2011 at the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto-University). Holopainen is adjunct professor in forest mensuration and management at the University of Helsinki (since 2007) and in remote sensing at Aalto University (since 2010). Current research interests include utilization of 3D/4D data in wood procurement, forest quality attribute mapping and monitoring.


Tuula Kantola received her B.Sc. in 2008 and M.Sc. in 2010, in Forest mensuration and management, from University of Helsinki, Finland. She defended her dissertaion at the University of Helsinki in June 2019. She has been working as a visiting research scholar (2012-2014) and as a research associate (2017-2018) at the Knowledge Engineering Laboratory, Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA under Professor Robert N. Coulson. Her main interests include applications of remote sensing and spatial modeling in forest health monitoring. Her current research focus is on improving methodology on monitoring and early warning of invasions by forest insect pests.


Ville Kankare received his PhD degree in 2015 and his M.Sc. in forest resources and technology in 2010 at the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki. His current research interests are remote sensing, forestry, forest inventory, forest mapping and monitoring, GIS, laser scanning.


Ninni Saarinen received her M.Sc. and PhD in Agriculture and Forestry in 2008 and 2016, respectively from the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki. She is part of the research group Forest resources management and geo-information science and the Centre of Excellence in Laser Scanning Research. Her PhD concentrated on developing methods for characterizing vegetation and its changes in varying environments by utilizing laser scanning at various platforms. Her current research topics include modelling individual tree attributes utilizing detailed 3D technology and mapping  biodiversity indicators.


Topi Tanhuanpää is a post doc researcher in University of Eastern Finland and University of Helsinki. His current research focuses on remote sensing-based monitoring of deadwood and other central indicators of boreal forest biodiversity. In addition to the forest related studies, Tanhuanpää has ongoing research on utilizing remote sensing data for acquiring information for decision making in urban forests, parks, and green areas.


 

Mervi Talvitie is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences. She received her M.Sc. in Forest Mensuration and Management in 2003. She also studied Accounting and Financing in Turku School of Economics, and received the M. Sc. degree in 2013. She is specialized in inventorying rare phenomena such as forest insect damages, growth losses and economic losses caused by defoliation.


Elina Peuhu is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences. Her research focus is on the ecology of saproxylic beetles living in hollow urban trees. Her wider interest lies on biodiversity and the conservation of the beetle species related to dead wood and/or forests. She received her M.Sc. in Forest Ecology in 2006. The thesis focused on the habitat quality and landscape structure effecting saproxylic beetles dwelling in spruce-swamp forests.


Minna Blomqvist (Lyytikäinen) is a PhD student at University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences. In doctoral studies she concentrates on impacts of stand characteristics on natural enemies of the common pine sawfly (Diprion pini L.) and defoliation-induced growth losses caused by the sawfly. In her research, she is also fascinated by damage caused by European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.). She focuses on modelling of the damage probabilities with help of soil, tree and stand characteristics. She also participates in teaching of forest entomology as a lecturer in practical laboratory exercises.


Maiju Komaiju_metsä2sunen is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences. She received her M.Sc. in Forest Ecology in 2014. The M.Sc. thesis dealt with effects of soil, topography and ground vegetation on the defoliation caused by the common pine sawfly. Now her research concentrates on the impacts of insect and storm disturbances on the carbon dynamics of forest soils.


Samuli Junttila is a PhD student at the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, where he also received his M.Sc. in Forest ecology and management in 2015. He is interested in research topics related to using modern remote sensing technologies in mapping of forest health, specializing in drought detection at the moment. He is also executing the marketing of the Department of Forest Sciences with graphic design and media production. He is also a published photographer with publications in, e.g. Nature journal of science.


Pentti Henttonen is a M.Sc. student in Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki. His M.Sc. thesis focuses on detecting the distribution of European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) near a small scale conservation area.

  • pentti.henttonen (at) helsinki.fi

Mikko Pelto-Arvo is a PhD student in the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki. His personal interests are spruce bark beetle Ips typographus and related food web, especially natural enemies and fungal interactions. Master’s thesis focused on the Coleopteran enemies of the spruce bark beetle. Doctoral studies continue on these topics, in attempt to find a link between these interactions and practical forest management.

  • mikko.pelto-arvo (at) helsinki.fi

Johanna Tuviala is a M.Sc. student at the University of Helsinki, Department of Forest sciences. Her master thesis focuses on modelling the risk of European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) damage around a forest restoration area. She is also interested in the status and conservation of beetle species dependent on dead or decaying wood.

  • johanna.tuviala (at) helsinki.fi

Esko Karvinen is a M.Sc. student in the Department of Forest Sciences at the University of Helsinki. His master’s thesis deals with the regulatory effects of temperature on geometrid moth populations in Finnish Eastern Lapland. His further research interests encompass climate-induced changes in insect distributions from perspectives of both ecosystem conservation and species distribution modelling.

  • esko.karvinen (at) helsinki.fi

Affiliations

Liisa Vihervuori, Senior Inspector, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira

Mikko Vastaranta, Associate Professor, University of Eastern Finland


Graduate students

Juho Kokkonen