Light after Death: Marta Pieristè’s PhD defence

Marta Pieristè successfully defended her PhD dissertation, “Light after Death: the importance of spectral composition in litter decomposition processes” on Tuesday 16th June 2020 at 10:30 a.m. EET Finland.  You can relive the PhD defence using the following video linkMarta Pieristè PhD defence

In addition to the Thesis Summary, the dissertation is composed of three published papers and one manuscript below:

  • Pieristè Neimane et al. (2020) Ultraviolet radiation accelerates photodegradation under controlled conditions but slows the decomposition of leaf litter from forest stands in southern Finland. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. PLAPHY5920 146, 42–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PLAPHY.2019.11.005
  • Pieristè et al., (2019) Solar UV-A radiation and blue light enhance tree leaf litter decomposition in a temperate forest by accelerating photodegradation rate. Oecologia, 191(1), 191-203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-019-04478-x
  • Pieristè et al., (2020) Sunlight affects the microbial functional structure of beech leaf litter. Plant & Soil, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04557-6
  • Pieristè et al., (manuscript – embargoed) The crucial role of blue light as a driver of photodegradation in terrestrial ecosystems on the global scale: a meta-analysis.
Litter-boxes in the beech forest during the decomposition experiment in Rouen.

As a joint PhD between Normandie Universite Rouen and the University of Helsinki, Marta’s Examination was be conducted by:

Opponents: Prof Laura Llorens Guasch, University of Girona (Spain) and Dr Stephan Hättenschwiler, CNRS Montpelier (France).

Pre-examiners:  Prof Christiane Gallet, University Savoie (France) and Dr Tarja Lehto, University of Eastern Finland (Finland).

Custos : Prof Kurt Fagerstedt, University of Helsinki (Finland).

President: Prof Matty Berg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

To meet the requirements of the co-tutelle PhD, the defence commenced with a 50 minute presentation – followed by 20-30 minutes of questioning by each examiner in turn.

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