Canopy Spectral Ecology and Ecophysiology
Matthew Robson's Research Group Pages
Congratulations to Santa Neimane for successfully defending her Bachaelor’s thesis in Plant Physiology at the University of Latvia of Riga: EFFECT OF LIGHT SPECTRAL QUALITY ON BETULA PENDULA AND FAGUS SYLVATICA LEAF LITTER DECOMPOSITION DURING SENESCENCE.
This research was carried out at the University of Helsinki and supervised by Matthew Robson and Jevgenija Ņečajeva.
We are very happy to announce that Twinkle Solanki has received her PhD Study Rights from the DPPS to start her doctorate studying: Upscaling the Optical Properties of leaves to model their contribution to canopy light use efficiency and carbon assimilation over vertical and horizontal profiles of spectral irradiance, under the supervisions of Matthew Robson, Jon Atherton from the Optics of Photosynthesis Group, and Anu Heikkilä from the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Twinkle has funding from CIMO to come to Finland and already started her research taking measurements from the canopy towers at Hyytiälä Forestry Research Station of the University of Helsinki.
Saara Hartikainen and Matthew Robson recently headed to Lammi Biological Station to “star” in some short films explaining the educational research activities that we designed for the Lammi Research Natural Trail.
We hope to encourage the public to have a go at estimating Leaf Area Index in the young silver birch stand using the canopy scope activity, and to help in assessing leaf, flower, and fruit development in plants growing in quadrats on the forest floor.
You can watch the canopy scope video here in English and in Finnish; and the quadrat phenology video here in English and in Finnish.
The data that we collect from the public will be used to help us estimate phenological development, and will eventually be compared with data from different sites to improve our understanding of the controls on the length of the growing season and forest canopy cover.
Here are some shots from the film-makers in action!
Titta Kotilainen has also been instrumental in setting up the possibility for DPPS students at the University of Helsinki students to participate in a course on libRadtran: a library of radiative transfer models that allows users to access irradiance data for application in their research.
This course, run in cooperation this the FMI, was given by Arve Kylling (NILU) the actual developer of libRadtran and took place on 25th-26th October 2016 in Exactum building of the Kumpula Campus, Helsinki.
The course is open to DPPS students at the University of Helsinki and partly sponsored by CanSEE and the DPPS.
Here is the schedule here.
….And Craig Brelsford has published a review of the working and guidelines for how to get started with LibRadTran in the UV4plants Bulletin.
Congratulations to Paula Salonen on completing her Master’s Degree in Plant Biology and the University of Helsinki: Wild bees along a gradient of urbanization: a study of the effects of environmental variables on bees with a comparison of two capture methods. Supervised by Matthew Robson and Stephen Venn
Keep an eye out for three Chapters in Brian Jordan’s forthcoming book “UV-B Radiation and Plant Life: Molecular Biology to Ecology“ (CABI publishers) co-authored by CanSEE group members.
David Israel and Craig Brelsford will follow the example of Saara Hartikainen two years ago, and participate in a BES Plant Environmental Physiology Group advanced practical course in techniques for plant ecophysiology near Lisbon in Portugal (12th-16th September).
After his internship with Charlie Warren in Sydney last winter, David will be looking to compare notes with some of the leading researchers in IRGA techniques for measuring the conductance of carbon dioxide and water from leaves.
After 6 months of field research monitoring spectral composition and understorey plant ecophysiology in forest-floor sunflecks, Marta Pieristè is ready for her southerly winter migration. Autumn is arriving pretty early at Lammi Biological Station, and as the leaves are falling in Finland, it’s time for Marta to start the French leg of her joint-doctoral studies at the University of Rouen in Normandy.