Browsing by study line "Ympäristömuutos"

The present retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet will increase the amount of fjords surrounded only by land-terminating glaciers in the future. As in the Arctic, productivity is generally lower at these kinds of fjord systems than in the ones surrounded by marine-terminating glaciers, this will most likely affect the productivity and ecosystem structure of coastal marine areas. Paleorecords of past coastal ecosystems can improve our understanding of the drivers of Arctic coastal ecosystem change and provide possible future scenarios. At present, there are not many high-resolution marine ecosystem reconstructions from the Arctic near-shore areas, and in particular those, which take into account land-derived inputs are lacking. To provide a detailed reconstruction of coastal marine ecosystem change over the Holocene and study its linkages to climate and terrestrial freshwater inputs, organic-walled palynomorphs (including e.g. dinoflagellate cysts and pollen) and some basic geochemistry (including e.g. total organic carbon, C:N ratio, biogenic silica and stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen) were examined from two radiometrically dated sediment cores from Young Sound fjord, Northeast Greenland. The results indicate that the near-shore marine ecosystem in Young Sound is clearly influenced by local forcings, such as terrestrial freshwater and organic matter inputs, during the Holocene. The results also illustrate that these terrestrial inputs affect the ecosystem structure and at least some dimension of ecosystem productivity. This study demonstrates that increasing number of fjords with only land-terminating glaciers in the future will affect marine productivity and ecosystem structure in Greenland’s fjord systems, with potential impacts on biodiversity and important fisheries. Studying past ecosystem changes in different fjord systems, and complementing marine records with proxies for terrestrial inputs, would further help constrain the future scenarios along the Greenland shore.

Methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas that has been increasing in total atmospheric concentration since the late 1980s. While more of this gas is being produced through anthropogenic sources, a significant part is still produced by microbial methanogenesis. This process, in combination with atmospheric CH4, provides methane oxidizing bacteria, methanotrophs, with consumable CH4. In this way, methanotrophs are an important part of the CH4 cycle. Most models estimating changes to CH4 concentrations as a result of increasing anthropogenic byproducts often fail to consider the importance of these bacteria as a sink. Methanotrophs have been long studied, but more still needs to be discovered about their functionality in varying ecosystem types. These microbes are cosmopolitan, found in diverse environments across the globe. In this study, soil samples collected from a boreal forest in Pallas, FI were used to measure how well soil properties can be used to approximate potential CH4 oxidation rate. The abundance of methanotrophs was analyzed in soils ranging from upland to peatland using qPCR targeting the methanotrophic bacteria specific pmoA alpha-subunit of the methane monooxygenase gene. Soil samples were also analyzed for microbial biomass, percent carbon, and percent nitrogen. Sample pH and bulk density were also measured. Significant correlations were observed for bulk density and soil layer type (pearsons r = 0.659, p-value = 0.027), pH and percent carbon (pearsons r = -0.582, p-value = 0.014), pH and bulk density (pearsons r = 0.778, p-value = 0.002), and low affinity potential CH4 oxidation rate and microbial biomass in upland and peat-forest ecosystem types (pearsons r = -0.569, p-value = 0.043). Methanotroph abundance was significantly correlated with potential oxidation rates at low and high affinity conditions when analyzed across all sampling locations (pearsons r = 0.854 p-value = 1.27e-05; pearsons r = 0.602, p-value = 0.011). Methanotroph abundance and potential CH4 oxidation under both low and high affinity conditions were not found to be significantly correlated in upland and peat-forest soils alone when peatland samples were omitted. Soil properties show a moderate accuracy to predict high affinity potential oxidation uptake in upland and peat-forest soils when trained using all sample data. The soil properties used in this analysis do not show any ability to predict potential CH4 oxidation under low affinity conditions. All model findings are exploratory and further testing and development would be necessary to strengthen the findings.

Arvoja pidetään eräinä perimmäisistä yksilöiden ja yhteisöjen toimintaa ohjaavista tekijöistä. Ne esimerkiksi kuvaavat toivottuja lopputuloksia ja menettelytapoja. Tiettyjen ympäristömuutosten mieltäminen ympäristöongelmiksi on myös sidoksissa arvoihin. Politiikassa arvot ohjaavat tavoitteiden asettamista ja keinojen valitsemista tavoitteiden saavuttamiseksi. Tässä tieteidenvälisessä työssä tarkastellaan suomalaista ympäristöpolitiikkaa arvojen valossa. Sosiaalipsykologisen arvoteorian ja ympäristötieteen pohjalta muodostettu viitekehys ohjasi arvo-puheen tarkastelua viiden suomalaisen eduskuntapuolueen ympäristöpoliittisissa ohjelmissa tai niitä vastaavissa asiakirjoissa. Mukana olivat Kansallisen Kokoomuksen, Kristillisdemokraattien, Suomen Keskustan, Suomen Sosialidemokraattisen puolueen ja Vihreän Liiton ohjelmat. Työssä selvitettiin, millaiset arvot ympäristöpolitiikassa vaikuttavat, ja keitä arvojen mukainen toiminta niissä koskee – millainen on ympäristöpolitiikan moraalinen universumi. Analyysi toteutettiin teorialähtöisen laadullisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin: ympäristöpoliittisista ohjelmista etsittiin arvojen ja moraalisen universumin ilmauksia, joiden pohjalta analysoitiin arvopuheen laatua sekä yhtäläisyyksiä ja eroja puolueiden välillä. Ympäristöpoliittinen puhe oli ohjelmissa moniarvoista. Puolueiden ohjelmat olivat keskenään varsin samankaltaisia. Ympäristöpolitiikan tavoitteissa tavallisimpia olivat universalistiset luontoarvot; tärkeänä pidettiin esimerkiksi monimuotoisuuden säilyttämistä. Seuraavaksi tärkeimpiä olivat edellisille vastakkaiset resursseihin liittyvät valta-arvot; ympäristöpolitiikalla pyrittiin resurssien hyödyntämiseen ja talouskasvuun. Turvallisuusarvot olivat myös tärkeitä. Ympäristöpolitiikan keinoissa taas painottuivat suomalaisille tyypilliset työarvot, kuten yhteistyö, määrätietoisuus ja aktiivisuus, sekä koulutusarvot. Lisäksi niissäkin keskityttiin valta-arvoihin. Normeihin liittyviä yhdenmukaisuusarvoja edusti esimerkiksi sääntely. Ohjelmien moraalinen universumi oli laaja: se ulottui kaikilla puolueilla koko ihmiskuntaan. Neljässä viidestä ohjelmasta tuotiin lisäksi esiin ympäristökeskustelussa tavallinen tulevien sukupolvien edusta huolehtiminen. Muut lajit kuuluivat moraaliseen universumiin vain kolmessa ohjelmassa. Poliittisessa keskustelussa käytetty arvopuhe voi osaltaan muovata yhteiskunnan arvoja. Universalististen luontoarvojen korostuminen voi ohjata ympäristöystävällisyyteen myös yksilöiden tasolla. Sitä, miten toisilleen vastakkaisiin universalismi- ja valta-arvoihin vetoaminen vaikuttaa, on kuitenkin vaikea arvioida. Laaja moraalinen universumi on lupaava pohja kompleksisten kestävyys-kysymysten ratkaisemiseen.

The science of fish stock assessment is one that is very resource and labor intensive, with stock assessment models historically being based on data that causes a model to overestimate the strength of a population, sometimes with drastic consequences. The need of cost-effective assessment models and approaches increases, which is why I looked into using Bayesian modeling and networks as an approach not often used in fisheries science. I wanted to determine if it could be used to predict both recruitment and spawning stock biomass of four fish species in the north Atlantic, cod, haddock, pollock and capelin, based on no other evidence other than the recruitment or biomass data of the other species and if these results could be used to lower the uncertanties of fish stock models. I used data available on the RAM legacy database to produce four different models with the statistical software R, based on four different Bayes algorithms found in the R-package bnlearn, two based on continuous data and two based on discrete data. What I found was that there is much potential in the Bayesian approach to stock prediction and forecasting, as our prediction error percentage ranged between 1 and 40 percent. The best predictions were made when the species used as evidence had a high correlation coefficient with the target species, which was the case with cod and haddock biomass, which had a unusually high correlation of 0.96. As such, this approach could be used to make preliminary models of interactions between a high amount of species in a specific area, where there is data abundantly available and these models could be used to lower the uncertanties of the stock assessments. However, more research into the applicability for this approach to other species and areas needs to be conducted.

Mining of sulfide minerals produces acidic effluents rich in soluble metals and sulfate. The effluents pose a risk to the environment and must therefore be treated prior to their release. Conventionally, effluents are neutralized, and remaining metals are precipitated as hydroxides by means of alkaline minerals or industrial chemicals. The process leads to a formation of large amounts of disposable sludge containing valuable metals. Efforts are needed for more sustainable and resource efficient water treatment in the spirit of circular economy. Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) adsorbents are a promising and sustainable alternative to conventional treatments as cellulose is the most abundant natural polymer. In addition, NFC can be prepared from industrial byproducts and its surface properties can easily be modified to adsorb pollutants with different chemical properties. Understanding the adsorption mechanisms is essential for the rational development and use of NFC in water treatment and environmental protection in the future. Based on previous studies, anionic NFC retains metal cations and sulfate anions simultaneously from aqueous solutions. However, the adsorption mechanisms in conditions comparable to e.g. authentic mining water with high metal salt concentrations are poorly understood. In this Master’s Thesis work, adsorption experiments with pure metal salt solutions of increasing metal concentrations (0-800 mM) were carried out to investigate the adsorption mechanisms of metal cations and anions. Based on previous studies five cations with different chemical properties were chosen: Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Mn²⁺, Al³⁺ ja Fe³⁺. The adsorption was examined in both metal chloride and sulfate solutions to also elucidate the co-adsorption of counter ions and their possible effects on metal adsorption on NFC. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm model was utilized to analyze the adsorption of metals. In addition, removal percentages were calculated for both metal cations and their counter anions. NFC was observed to retain all metal cations equally regardless of their different properties and pH-values of the metal salt solutions. The removal percentage of both cations and anions ranged mainly between 14–20 % and the removal capacity of NFC decreased only slightly with increasing initial concentrations. No remarkable differences were observed in the adsorption isotherms of different metals and the adsorption was almost linear in the whole concentration range. Despite the relatively low removal percentages, the amounts of metals adsorbed by NFC (mmol/g dry weight) were tenfold compared to those previously obtained in many studies. According to the results, NFC adsorbed cations non-specifically with weak interactions and the dominating adsorption mechanism resembles physical rather than chemical adsorption. Upon the adsorption of cations, an equal amount of negative charge was co-adsorbed and hence the adsorption of anions was deemed electrostatic in nature.

Opinnäytetyössä tutkittiin olosuhteiden muutosten vaikutusta torjunta-ainepitosuuksiin pilot-mittakaavan sedimenttipylväissä ja suodatinpylväissä. Pilot-mittakaavan pylväissä verrattiin ilmastuksen ja veden virtauksen muutosten vaikutusta pitoisuuksiin. Suodatinpylväissä tarkasteltavina tekijöinä oli orgaanisen aineen ja nollaraudan vaikutus torjunta-ainepitoisuuksiin. Tutkittavina torjunta-aineina olivat atratsiini, simatsiini, heksatsinoni ja diklobeniili, sekä hajoamistuotteet DIA, DEA, DEDIA ja BAM. Kyseisiä torjunta-aineita esiintyy pohjavesissä useissa eri Euroopan maissa mukaan lukien Suomi, vaikka niiden käyttö on lopetettu ja kielletty EU:n alueella useita vuosia sitten. Pylväistä analysoidut ulostulovedet valmisteltiin kaasukromatografia-massaspektrometria (GC-MS) mittausta varten kiinteäfaasiuutolla. Suodatinpylväiden torjunta-aineiden puhdistuskapasiteetti vaihteli testikertojen välillä ja yhdisteet käyttäytyivät eri tavalla suhteessa toisiinsa. Ensimmäisen kuukauden jälkeen talousveden raja-arvo 0,10 µg/l ylittyi heksatsinonin osalta. Toisen kuukauden jälkeen heksatsinonin pitoisuus ylitti jälleen talousveden raja-arvon, niin kuin myös BAM:n. Sitten viimeisellä testikerralla kohonneita yli 0,1 µg/l pitoisuuksia oli atratsiinilla ja heksatsinonilla. BAM:n ja heksatsinonin kulkeutuminen oli odotettavissa yhdisteiden ominaisuuksien perusteella ja niiden hajoaminen on hidasta verrattuna muihin yhdisteisiin. Puolestaan atratsiinin kohonneet pitoisuudet voidaan selittää maaperän kiintoaineksen liikkumisella suodatinpylväästä torjunta-aineiden kanssa. Pelkän hiekan vaikutus suodatinpylväissä aliarvioitiin, mikä vaikutti erityisesti BAM:n ja heksatsinonin pitoisuuksiin.

There is continuously more pharmaceuticals ending up in the environment due to the amount of consumption. Wastewatertreatment plants are the largest point source for the pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment, because most of the pharmaceuticals are meant for humans. Human pharmaceuticals can end up in the ecosystem as they are or as metabolites. Both pharmaceuticals and their metabolites can cause a similar physiological response in the organisms living in the aquatic ecosystem, than in their originally intended target organism, humans. This is the reason why contamination of pharmaceuticals in the environment can be very harmful for the aquatic organisms. Two breast cancer medication were selected for this experiment, which are tamoxifen and letrozole. Both of these medication are very effective in controlling hormonal functions of humans and other organisms. Third pharmaceutical selected for this experiment was diclofenac, which is commonly used NSAID. Active sampling can be very expensive and time consuming, because many samples have to be collected from the same site and they have to be collected at many occasions, so that the time-weighed average of the concentration studied can be found. Passive samplers are devices or sorbents that are able to absorb substances into them. They can be calibrated in the laboratory with known concentrations of studied chemicals and then can be places in a study location in the nature to calculate time-weighed average concentration of the studied chemical in that location. In this study only diclofenac was found in the fieldstudy and only with SDB-RPS-sampler. SDP-RPS samplers absorb mostly chemicals with lower octanol-water partition coefficient and silicone rubber samplers are more suitable for chemicals with higher octanol-water partition coefficient, this was also shown in this study.

Tekstiiliteollisuudessa käytetään merkittäviä määriä kemikaaleja, joista osa on ympäristölle ja terveydelle haitallisia. Tekstiiliteollisuuskehityksen kasvaessa ja kulutuskäytäntöjen kiihtyessä pois heitettävän tekstiilin määrä lisääntyy. Samalla haitalliset kemikaalit vapautuvat saastuttamaan ihmistä ja ympäristöä. Tämä käy ilmi aiemmasta tutkimuksesta, vaikka poistotekstiilien ympärillä tehty tutkimus on muutoin vähäistä. Tämä tutkimus tehdään yritysyhteistyössä Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy:n kanssa määrittämään poistotekstiilien lajittelutyön yhteydessä ilmeneviä terveysvaikutuksia ja sovellettavia testimenetelmiä yrityksen tarpeisiin. Tutkielman tavoitteena oli ensisijaisesti selvittää kemikaalien, pölyn ja homeen terveysvaikutukset ja ne testimenetelmät, joita tulisi terveysvaikutusten vähentämiseksi tehdä. Muiden tutkimuskysymysten osalta tarkoituksena oli selvittää poistotekstiilien sisältämät merkittävimmät haitalliset kemikaalit ja niiden enimmäisraja-arvot. Näitä tutkittiin tutkimuksen teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin laadullista tutkimussuuntausta ja sen menetelmiä. Aineiston keruumenetelmänä oli asiantuntijahaastattelu, jossa tietoja kerättiin puolistrukturoidun kysymyksenasettelun kautta neljältä asiantuntijataholta: Turun ammattikorkeakoululta, Terveyden- ja hyvinvoinninlaitokselta, Työterveyslaitokselta ja Aalto-yliopistolta. Haastattelut toteutettiin puhelinhaastatteluina. Aineistoa analysoitiin temaattisen sisällönanalyysin avulla, jossa aineisto luokiteltiin tutkimuksen kannalta merkittävimpiin teemoihin. Saatuja tuloksia verrattiin olemassa olevaan tutkimuskirjallisuuteen. Hengitystievälitteinen altistuminen yksistään pölylle nähtiin merkittävimmäksi terveysriskiksi laitosolosuhteissa. Kemikaalien, pölyn ja homeen aiheuttamien terveysvaikutusten vähentämiseksi soveltuvimpina testimenetelminä nähtiin erilaisten keräävien menetelmien käyttö ja biomonitorointi. On selvää, että poistotekstiilit sisältävät ihmisen terveydelle ja ympäristölle haitallisia kemikaaleja, pölyä ja homeita. Testimenetelmiä hyödyntämällä voidaan terveysriskejä paikantaa ja niiden osuutta työperäisessä altistumisessa vähentää. Tutkimustulosten tieteellisen luotettavuuden lisäämiseksi on suositeltavaa, että laitoksella otetaan käyttöön kokeelliset testausmenetelmät.

Global warming is changing the ecohydrology and carbon fluxes of northern peatlands. If the soil moisture level remains high enough, peatland carbon sequestration may increase under longer and warming growing seasons, enhancing the cooling climate impact of peatlands. However, in case the evaporation overcomes precipitation, peatlands will dry. This leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and the weakening of the cooling climate effect of peatlands. In addition, peatland methane fluxes are regulated by temperature and moisture conditions. What remains unknown, is which changes will be the most prominent and to which direction the climate impact of peatlands will develop in the future. The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of the peatland climate responses by investigating the recent vegetation development of a subarctic aapa mire. In August 2020, four surface peat cores were collected from the margin of Lompolojänkkä fen in Finnish Lapland. Recent changes in plant communities and carbon accumulation rates were investigated. Pb-210 dating method was applied to establish the chronology. A shift from a Cyperaceae-dominated community into a Sphagnum-dominated community in the beginning of the 1960s was detected. The shift indicates drying habitat conditions. Recent drying has been reported from several other northern peatlands. On the other hand, a similar expansion of Sphagna has been interpreted to be caused not only by hydrological changes but also directly by increasing temperatures, which cannot be ruled out in Lompolojänkkä either. Carbon accumulation in Lompolojänkkä seems to have increased following the change in the vegetation. However, the inferred increase might largely reflect an incomplete level of decomposing characteristic to surface peat. In contrast to the peatland margins, no drying signals or vegetation changes were observed in the central parts of Lompolojänkkä. This variation within a single peatland highlights the heterogeneous nature of peatland climate responses and carbon dynamics.

Introduction: High anthropogenic pressure exercised on the Baltic Sea causes a decline in valuable reproduction areas of coastal fish, such as the northern pike (Esox lucius L.). Hence, the conservation and restoration of the reproduction areas of pike are increasingly of importance. The Kvarken Archipelago, located in the Gulf of Bothnia, presents valuable reproduction habitats for fish. The pre-flads, flads, glo-flads and glo-lakes provide warm and sheltered areas that are preferred by spring-spawning fish, such as pike. However, the precise environmental factors influencing pike reproduction in the region have not yet been identified. In this study, different environmental factors influencing pike reproduction in the Kvarken Archipelago were assessed. Furthermore, as technology advances, there is a need to evaluate the use of new techniques alongside the generally time consuming and expensive traditional research methods applied for surveying the pike reproductive areas. Henceforth, the present study assessed the suitability of the high-resolution aerial photography for identifying potential reproduction areas of northern pike. Methods: The data of pike fry density, the vegetation, the abiotic and biotic environmental factors, as well as the aerial images of the 45 sampling sites were collected by Natural Resources Institute Finland and Metsähallitus Parks and Wildlife Finland as part of the Kvarken Flada -project. Pike fry were sampled with a flat dipnet amongst vegetation along a 100 m sampling line during spring. Concurrently, the vegetation, the occurrence of sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae) and the abiotic factors affecting water quality, including salinity, pH, oxygen content and turbidity were determined. The temperature was recorded with temperature loggers from early spring until late summer. The temperature sum for June showed the greatest effect on pike fry densities and was thus used in the analyses. The archipelago zones, which are based on previously modelled temperature sums, were defined for the sampling sites in the geographic information system (QGIS). Additionally, factors describing the morphology, the vegetation and bottom substrate coverage of the sampling sites were utilized in the analyses. The presence of pike fry was analysed with binary logistic regression. The pike fry densities were studied using non-parametric analyses due to the high number of zero observations in the data. The aerial images were taken in late summer of 2017 and 2018, when the vegetation was fully developed. The vegetation types, i.e. reed, fallen reed, wetland grasses, submerged vegetation and filamentous algae, identified in the images were compared to the vegetation data gathered during field survey in QGIS. The performance of the aerial images was assessed by calculating the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity for the different vegetation classes, first for the whole dataset and then for the sampling points with pike fry observations. Results and conclusions: This study determines two key factors defining suitable reproduction areas of pike, the temperature sum for June and the morphology of the sampling site. The results indicate that pike prefer warm and sheltered areas with suitable vegetation, such as reed and wetland grasses. In particular, glo-lakes provide favorable conditions for pike and the temperature sum for June was significantly higher in the glo-lakes compared to the pre-flads. The temperatures of the glo-lakes were constant throughout the archipelago, providing suitable conditions for pike reproduction also in the outermost archipelago. In all of the glo-lakes pike fry were observed and generally the highest pike fry densities were found in glo-lakes. However, the year class strength of pike can be affected by the possibility of the juvenile pike to emigrate from the enclosed glo-lakes back to the sea. Salinity reflects the connectivity of the site to the surrounding sea and had a significant negative effect on pike fry density. Additionally, the presence of sticklebacks affected negatively the presence of pike fry, which might be traced back to the different use of the archipelago zones and site morphologies of these species. Increasing pH negatively influenced the pike fry density. However, pike fry were observed also in the highest pH conditions and therefore pH alone is not sufficient to explain the presence and density of pike fry. Due to the small sample size of the dataset, it can be assumed that not all of the factors influencing pike reproduction were identified and thus the use of a larger dataset is recommendable in future studies. This study provides new methodological information on reproduction area surveying of pike with high-resolution aerial photography. The different vegetation classes were successfully identified from the aerial images. The seasonal differences were noticeable in the results, as in the aerial photographs taken in late summer, the vegetation was fully developed compared to the field study in early spring. Nevertheless, aerial photography proved to be an effective method for identifying reproduction areas of pike based on the vegetation. Furthermore, reproduction areas in need of restoration could be assessed with aerial photography.