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After drastic declines in large carnivores’ populations globally, conservation efforts have been successful, and predators’ populations are in recovery. However, their comeback has led to new interactions with locals, generating different conflicts. Two main approaches have been considered to mitigate these conflicts, those being the land sparing and land sharing models, however, the land sparing model requires great extents of protected areas, areas that in Europe are missing, therefore forcing a call for the land sharing model. In Finland, this approach has generated debates among different stakeholders, the outcomes of this debate shaping the fate for the four species: brown bear (Ursus arctos), grey wolf (Canis lupus), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and wolverine (Gulo gulo). Attitudes towards those species can be used to explore the drivers of the conflicts, however, only few studies have explored this context, considering the ecological and social dimension separately. In addition, the ecotourism industry has been recently recognized as a new stakeholder in the Finnish large carnivore’s context, but the effects of its activities were assessed only ecologically. Therefore, with this study I aimed to explore the attitudes of locals from a specific region of Finland towards the four large carnivores’ species, and to assess the different drivers of those species, through a combination of field questionnaires, social variables and large carnivores’ population data. I explored potential correlates of the differences in attitudes, adding also the spatial effect of ecotourism over the socio-ecological factors. I predicted attitudes to vary among species, having on one side the brown bear with positive attitudes, in contrast the wolf with negative attitudes, while neutral attitudes towards the lynx and wolverine. I also expected to find more negative attitudes in smaller localities rather than in localities with a greater human population density. Also, I explored whether the ecotourism activities have a positive or negative effect over the locals’ attitude towards carnivores, expecting the ecotourism industry to bring positive attitudes in nearby localities. As result, attitudes towards the four different species varied significantly, the attitudes towards each different species having different drivers, with the human population size being important for wolverines and wolves, while the status for bear and lynx populations. The ecotourism had an effect only on bear attitudes, being positively correlated (closer the ecotourism activities were, more positive the attitudes are). To mitigate the large carnivores-human conflict in Finland, a community approach is not the solution, since the different origins of the attitudes ‘drivers. However, the attitudes among species are positively correlated, consequently, by ameliorate the attitudes towards one species, also the others will benefit. Finally, by inducing a proper management within the ecotourism industry and promoting more the respective activity on a national level, the ecotourism can have a positive impact and get a positive role in the Finnish conflict.

Abstract: Northern boreal peatlands form one of the biggest carbon pools in the biosphere, thus having great potential to cause major changes to the global carbon cycle. The ongoing recent warming may affect the carbon dynamics though factors, such as, vegetation, hydrology and permafrost balance. As the future is still uncertain there are no definitive answers on how the peatlands will react in the future. Fortunately, moisture sensitive organisms such as, bryophytes and testate amoeba is preserved in the peat and can therefore be used to reconstruct past climatic shifts. In this thesis I studied palaeohydrology and peat accumulation over the last two millennia, from three peat cores originating in a permafrost peatland in Rogovaya, Russia. I used testate amoeba as a proxy of past moisture conditions and plotted the taxa composition of each core against 14C and 210Pb dated samples, to reconstruct past moisture shifts. The results were also supplemented by plant macrofossil and carbon accumulation data for more robust results. Of the three cores, Rog11 provided the oldest testate amoeba dataset by reaching the Dark Ages Cold Period. During this period there were indications of dry moisture conditions followed by a wet Medieval Warm Period. The Little Ice Age gave indications of a drying trend, while toward the end of the LIA Rog8 indicated opposite moisture conditions. From the end of the LIA onwards a general trend of drying and increased carbon accumulated is noted. Yet, during the last decade the trend has turned. The wet shift might indicate that the threshold for the peatland has been reached and the amount of melting permafrost has exceeded the evapotranspiration rate. As a conclusion my result indicates that the dynamics of both hydrology and carbon are complicated processes affected by both autogenic and allogenic factors, therefore causing large variability even on a local scale. The absence of widely spread observations of the most recent wet shift also indicates that the response of the peatland to the recent warming might be unequal. To rectify this situation, continued research is crucial, so that we can increase our understanding of climate-peatland interactions.

Eläinten hyvinvoinnin parantamiseen tarvitaan paljon tieteellistä tutkimusta tunteista, älykkyydestä ja lajikohtaisista tarpeista. Tiedon pohjalta pystytään vertaamaan ja kehittämään eläinten tarpeisiin soveltuvia olosuhteita, kuten esimerkiksi virikkeitä ja hoitomuotoja eläintarhoissa. Eläintarhaolosuhteissa eläimen hyvinvoinnin saavuttaminen vaatii kompromisseja tilan ja resurssien rajallisuuden vuoksi. Parhaimman kompromissin löytämiseen vaaditaan tieteellistä tietoa lajikohtaisesta hyvinvoinnista. Maisterintutkielman tarkoituksena oli tuottaa tieteelliseen tietoon perustuva arvio Korkeasaaren eläintarhassa valittujen lajien hyvinvoinnista, jotka olivat huulipekari (Tayassu pecari), pikkumarmosetti (Cebuella pygmaea), punaniskakenguru (Macropus rufogriseus) ja sinikurkkuara (Ara glaucogularis). Tavoitteena oli tunnistaa tekijät, jotka vaikuttavat kyseisten eläinten hyvinvointiin luonnossa, ja verrata niitä eläintarhassa olevien yksilöiden olosuhteisiin. Tämän avulla pystyttiin arvioimaan lajikohtaiset tarpeet, joita tarvitaan eläinten hyvinvoinnin saavuttamiseksi. Vertasin hyvinvointiarvioitani tutkittavien lajien hoitajien tekemiin arvioihin, minkä tarkoituksena oli ymmärtää, riippuuko hyvinvoinnin arvio arvioijan näkökulmasta, ja onko lajien välillä eroja siinä, mihin seikkoihin arvioitsijat kiinnittävät huomiota. Arviointeja vertailemalla oli myös tarkoitus löytää tekijöitä, joilla on vaikutusta lajikohtaiseen hyvinvointiin Korkeasaaressa, minkä pohjalta voidaan ymmärtää ja kehittää mahdollisia hyvinvointia edistäviä toimenpiteitä. Toteutin tutkielman eri osioissa. Ensin suoritin kirjallisuuskatsauksen, jonka tarkoituksena oli määrittää tutkittavien lajien käyttäytyminen ja hyvinvoinnin tarpeet tieteellisten tutkimuksien avulla. Seuraavaksi selvitin eläinten olosuhteet Korkeasaaressa aitauksien kuvaamisen, tarkastelun ja hoitajien haastattelujen avulla. Tämän jälkeen tein hyvinvointikartoitukset, joita verrattiin tutkittavien eläinten hoitajien vastaaviin tilastollisesti. Hoitajat arvioivat lajien hyvinvoinnin aina paremmaksi kuin minä, ja erot arvioinneissa olivat suuria. Johtopäätöksenä voidaan pitää, että suora vertailu luonnonympäristöön voi johtaa huomattavasti alhaisempiin hyvinvointiarvioihin. Tällainen on esimerkiksi trooppisen ilmaston vertailu Suomen vuodenaikaisvaihteluun, vaikka eläimillä olisi aina mahdollisuus suotuisiin lämpö- ja valaistusolosuhteisiin. Hyvinvoinnin osa-alueiden välillä ei ollut merkittäviä eroja. Huomattavaa on, että hoitajat arvioivat samalla myös paitsi eläimen olosuhteita, myös omaa onnistumistaan niiden hoidossa. Tämä voi vaikuttaa siihen, että yksikään laji ei saanut hoitajilta yhtään 1-arviota, kun taas minulla oli objektiivisempi ote arviointiin, sillä kritiikki ei kohdistunut minuun edes välillisesti.

Protein kinases are signaling molecules that regulate vital cellular and biological processes by phosphorylating cellular proteins. Kinases are linked to variety of diseases such as cancer, immune deficiencies and degenerative diseases. This thesis work aimed to identify direct substrates for protein kinases in the CMGC family, which consists of the cyclin-depended kinases (CDK), mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK), glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) and CDC-like kinases (CLK). CMGC kinases have been identified as cancer hubs in interactome studies, but large-scale identification of direct substrates has been difficult due to the lack of efficient methods. Here, we present a heavy-labeled 18O-ATP-based kinase assay combined with LC-MS/MS analysis for direct substrate identification. In the assay, HEK and HeLa cell lysates are treated with a pan-kinase inhibitor FSBA which irreversibly blocks endogenous kinases. After the removal of FSBA, cell lysates are incubated with the kinase of interest and a heavy-labeled ATP, which contains 18O isotope at the γ-phosphate position. Resulting phosphopeptides are enriched with Ti4+- IMAC before the LC-MS/MS analysis, which distinguishes the desired phosphorylation events based on a mass shift caused by the heavy 18O. With this pipeline of methods, we managed to quantify and identify direct substrates for 26 members of CMGC kinase family. A total of 1345 substrates and 3841 interacting kinase-substrate pairs were identified in cytosolic cell lysates, from which 165 were annotated in the PhosphoSitePlus® database. To identify substrates for kinases with nuclear localization, ten kinases were tested with nuclear HEK cell lysate. We identified 194 kinase-substrate pairs, 141 of which were unique to the nuclear fraction and 27 annotated in the PhosphoSitePlus® database. Finally, kinases with outstandingly high amounts of novel substrates were subjected to gene ontology analysis. We were able to link the gene ontology classifications of novel substrates to the biological processes regulated by the kinase of interest. These results indicate that heavy-labeled 18O-ATP-based kinase assay linked LC-MS/MS is a useful tool for large-scale direct kinase substrate identification.

Plants control the exchange of gases through the stomatal pores. Stomata are formed by guard cells and the closure of stomata are regulated via a complex signaling network in response to various biotic and abiotic stimuli, such as pathogens, elevated levels of CO2 and darkness. The leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase (LRR-RLK) GUARD CELL HYDROGEN PEROXIDE-RESISTANT1 (GHR1) is part of the network regulating stomatal closure. GHR1 is an inaktive pseudokinase that can activate SLOW ANION CHANNEL-ASSOCIATED1 (SLAC1), an anion channel that is crucial for stomatal closure, via interacting proteins. The exact role of GHR1 is still partly unknown, however, it has been suggested that GHR1 could function as a scaffold or as an allosteric regulator of additional components required for stomatal closure. The aim of this study was to identify novel interactors of GHR1. First stable plant lines expressing fusion proteins GHR1-YFP, GHR1W799*-YFP and plain YFP as a negative control were generated and from these lines fusion protein expression levels and the subcellular localization were studied. Next the plant lines were used for purifying GHR1 interacting proteins with the use of co-immunoprecipitation and identification of the proteins with mass spectrometry. The unlikely GHR1 interactor candidates were then filtered from the mass spectrometry data. The subcellular localization and the protein expression of the interacting proteins were studied with the use of internet databases. Literature of the GHR1 interacting proteins were studied in order to make possible connections with GHR1 and stomatal closure. In this study 38 GHR1 interactors were identified. Literature search revealed that many of the identified interactors had a known role in stomatal movements. These included proteins such as PLASMA MEMBRANE INTRINSIC PROTEIN2-1 (PIP2-1) and BETA CARBONIC ANHYDRASE 4 (BCA4), that are known to have a role in stomatal closure. Future work includes confirming the interactions with independent methods and studying the molecular mechanisms related to stomatal movements. The GHR1 interactome identified here for the first time reveals novel parts of the network regulating stomatal movements and thus increases our understanding of molecular mechanisms behind stomatal functions.

This study aimed to identify conservation landscapes with potential to be mutually beneficial for people and African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) in South Africa through spatial conservation planning analyses that integrate ecological and socioeconomic data. The research questions were: (i) what are the most ecologically suitable areas for the reintroduction of elephants, and (ii) which of these areas provide the best opportunities for also sustaining socioeconomic development of local people. The first question was answered with an ecological model that predicts habitat suitability for elephants, developed by a combination of literature review, expert opinion, and GIS-based methods. The second question was answered by combining the ecological model with socioeconomic criteria in Zonation spatial conservation planning software. The results show that the central part of South Africa holds most potential for elephant conservation as it has the largest uniform area of high-quality habitat, while the area also meets the socioeconomic criteria. The priority areas for the conservation of elephants were classified into top priority classes of 1%, 2%, 5%, 10% and 20%. The identified areas hold an unrealized opportunity in the wildlife and ecotourism sectors, and the reintroduction of elephants to those areas could provide the foundation for long-term economic activity of local communities e.g. in the form of elephant-based ecotourism, while contributing to the conservation of elephants. Conserving just the top 5% priority areas would grow South African protected area estate by approximately three million hectares and increase the current elephant range by approximately 75%. Ideally, the results of this study could be used to inform the on-going decision-making process on where to allocate resources for elephant conservation in South Africa.

Education research has for decades acknowledged that prior knowledge is a strong predictor of academic success. This idea is largely based on constructivist theory of learning which postulates that all learning occurs by actively building on existing knowledge. When this prior knowledge conflicts with the normative scientific understanding, students are dealing with incompatible knowledge structures, or misconceptions. Misconceptions need to be revised and sometimes even replaced through a learning process called conceptual change. Research shows that the level of prior knowledge can determine students’ academic success and performance. Undergraduate biology students enrol to university with diverse levels of prior knowledge and concepts regarding topics such as photosynthesis, cellular respiration, primary production in ecosystems, and Darwinian evolution. These topics present challenges for learning because of their complexity. At the same time, a robust understanding of them is essential. These topics are at the heart of mitigating and resolving the climate crisis and other global natural threats. This study explored the level of prior knowledge and the nature of misconceptions held by undergraduate biology students at the beginning of their academic degree in fall of 2019, and further sought to describe how their conceptual understanding developed during the first academic year. Students (N = 41) completed a questionnaire consisting of eight open-ended questions that were designed to assess declarative knowledge of facts and meaning, and procedural integration and application of knowledge. This pre-test measurement was conducted in September 2019. In the post-test measurement, the same questionnaire was repeated a year later. The data were analysed with a mixed methods approach where the answers were quantitatively scored as well as qualitatively analysed for misconceptions. The qualitative content analysis of the answers relied both on existing literature and on the content of the answers themselves. Results showed that the students’ prior knowledge was relatively poor in the beginning of their studies. Most students performed well in tasks measuring knowledge of facts and meaning but struggled in tasks measuring integration and application of knowledge. During the first academic year, the students’ understanding generally improved as demonstrated by the improvement in mean scores of the tasks. Misconceptions were robust and pervasive. The most pervasive misconceptions reflected difficulties in understanding emergent properties and processes. Misconceptions related to the process of Darwinian evolution became more prominent in the post-test. Persistent misconceptions became integrated with the new conceptual frameworks that the students acquired during the first academic year. If students held no misconceptions in the post-test, they performed significantly better in both tests than those with misconceptions. During this first academic year learning seemed to be mainly additive as conceptual change turned out to be rare. The need for more encompassing biology teaching at least in the University of Helsinki became evident. Introductory courses should acknowledge the large degree of variation in students’ prior knowledge and assess the most common and serious misconceptions even over course theme disciplines to ensure more equal learning outcomes.

Distal myopathies are a group of rare progressive genetic muscle disorders that are extremely varied both genetically and clinically. Typical symptoms include weakness and atrophy limited to the skeletal muscles of distal extremities in hands and legs. The age of onset ranges from early childhood to late adulthood depending on the disease. Currently around 30 genes have been associated with distal myopathies, most of them causing a dominant disease. The objective of the thesis was to identify the disease-causing variant in a family affected by autosomal dominant distal myopathy with early adulthood onset. Affected family members expressed weakness and atrophy in muscles of both hands and legs. To narrow down the chromosomal location of the disease-causing variant, linkage analysis was conducted with genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data of family members. Because of the progressive nature of the disease and uncertain disease status of one family member, linkage analysis had to be repeated a few different times with different settings. Both disease statuses and pedigree size were altered to account for the possibility of presymptomatic carriers or incomplete penetrance. Analyses with different parameters led to discovery of multiple possible co-segregating regions. Rare co-segregating small-scale and structural variants as well as repeat expansions in these regions were examined from next-generation sequencing data with multiple bioinformatic detection tools. The segregation of possible candidate variants was validated with Sanger sequencing and PCR. Ultimately, no likely rare co-segregating variant of any type of genetic variation with a likelihood to cause a disease such as distal myopathy was identified by any detection method used. Lack of potential disease-causing variant could be due to incomplete penetrance of the variant or if it was in non-coding regions, such as a deep intronic splicing variant in a gene currently not known to be connected to muscles.

Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin, millaisia kehyksiä ilmastoahdistus saa kahdeksassa, vuonna 2021 julkaistussa suomalaisessa podcast-jaksossa. Näin pyritään lisäämään ymmärrystä ilmastoahdistuksen ilmiöstä, sekä siitä, millaisia kehystyksiä aihe mediassa saa. Tutkimus on tehty laadullisella kehysanalyysilla, joka perustuu Erwin Goffmanin (1974) kehittämään kehysteoriaan ja sen myöhempiin sovellutuksiin. Lyhyesti sanottuna, tutkimus pohjaa siihen olettamukseen, jossa median tavat kehystää ja esittää jokin aihe tai asia ohjaavat sitä, millä tavalla asiat meille esitetään ja millaisina me asiat näemme. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin suoratoistopalvelu Spotifysta, Yle Areenasta ja Suplasta. Kehyksien muodostamisessa hyödynnettiin Robert Entmanin (1993) median kehysanalyysin periaatetta, jossa kehyksillä on neljä tarkoitusta: Ongelmien määritteleminen, ongelman aiheuttavien tekijöiden tunnistaminen, moraalisten arvioiden tekeminen sekä ratkaisujen ehdottaminen. Tutkimuksen tuloksena syntyi kolme kehystä, jotka nimettiin luonnollisen ilmastoahdistuksen, ilmastoahdistus sukupolvikysymyksenä sekä ilmastoahdistus tarvitsee vertaistukea, käsittelyä ja toimintaa kehyksiksi. Jokainen kehys kuvaa omalla tavallaan sitä, millaisena ilmastoahdistus nähdään viime aikaisissa podcast-keskusteluissa. Luonnollisen ilmastoahdistuksen kehyksessä korostuvat näkemykset siitä, kuinka ilmastoahdistus voidaan nähdä luonnollisena ja normaalina, sekä hyvänä reaktiona motivoivan vaikutuksensa kautta. Kaiken kaikkiaan kehys kuvaa ilmasto- ja ympäristöahdistuksen ilmiön monitahoisuutta ja yksilöllisyyttä, sekä pyrkii vahvistamaan näkemyksiä siitä, mitä ilmastoahdistus on ja mitä se ei ole. Lisäksi ilmastoahdistuksen sisältämä ahdistus sana kyseenalaistetaan. Ilmastoahdistus sukupolvikysymyksenä - kehys avaa puolestaan näkemyksiä nuorten ilmastoahdistuksen syihin ja korostumiseen, sekä ottaa kantaa aikaisempaan ilmastoahdistuskeskusteluun, joka joidenkin keskustelijoiden mielestä näyttäytyi ilmiötä vähättelevänä. Kokonaisuudessaan kehyksessä kuitenkin korostuu näkemys siitä, että ilmastoahdistus ei ole vain nuoria koskettava asia, vaikka se tällä hetkellä korostuu ja ilmenee eniten nuoremmissa sukupolvissa. Kehys ilmastoahdistus tarvitsee vertaistukea, käsittelyä ja toimintaa, tuo esiin keskustelijoiden näkemyksiä ja kokemuksia liittyen ilmastoahdistuksen käsittelyyn ja lievittämiseen, sekä osallistuu keskusteluun koskien ilmastotekojen merkityksellisyyttä. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella voidaan sanoa, että ilmastoahdistus saa vuonna 2021 julkaistuissa, suomalaisissa podcastkeskusteluissa monia eri sävyjä ja ilmastoahdistusta käsitellään niissä laajasti. Ja vaikka keskustelijoiden näkemykset ovat pitkälti linjassa ilmastoahdistusta käsittelevien julkaisujen kanssa, muutamia kiinnostavia ja tutkimattomiakin näkökulmia ja kehystyksiä ilmenee. Osaltaan tutkimuksen tulokset täydentävät kuvaa siitä, miten valtavirtamediaa hitaammat lajityypit – kuten podcastit – mukautuvat muualla esitettyihin määritelmiin ja kehystyksiin, mutta myös täydentävät niitä. Tällöin podcast-keskustelujen voidaan nähdä tarjoavan vaihtoehtoisia kehyksiä, jotka osittain haastavat ja täydentävät julkisuudessa hallitsevia kehyksiä.

The impacts of climate change are going to be significant in Finland, thus the need to adapt is inevitable. Municipalities are the key to adaptation because the impacts of climate change are met locally. Several cities have developed their measures to climate impacts. However, multiple barriers may hinder the planning and implementation of adaptation measures in the cities. The purpose of this research is to identify and overcome the barriers in urban climate change adaptation in the City of Helsinki. The main data of this research was collected in a workshop and it consists of the blank form replies collected with 6-3-5 method and focus group discussions. 11 civil servants from the City of Helsinki who deal with adaptation issues in their daily work participated in the workshop. The participants identified the barriers and evaluated the most important ones in the workshop: lack of cost-benefit analyses, rivalry of the resources with other interests, lack of urgency regarding adaptation, lack of information, fragmentation of the organization and unclear roles and responsibilities. Identifying the barriers does not solely promote the resilience of the cities but it is an important step in the development of adaptation work. It is essential to seek possible solutions to overcome the identified barriers. Six solutions that can tackle simultaneously several barriers emerged from the data gathered in the workshop: costbenefit analyses, increasing training and information, concrete examples, increasing co-operation, clear modes of action and responsibilities and the support and commitment of the management. With these solutions, the City of Helsinki has the possibility to simultaneously overcome several barriers that were identified in this research. To conclude, the responsibility of climate change adaptation should be clarified in the new city organization and silos between different sectors should be addressed, if possible. It would be useful to utilise the multi-criteria decision analysis in prioritising and argumenting of the adaptation measures in the city. As additional conclusions, it seems that improved co-operation with the universities and research institutions, and legislation indicating clear roles and responsibilities in terms of adaptation might benefit the adaptation work in the City of Helsinki. As for the need for further research, the analytical framework developed and utilized in this research needs to be tested in other case studies also.