Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment has granted funding for the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland for research project that predicts long-term changes in boreal and subarctic ecosystems. The HISTECO project received funding of 536,230 euro and the project is led by university researcher Sari Stark. The four-year project starts in September 2019.

The research project models long-term changes in
boreal and subarctic ecosystems by combining ecology and history. The research will
be conducted in sites where land-use has changed vegetation already decades or
centuries ago. By doing this, the research provides information on factors that
determine the direction and persistence of changes in ecosystems and how these
factors impact carbon stocks.

– This research is topical
because climate warming changes ecosystems in the north. One of the most common
problems in ecological research is that it is uncertain whether results from
short-term experiments apply for the long-term. Our goal is to create a new research
model that could be used in the long-term studies of ecosystem processes, says
University Researcher Sari Stark from the Arctic Centre
at the University of Lapland.

The project involves
researchers from the fields of plant ecology, microbiology, geography and history.
The project is led by the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and partners
come from Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Historical
sites as a novel tool for predicting long-term boreal and subarctic ecosystem
change (HISTECO) project takes place from 1 September 2019 to 31 August
2023.

For further
information:

University Researcher
Sari Stark
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
+358 40 484
4254, sari.stark(at)ulapland.fi

 

LaY/AK/JW