MSc Sirke Piirainen investigates how predicting the
future of species can help conservationists in anticipating which species will
benefit from or suffer due to climate change. Piirainen’s thesis makes future
projections about the distribution of Northern European bird species in the 2050s
while also evaluating the reliability of such projections.

In
addition, the thesis examines what factors related to agricultural intensification
are causing the dramatic decline in a critically endangered farmland bird, the
Ortolan Bunting, which has been projected to disappear from Finland within a few
decades.

Details about the public
defense:

MSc Sirke Piirainen will defend the
doctoral dissertation entitled Modelling Changes in Occurrence Probabilities and
Abundances of Species in the Anthropocene Based on Multi-Source Environmental Data
in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of
Helsinki on 13 December, 2024, at 1:00 PM. The public defense will take place in the
Metsätieteiden talo, Raisio Hall (LS B2), Latokartanonkaari 7.

The opponent will be Professor Hanna Kokko, Alexander von Humboldt
Professor of Evolutionary Ecology, University of Mainz, and the custos will be Marjo
Saastamoinen.

The public defence can also be followed remotely
at: https://video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live-stream.html?room=l12 

About the publication:

Sirke Piirainen (2024): Modelling Changes in Occurrence Probabilities
and Abundances of Species in the Anthropocene Based on Multi-Source Environmental
Data.
Permanent link to the electronic publication: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-84-0443-9

More Information:

Sirke Piirainen, sirke.piirainen(at)helsinki.fi, +358 40 484 4357