Aino Hämäläinen

I conduct research on conservation of biodiversity in boreal forests. I am interested in studying which factors affect the diversity of forest-dwelling species, on both local and landscape scales, with the aim to find ways to maintain species diversity in managed forest landscapes. I have studied, for example, how the structure of surrounding landscape affects species occurrence in different forest habitats, or how different forest management and restoration methods, such as retention forestry or prescribed burning, benefit forest-dwelling species. Recently, I have also focused on the use of environmental DNA for surveying forest-dwelling species.

My research has focused especially on forest-dwelling lichens, but I have also studied other species groups and more general indicators of forest biodiversity, such as structural diversity. 

My current research focuses especially on the use of aerial environmental DNA (DNA extracted from air samples) for surveying and monitoring forest-dwelling species, such as lichens and bryophytes. I examine, for example, how accurate aerial eDNA surveys are in comparison to traditional field surveys, and which factors can affect survey accuracy. The aim is to develop reliable, eDNA-based survey methods that can both be used in future research, as well as biodiversity surveys for e.g. conservation or forest management purposes.

Another topic I currently work on are the effects of climate change on lichens. In an ongoing project, we utilize a long-term time series of aerial eDNA samples to examine population trends of lichens in northern Sweden and assess whether these trends can be explained by changes in climate and land use. The lichen response to changing climate will then be explored in more detail, e.g. by looking at whether the response is mediated by lichens functional traits.

Currently, I am the course leader for the course Forest Conservation Science.

In addition, I am teaching on the courses "Skogens ekologi och produktionsförmåga" and "Floristik".

I'm also happy to supervise thesis projects related to the topics of my research. Feel free to contact me about possible topics!

2016 Doctor of Science (Agriculture and Forestry), School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu

2011 MSc (Agriculture and Forestry), School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland

2010 BSc (Agriculture and Forestry), School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland

See Google Scholar-page for a full list of publications.

Hämäläinen, A., Fahrig, L. 2024. Time-lag effects of habitat loss, but not fragmentation, on deadwood-dwelling lichens. Landscape Ecology 39, 111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01910-3

Hämäläinen, A., Runnel, K., Ranius, T., Strengbom, J. 2024. Diversity of forest structures important for biodiversity is determined by the combined effects of productivity, stand age, and management. Ambio 53, 718–729. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-023-01971-9

Hämäläinen, A., Fahrig, L., Strengbom, J., Ranius, T. 2023. Effective management for deadwood-dependent lichen diversity requires landscape-scale habitat protection. Journal of Applied Ecology 60: 1597-1606. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14429

Hämäläinen, A., Runnel, K., Mikusinski, G., Himelbrant, D., Fenton, N, Lõhmus, P. 2023. Living trees and biodiversity. In: Girona, M, Morin, H., Gauthier, S., Bergeron, Y. (Eds.). 2023. Boreal forests in the face of climate change - Sustainable management. Advances in Global Change Research, 74, Springer-Nature, Cham: Springer. ISBN 978-3-031-15987-9. 

Hämäläinen, A., Strengbom, J., Ranius, T. 2020. Low-productivity boreal forests have high conservation value for lichens. J Appl Ecol. 57: 43– 54. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13509

Hämäläinen, A., Strengbom, J., Ranius, T. 2018. Conservation value of low-productive forests measured as the amount and diversity of dead wood and saproxylic beetles. Ecol. Appl. 28(4), 1011–1019. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1705