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

https://helsinginyliopisto.etapahtuma.fi/kalenteri/english.aspx