I am a landscape ecologist and I primarily study the relationship between landscape structure and biodiversity in human-dominated environments (agricultural, urban, forested). I have also worked on decision-making issues in landscape planning through habitat connectivity modelling and forest management simulations. I do not focus on a particular species or taxa, but I have mostly worked with plants, carabid beetles, and birds.

​

Since May 2018, I have been working at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) in the boreal ecosystem research group on my personal postdoctoral grant on the potential benefits of management diversification for biodiversity in forest ecosystems. In October 2022, I started leading a project on the joint effects of land use and climate change on biodiversity in Finnish landscapes. 

Over the years, my research gradually expanded towards interdisciplinary science, ecological economics, and social-ecological systems. In general, I am integrating more components (e.g. climate and social dimensions) into a holistic landscape approach.

My research aims at tackling the biodiversity crises by applying the principles of biodiversity conservation and landscape ecology to various sectors. I have therefore done research in the fields of agroecology, connectivity of habitat networks, sustainable forest management, and, more recently, social-ecological systems. 

I have joined the Boreal Ecosystem Research Group as a postdoc researcher in February 2023. In this project, I will study the joint effects of climate and landscape forest changes on Finnish bird communities. I will also explore how forest management should account for the temporal and spatial habitat dynamic in forest landscapes to maintain biodiversity. Before that, I did my PhD on the effects of temperate forest dieback on habitat structure and biodiversity.

In my PhD project, I study biodiversity distribution in urban landscapes, and explore ways to mitigate the impacts of urban development on habitat connectivity for multiple species. Using the city of Jyväskylä as a case study, I will develop various modelling approaches to map habitat networks for multiple-species and apply the principle of mitigation hierarchy in the context of urban expansion. The project will also produce essential knowledge about the role of connectivity in biodiversity offsetting. My doctoral topic is a combination of academic research in landscape ecology and the practical application of biodiversity conservation, which aim to contribute to biodiversity conservation in cities. My supervisors are PhD Rémi Duflot, PhD Heini Kujala and Prof. Janne Kotiaho.