Baltic TRANSCOAST Summer (Autumn) School in Finland 2017

WS4 "Subsurface and Coastal Water Dynamics and Peatland Ecology"

Visiting SMEAR II experimental site (Photo: Dr. Manon Janßen/Uni Rostock)
Visiting SMEAR II experimental site (Photo: Dr. Manon Janßen/Uni Rostock)
On R/V Saduria (Photo: Dr. Manon Janßen/Uni Rostock)
On R/V Saduria (Photo: Dr. Manon Janßen/Uni Rostock)
Excursion to Siikaneva mire (Photo: Dr. Manon Janßen/Uni Rostock)
Excursion to Siikaneva mire (Photo: Dr. Manon Janßen/Uni Rostock)

Our second summer school on "Subsurface and Coastal Water Dynamics and Peatland Ecology" (WS4) took place in Finland from September 29th to October 6th. The workshop combined lectures and field courses from Baltic TRANSCOAST faculty members and Mercator Fellow Dr. Fereidoun Rezanezhad with excursions guided by scientists from the University of Helsinki.

The first part at Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station - located in the midst of the Finnish forests - focused on terrestrial processes. Dr. Mari Pihlatie showed us around the impressingly equipped SMEAR II station (Station for Measuring Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations), while Prof. Dr. Harri Vasander took us on a great excursion to surrounding peatlands in both pristine, drained and restored stages. 

We then headed for Tvärminne Zoological Station at the southern coast to learn about coastal water dynamics. What happens to dissolved substances from the terrestrial side once they reach the Baltic Sea? Dr. Tom Jilbert lead a superb boat excursion (on R/V Saduria) into Mustionjokki bay, well illustrating the hydraulic and geobiochemical processes determining the distribution of nutrients and organic matter at the interface between land and open sea. Click here for video presenting research at Tvärminne Zoological Station.

We wish to convey our thanks and appreciation to all Baltic TRANSCAOST colleagues and friends as well as the organization teams from the research stations in Hyytiälä (Dr. Mari Pihlatie, Dr. Pekka Kaitaniemi, et al.) and Tvärminne (Dr. Joanna Norkko, Dr. Tim Jilbert, Mariella Holstein-Myllyoja, et al.) for their commitment and successful work at the Summer School in Finland.

We would like to extend our thanks to all of the people involved with the Finland Summer School, who gave the PhD students in-depth and very exciting insights into their scientific work, in particluar: Dr. Mari Pihlatie (Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station, University of Helsinki), Dr. Harri Vasander (Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station, University of Helsinki), Dr. Tom Jilbert (Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki), Dr. Ulf Gräwe (Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Rostock), Dr. Fereidoun Rezanezhad (Mercator Fellow, University of Waterloo, Canada), and our co-travelled lecturers from the University of Rostock: Spokesperson Prof. Dr. Bernd Lennartz (Soil Physics/Uni Rostock), Dr. Manon Janßen (Soil Physics/Uni Rostock), Dr. Gerald Jurasinski (Landscape Ecology and Site Evolution/Uni Rostock). 

Our guide Dr. Mari Pihlatie said goodbye with the following words: "You have a great group working together and brilliant ways to strengthen the work". 

To the question in the evaluation questionnaires for the participating 13 PhD students: "Would you recommend the workshop to other doctoral candidates?", they responded as follows: "100 %".