Finnish Society of Forest Science awarded thesis prizes for Dr Yu Tang, M.Sc. Anastasija Dmitrijeva and M.Sc. Hanna Haapala

Dr Yu Tang successfully defended her dissertation “Unravelling δ¹³C signal in Scots pine trees for climate change and tree physiology studies” at the University of Helsinki. Yu Tang studied the application of the stable carbon isotope ¹²C/¹³C relationship, or the d¹³C signal, when investigating the carbon assimilation by the trees to photosynthetic products and further to biomass. The work is timely because it provides insights for understanding the interaction between the climate change and tree growth. The study deepens our understanding on the effects of environmental change on the d¹³C signal of tree leaves and how the signal is modified in wood formation from photosynthetic products. The new knowledge helps to interpret the differences in the d¹³C signal in different parts of a tree and to understand how trees adapt to climate change. Yu Tang uses several new tools for determining the environmentally sensitive d¹³C signal from tree leaves and annual rings. The work is outstanding in its field of study and it was approved with distinction. The experimental part of the study is ambitious and wide. Exceptionally many different approaches are used for solving the study problem. Yu Tang is the first author in three of the four original articles that form the dissertation. The dissertation is well written and the results are expected to be proven scientifically valuable.

The dissertation was published in the number 335 of Dissertationes Forestales, which is published by the Finnish Society of Forest Science in cooperation with the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland.

M.Sc. Anastasija Dmitrijeva’s thesis “Barriers, drivers and opportunities to circular economy in wood construction in Finland” was presented at the University of Helsinki. Anastasija Dmitrijeva’s discipline is business economics and politics of forest bioeconomy. She studied the potential and challenges of circular economy in wood construction. The thesis is based on interviews of professionals of the construction industry and closely related trades. The work is timely because the use of wood materials will reduce carbon emissions from the construction industry. The work of Anastasija Dmitrijeva is both scientifically and societally interesting because of the topic and its timeliness. She uses existing literature for clearly defining the background of the topic. All methods are well described. Based on the thematic interviews, Anastasija Dmitrijeva proposes that the challenges of circular construction economy could be solved with a holistic approach and unification of the practices. She emphasises the importance of the intermediary actors role in reaching the change, like of those who manage materials. The presentation of the thesis shows maturity. Its finalisation and linguistic quality are excellent.

M.Sc. Hanna Haapala’s thesis “Determining Forest Area with ICESat-2 Satellite LiDAR” was presented at the University of Eastern Finland. Hanna Haapala’s discipline is forest mensuration and management planning. She studied the material produced by the ICESat-2 satellite. ICESat-2 is developed by NASA for mapping ice cover and vegetation. It is based on laser measurements made from space, which differ from the traditional passive satellite sensors used for mapping vegetation by being an active remote sensing method. The work of Hanna Haapala is very timely in its field of study because active sensors are becoming more widely used in global forest mapping and surveys. The satellite laser data used in the thesis makes possible to predict the development of forest cover and other features more directly than what is possible using optical sensors. The work of Hanna Haapala is more extensive than a typical Master’s thesis. The thesis shows that the author is familiar with the forest predictions based on remote sensing and the methods for validating them. The methods developed in her work may be applied for uniformly producing mapform forest predictions for extensive areas. Hanna Haapala has widely studied and applied the existing literature on the topic.