On May 20th, our group visited the University of Jyväskylä, or JYU. At JYU we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to receive some lectures on biodiversity and deadwood from some of their professors. We spoke with senior lecturer, Emily Knott and senior researcher Daniel Burgas Riera. Both of them were from the department of biological and environmental science. We got to hear from Emily about the work that JYU does and what kind of programs they provide for students. One really interesting thing we heard about was that JYU offers several masters and bachelors programs in English and Finnish. Daniel provided more of an actual lecture you might see being given at JYU. It consisted of an explanation of what dead wood is and why it is so important to our forests. What he had found in his research was that the amount of forests in Finland has been expanding since 1991 but the biodiversity in said forests is actually decreasing! This is most likely due to the fact that many forestry companies are not allowing forests to reach proper maturity, so they don’t fall and die naturally, never creating deadwood. This is bad for biodiversity because deadwood provides nutrients and habitat for several species of plants, animals, and fungi.
Afterwards, we had the privilege of going on a field trip of sorts with the professors to a nearby forest. There we were able to see deadwood up close and make observations about the species growing on and around the deadwood. One exciting thing on the dead wood was a species of polypore, that when scratched smelled like nail polish remover. Actually being in the field with these scientists was very eye opening for us and we were able to better understand the science behind the forests we see everyday. Using what we learned in the lectures we were able to ask questions and be curious about what we saw on the field trip.
Overall, this experience has made us better world learners and gave us incredible insight into forest health and how our forestry practices impact our environment.
Comments