In the beginning of the Holocene, Scandinavia was covered by bare mineral soil. During the following millennia, plants and micro-organisms assimilated carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen from the atmosphere. Bare soil turned into forest. Forests are in continuous interaction between the atmosphere.
Forests give, but they also take. These phenomena can be studied by measuring the exchange of gases between forests and the atmosphere. In the guidance of forest researcher Janne Korhonen, we familiarize how this this invisible process can be measured, and discuss what can the measurements tell us, and what can they not.
The second part of the workshop is lead by Kourosh Kabiri, who is a Iranian born forest scientist specialised in structural regularities of the trees. The only part of a tree that keeps the traces of it´s “growth” is the tree stem, where the growth records are archived and can be visually observed and studied. Other parts of the tree, such as branches and leaves die and decompose at some point within the lifetime of the tree. The tree rings are archives that reflect many inputs from the environment of the tree. In this workshop we try to study the growth records of the tree rings, and see what can be understood and read out of them in terms of time and location.
Janne Korhonen is an atmospheric scientist, working as a doctoral student at Department of Forest Sciences at University of Helsinki. His main research interest is transport of organic and nitrogen compounds inside forest, as well as between forests and the atmosphere. In addition to research, Janne is working on Climate Whirl concept, focusing on intersection between science and arts, popularization of science and science education.
Kourosh Kabiri is Iranian forest scientist that has background studies in forestry in Iran (Agricultural University of Gorgan and University of Tehran). Currently he lives in Finland and is a member of the Forest Ecophysiology group at University of Helsinki where he is studying the structural regularities in Scots pine in Hyytiälä Research Station.