Collaborating on Arctic Climate Change Research in Helsinki

Richard Streeter (a senior lecturer in Geography based at the School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews) used support from the Arctic Travel and Partnerships fund to travel to the University of Helsinki in early March to meet with collaborators. He spent two and half days meeting with Dr Julia Kemppinen and Dr Pekka Niittynen, researchers at the University of Helsinki and University of Oulu respectively. Richard had met with Julia and Pekka a couple of times previously, in 2022 and 2025, as they happened to all be staying at the Kilpisjärvi research station in northern Finland and work on similar topics, namely how the terrestrial Arctic will respond in a warming climate. However, they had not had the opportunity to spend focused time working together on writing and planning future collaborations. 

A major part of the visit was designing the comparative analysis of soil moisture and temperature microclimate and vegetation dataset from a site in northern Finland and a site in the north of Iceland, as well as creating a detailed plan for a publication. This comparison should illustrate how small-scale topographic variations play an important role in understanding how vegetation in different parts of the Arctic may respond to warming temperatures. In addition, we spent time comparing satellite and drone based remote sensing datasets from the same Icelandic and Finland sites to examine the role of snow-cover on small scale vegetation patterns and developed a plan for a publication based on these datasets. Finally, we spent some time exploring how we might be able to further collaborate and apply for funding support for joint projects. These might involve novel ways of using drone imagery to quantify plant stress and projects to develop new tools to monitor sites of natural restoration. 

Whilst he was in Helsinki, Richard also enjoyed a Finnish sauna and dip in the rather cold Baltic Sea (water temperature 1.5 degrees!) (picture shows sauna and cold water pool, with the still partially frozen Baltic Sea behind). Richard will be meeting with Julia and Pekka again over the summer at a conference and hopes that the future collaboration plans, including plans for a return visit to research sites in Scotland, come to fruition. 

Originally published on the ScAN website: Collaborating on Arctic Climate Change Research in Helsinki – Scottish Arctic Network

The Scottish Arctic Network (ScAN) also serves as a UArctic Regional Centre in Scotland.