Long-term temperature increases, higher frequencies of extreme weather events and changes in food web structures will all affect the state of Arctic tundra ecosystems at different temporal and spatial scales. Ecologists are tasked with understanding these biotic and abiotic interactions and finding methods to measure them. This thesis applies new technology and methods within the principles of ...

<p>This thesis addressed phenotypic and genetic variation in seasonal time keeping mechanisms of the tundra vole (<i>Microtus oeconomus</i>) and the common vole (<i>Microtus arvalis</i>). Voles (<i>Microtus</i>) are short-lived, non-hibernating and seasonally breeding rodents. The genus has rapidly evolved (< 2 million years) into one of the most speciose mammalian genera (Sitnikova et al. 2007; ...

We took an experimental approach to study what may contribute to such behavior, and what effect these choices have on individual wellbeing. We used three independent surveys to analyze this, all three measuring positional preferences in a broad spectrum of domains. If left uncorrected, there might be large unintended external effects from positional preferences, which is why this research is necessary. ...

Climate change driven increases in temperature are enhancing land-ocean connectivity in the coastal Arctic, with a range of implications for coastal food-webs and contaminant cycling. Terrestrial inputs are a direct source of carbon and legacy contaminants to coastal areas, but as a source of freshwater, nutrients and suspended inorganic sediments, they can also affect coastal food-webs and contaminant ...

Marine ecosystems are under pressures of human activities that have altered their dynamics and structure during the last five decades, but there can also vary due to internal dynamics or chance. Managers focus on human activities and often ignore the contribution of internal dynamics and chance to ecosystem dynamics in the decision-making process. In this thesis, I use food-web modelling based on ...

This thesis presents a study of the impact of climate warming on deep demersal fish communities East of Greenland, in a transition zone between Atlantic and Arctic waters. Climate change was expected to affect fish community composition and functional characterization via poleward distributional shifts and changes in abundance. To assess the climate driven effects on fish communities, I used long ...

<p>In the Baltic Sea and North Sea, the sustainability of bottom-trawl fisheries is threatened by many issues, such as the impact of climate change on exploited demersal stocks, long-term overfishing, and the European Landing Obligation for quoted species. This thesis identifies challenges to bycatch and harvesting patterns of targeted species in four relevant Baltic Sea and North Sea bottom-trawl ...

Berries are abundant in bioactive compounds. Bilberry or European blueberry (<i>Vaccinium myrtillus</i> L.) is in particular gaining worldwide attention being one of the best natural sources of antioxidant rich phenolics that accumulate in both skin and flesh during fruit ripening. Alongside, the ubiquitous presence of anthocyanins and related flavonoids, it also contains other compounds such as ...

The questions asked in this thesis relate to the economic incentives and characteristics of the health care market, which may result in suboptimal drug prescription. We consider two types of pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics and addictive drugs. These pharmaceuticals are interesting because their use/misuse is associated with costs both at the individual and societal levels. The decision about ...

<p>Parasites negatively affect hosts and may constitute serious management problems. At the same time, parasites are integral components of ecosystems and represent a substantial part of the biodiversity on earth. Understanding the ecological factors that influence the abundance and distribution of parasite populations is therefore important from a management perspective, but also to understand the ...