Our team does research in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Our current project is on population dynamics, reproductive success, dispersal and survival of avian predators in relation to habitat change (e.g. forest loss and intensification of agricultural practices) and climate change in northern ecosystems.

There is a pressing need to understand how changing climate interacts with land-use change to affect predator-prey interactions in fragmented landscapes. This is particularly true in boreal ecosystems facing fast climate change and intensification in forestry practices. We investigate the relative influence of climate changes and habitat loss  and degradation on the food storing behaviour, body condition, over-winter survival, reproductive success and costs of reproduction of a generalist predator in boreal forest. Our model species is the pygmy owl, and its main food resources, small rodents and birds. We have collected a unique dataset of >20 000 prey items accumulated in larders of pygmy owls in autumns during 2002-2018.