Keyword: Department of Biology

Glyphosate, a widely-used chemical compound in herbicides and its wide-ranging impacts on ecosystems and pollinators will be the research focus at the University of Turku. In their proposals, the researchers highlight the importance of comprehensively understanding the problem and stress the significance of collaboration between researchers, farmers and decision-makers to address the issue effectively. The research has received significant funding from the Research Council of Finland and Sakari Alhopuro Foundation.

New research at the University of Turku shows that bats like restored wetlands!

Researchers from the University of Turku and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology investigated the role of grandmothers in preventing childhood mortality from infectious diseases in 18th and 19th century Finland. According to the study, grandmothers decreased all-cause and cause-specific mortality of children.

An international team of researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, and the INRAE of Nouzilly, France, explored the ability of sledging reindeer to follow directional indications from humans. Their results highlight that reindeer, which are well habituated to humans, can make use of gestural cues very well with minimal training.

After monitoring bat activity for two summers, doctoral researcher Simon P. Gaultier found that bats avoid wind turbines and artificial lights in woodlands. The thesis also highlights the need for better consideration of bats in wind power projects in the whole European boreal region.

MSc Alireza Zamani examined over 9000 spider specimens collected from different regions in Iran and discovered 147 new spider species.

A new study shows that horses living in big enclosures and in groups of at least three horses are better at following directional indications from humans than horses kept in individual paddocks. The results also indicate that familiarity to the human providing the indications does not matter for the horses.

Wind turbines are built at an increasing pace but their effect on nature and animals are poorly known. Researchers from the Universities of Turku and Helsinki in Finland have investigated the impact of wind turbines on bat presence and activity in boreal forests. The results indicate clearly that bats don’t like wind turbines.

After conducting a research on fish populations in the Baltic sea,  Doctoral Candidate MSc Giovanna Mottola found that some fish can still survive from current summer heat waves. But according to the research the general increase of temperature due to climate change all the year around can threaten this capacity.

Soil microbes can have a great impact on the spread of harmful invasive species as they can either hinder or facilitate the plant’s growth. Researchers at the Department of Biology of the University of Turku, Finland, studied the role of soil microbiota in the success of garden lupine, which is an invasive species in the Finnish nature.