Jukka Aroviita from SYKE presents "Modelling and assessment of freshwater biodiversity using biological monitoring data"
Welcome!
TEASER:Biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems is declining globally more and faster than in any other habitat. Despite the decline, systematic data-driven assessments of status of freshwater biodiversity are often lacking. In this talk, I will present our ongoing work at Syke to evaluate the status of freshwater biodiversity in Finland. We utilize current monitoring and surveys for EU Water Framework Directive, which produce species information of diatoms, benthic invertebrates, phytoplankton and macrophytes from hundreds of rivers and lakes each year. Based on these biological data from past 20 years and catchment land cover data, we are developing multitaxon distribution models to make inferences how much freshwater biodiversity has changed from the natural conditions. The model outputs (probabilities of taxa capture in natural conditions) can be used to estimate which taxa have decreased or increased in response to human activities. These assessments can be presented nationally, within regions and within major land use types. The outputs provide key information for implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Jukka Aroviita is a freshwater ecologist at the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) with expertise on biological monitoring and assessment of streams and lakes. He has a strong applied focus in his work. Recently, he has worked for a national assessment of the status of small streams (Purohelmi) and currently with an ongoing project to estimate status of freshwater biodiversity in Finland using large-scale monitoring datasets (Vesibio). Jukka defended his PhD at University of Jyväskylä in 2009 and is a docent of aquatic ecology in University of Oulu. https://sites.google.com/site/jukkaaroviita/
