News - Earth and near-space system and environmental change

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most violent explosions in the Universe suddenly appearing in the sky, about once per day. They are thought to result from the collapse of massive stars or the merging of neutron stars in distant galaxies. They commence with an initial, very bright flash, called the prompt emission, with a duration ranging from a fraction of a second to hundreds of seconds. The prompt emission is accompanied by the so-called afterglow, a weaker but longer-lasting emission over a broad range of wavelengths that fades with time. 

UArctic Research Chair, Professor Jeff Welker (University of Oulu & University of Alaska) has been one of the global leaders in the study of Arctic winter ecology and biogeochemistry since the 1990’s.  Winter is the dominant season in the Arctic but typically the most neglected part of the international Arctic research agenda, until now. 

Professor Eva Pongrácz, from the Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, wants to solve the problems of the world through cooperation. According to her, what happens around the world touches all of us.

The combined effects of reindeer grazing and climate change on Arctic vegetation are largely unknown, says Risto Virtanen, Senior Curator at the University of Oulu Botanical Museum.

“The tundra is the real Arctic. There are individual plant species that react individually to these change factors. We are interested in what happens at the community level.”

When humans change the environment via construction and land use, natural processes also change in those areas. Professor of Physical Geography Jan Hjort from the Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu points out that at a local scale these changes can also have a pleasant effect.

The significant changes affecting the northern areas of the Arctic region are becoming an increasingly pressing matter on the global stage. By seeking to strengthen its commitment to Arctic research, the University of Oulu hopes to respond to the many challenges associated with the polar region. Currently, the university has five new vacancies for established or up-and-coming researchers, with the successful candidates set to become part of the university's new Arctic Interactions (ArcI) research programme.

Snow melt runoff and groundwater abstraction are the most used form of fresh water globally, but the supply is diminishing throughout the world. The problem is expected to worsen with ongoing climate change. Professor Björn Klöve, Director of the Water Resources and Environmental Engineering unit at the University of Oulu, offers a scientific take on the issue.

Rivers in Arctic areas constitute a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, and especially of carbon dioxide emissions. An international research project has found that the amount of carbon being released from rivers into the atmosphere is larger than previously estimated in the world’s most extensive peat regions in Western Siberia. As the climate warms up, the melting permafrost exposes the huge peat areas in the region, and the organic carbon within this peat can then escape into the atmosphere and accelerate climate change.

Researchers at the Universities of Oulu and Jyväskylä, together with their collaborators in the US and France, have shown that wild animals living in areas contaminated by radioactive material have a different community of bacteria within their digestive system (the gut microbiome) compared with animals that do not live in areas affected by an increase in radiation.

The spacecraft Cassini has identified complex organic substances in material that comes from Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. This finding supports the idea that the water beneath the ice of this moon harbors conditions that might be suitable for life.

The 2018 Julius Bartels Medal is awarded to Ilya G. Usoskin, Professor of space physics at the University of Oulu, for his key contributions to long-term changes of cosmic rays and solar activity. Julius Bartels Medal is awarded by the European Geosciences Union EGU, which is the Europe’s premier geosciences union. It describes Usoskin as a founder of the space climate discipline.

Professor Ilya Usoskin’s article titled A history of solar activity over the millennia has become the most read Springer online publication in astronomy.  Published in March 2017, the article has been downloaded more than 7600 times.

An exceptional solar particle storm, the strongest during the last ten thousands of years, is able to perturb the polar stratosphere for at least one year and lead to winter temperature rises up to several degrees centigrade in the Northern Hemisphere. Knowing the effects of a worst-case scenario of such a hazardous event will help in risk evaluation for solar particle storms.