Search results for "NORTHERN FINLAND"

Whether and How Social Work Could Address the Long-Term Socio-environmental Risks Caused by the Mining Industry in Northern Finland

2018

Despite underlining the importance of the commitment of states and international organizations, the discourse on human security is seldom explicit about who the actors or frontline workers are that operationalize the framework. One such group of practitioners that is possibly involved, but largely unacknowledged, is social workers, especially as social work as a discipline, profession and social movement has a value base and overall goals that are very similar to the human security approach. In social work, the categories of economic, food, environmental and community security fall within the discourse of human security, particularly with the currently evolving ecosocial (ecological/environ…

Temperament and Early Intentions to Retire

2019

Abstract Objective: To examine associations between temperament traits and early retirement intentions. Methods: In the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, we analyzed early retirement intentions at the age 46 according to Cloninger temperament traits at the age 46 (n = 4409) and at the age 31 (n = 3226). Ordinal logistic regression analyses were used. Adjustments were made for marital status, education, work type, job satisfaction, perceived health, and mental health problems. Results: 11% of men and 9% of women had strong retirement intentions. Especially higher harm avoidance was associated with higher early retirement intentions in both sexes at the age of 46. A similar pattern of resul…

Habitat quality is more important than matrix quality for bird communities in protected areas

2018

Protected areas are meant to preserve native local communities within their boundaries, but they are not independent from their surroundings. Impoverished habitat quality in the matrix might influence the species composition within the protected areas through biotic homogenization. The aim of this study was to determine the impacts of matrix quality on species richness and trait composition of bird communities from the Finnish reserve area network and whether the communities are being subject of biotic homogenization due to the lowered quality of the landscape matrix. We used joint species distribution modeling to study how characteristics of the Finnish forest reserves and the quality of t…

Basal ice formation in snow cover in Northern Finland between 1948 and 2016

2018

Early health, risk aversion and stock market participation

2021

To examine the relationship between early health status and financial decisions in adulthood, we link information on birth weight in 1966 from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort to data from the Finnish Central Securities Depository over the period of 1995–2010. We find that persons predisposed to poor health status in early childhood (indicated by low birth weight) avoid participating in the stock market in adulthood, with a 10% increase in birth weight associated with a 1.9% increase in probability of participation. The link between birth weight and stock market participation is partially channeled by poor early health status being associated with higher risk aversion. Early health status …

Cost-Efficiency of Decaying Wood as a Surrogate for Overall Species Richness in Boreal Forests

2006

Decaying wood is one of the most important elements for species richness in boreal forests. We tested how well reserve selection based on the amount and quality of decaying wood results in a representation of four ecologically different taxa (beetles, birds, wood-inhabiting fungi, and vascular plants). We also compared the cost-efficiency of the use of dead-wood indicators with comprehensive species inventory. Our database included 32 seminatural old-forest stands located in northern Finland. Decaying wood was a relatively good indicator of saproxylic species but not overall species richness. Even though dead wood did not reflect accurately overall species richness, our results indicated th…

Transitions in Herd Management of Semi-Domesticated Reindeer in Northern Finland

2008

In northern Finland, reindeer-herd management has experienced two major transitions: extensification of intensive herding, and development of supplementary/corral feeding in winter. The transitions were studied in six herding associations in different parts of the Finnish reindeer management area. It was suggested that intensive herding turns into more extensive forms as the reasons for intensive herding (predation, reindeer disappearing to foreign areas, protection of agricultural fields) gradually ceased to exist. The results of the study, based on interviews of elderly reindeer herders, were variable. In the three southern areas intensive herding changed to the free ranging system at the…

Comparison of quantitative Holocene temperature reconstructions using multiple proxies from a northern boreal lake

2017

Four biotic proxies (plant macrofossils, pollen, chironomids and diatoms) are employed to quantitatively reconstruct variations in mean July air temperatures ( Tjul) at Lake Loitsana (northern Finland) during the Holocene. The aim is to evaluate the robustness and biases in these temperature reconstructions and to compare the timing of highest Tjul in the individual reconstructions. The reconstructed Tjul values are evaluated in relation to local-scale/site-specific processes associated with the Holocene lake development at Loitsana as these factors have been shown to significantly influence the fossil assemblages found in the Lake Loitsana sediments. While pollen-based temperatures follow…

Structure and Sensory Analyses of Tainting Substances in Finnish Freshwater Environments

1988

GC/MS/SNIFF/TASTE methods have been used in Finland to identify the causes of three tainting problems in water and one in fish nets. Structure determination was often verified by comparison with authentic compounds. Algal growth was implicated to be the source of geosmin and MIB in river water in Northern Finland and was associated with the appearance of tainting problems in raw water and reservoir water in Åland county. Terpenoids (e.g. camphor), degradation products of natural lipids (e.g. aldehydes, ketones and unsaturated aliphatic compounds) and volatile organohalogen compounds were frequently found in contaminated water but showed minor tainting effects compared to geosmin and MIB. Di…

Climate change and reindeer management in Finland: Co-analysis of practitioner knowledge and meteorological data for better adaptation.

2020

Abstract We studied interannual variability and changes over time in selected climate indices in the reindeer management area (RMA) in northern Finland. We present together the knowledge possessed by reindeer herders with information from meteorological measurements over three decades. The practitioner knowledge was gathered via a survey questionnaire addressing herder observations of long-term changes (approximately during the past 30 years) in climatic conditions and their impacts on herding during the four seasons. A set of temperature-, precipitation- and snow-related indices relevant for herding within the RMA was derived from spatially interpolated daily meteorological data (1981–2010…