Elina Virtanen

The workflow illustrates a step-by-step process for conducting causal analyses. Arrows indicate the typical flow of an analysis. Two possible pathways are shown: causal discovery approaches (blue), which aim to identify the existence of causal relationships when pre-existing knowledge is low, and causal inference approaches (yellow), which aim to quantify the direction and magnitude of causal effects when pre-existing knowledge is high. The gray feedback loop on the right highlights the iterative refinement of causal analyses based on assessments of the plausibility of causal assumptions.

So, y'all have heard me going on about #causalinference in #ecology a lot. Now our big synthetic guide "Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research" is out! Led by Hannah Correia & Paul Ferraro, it's a great walk-through for all! 🌍🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Time to get active on @bsky.app. Arrived in Glasgow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 for #OSM26, sunny so far 😁. Exciting session tomorrow on #bluecarbon, featuring this poster co-designed with @laurakaikkonen.bsky.social and @eavir.bsky.social on our new @finacademies.bsky.social #softdrinkproject. DM for high-res. @helsinki.fi.

Very happy to see our ice-fishing paper on the cover of @science.org this week! 🎣🎉

We tracked large groups of Finnish competitive ice-fishers to study how social foragers use social information when searching for resources. 🐟

Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (contact me for open access)

We're kicking off posting here to share our work on conservation science! We work especially with digital data to understand biodiversity loss, illegal wildlife trade, and human-nature interactions. Follow along for updates on the work of our interdisciplinary team here at @helsinki.fi

Professor or Assistant Professor / Associate Professor in Arctic Ecosystem Ecology Professor or Assistant Professor / Associate Professor in Arctic Ecosystem Ecology

PROFESSOR OR ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN ARCTIC ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY

Open position at the University of Helsinki jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Particulate accumulated matter as an indicator of coastal benthic habitat condition - Ambio Eutrophication adversely affects coastal areas, but most indicators of eutrophication demonstrate temporal or large-scale changes in eutrophication. These usually cannot be used in local actions, such as restoration or conservation. Eutrophication also results in increased accumulation of particulate matter and here we assess the usefulness of particulate accumulated matter (PAM) as an indicator for marine habitat condition in the northern Baltic Sea. We use > 50 000 observations of PAM, to spatially model the accumulation of PAM at shallow benthic substrates, and subsequently demonstrate the use of PAM as an indicator for benthic habitat quality. Predictions show only 4.8% of the shallow marine area as not affected by PAM and the abundance of PAM negatively affected the occurrence of Fucus habitats. Estimates of amount of PAM can be used for determining areas that will benefit from restoration and nutrient abatement actions and for locating the most pristine areas in need of conservation action.

new publication;
Particulate accumulated matter as an indicator of coastal benthic habitat condition

open access link; link.springer.com/article/10.1...

My article is out! On how ‘ecosystem services’ went from a word for those aspects of nature that economics cannot express to a word for nature's economic value, and how concerns for planetary habitability disappeared from the environmentalist vocabulary.

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

New study reveals major trade-offs in global nature conservation strategies | University of Helsinki Recent research shows that conservation strategies aiming to protect as much habitat as possible can nearly double species protection compared to fixed-target approaches.

Our study comparing target-based and flexible ranking approaches used in conservation planning tools has been published

www.helsinki.fi/en/news/rese...

Release Zonation 5 v2.4 · zonationteam/Zonation5 Fixes: when using impact analysis with large rasters, the accuracy of impact buffers could get low

Zonation 5 v2.4 is out now! This release includes fixes to a problem when using impact analysis with large rasters.

github.com/zonationteam...

Definition file code for running Zonation 5 in Apptainer containers released | Conservation Biology Informatics | University of Helsinki Need to do Zonation analyses in High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, but previous Zonation 5 distributions were not applicable? The spatial prioritisation tool Zonation 5 is now available as an ...

Need to do Zonation analyses in High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, but previous Zonation 5 distributions were not applicable? The spatial prioritisation tool Zonation 5 is now available as an Apptainer definition file for Linux systems.

Please share: PhD scholarship opportunity in mathematical ecology on the value of information for improving ecological management, open to international students, with a great team @hugepossum.bsky.social, Katriona Shea, Kate Helmstedt, & me at UQ, Australia 🌍 🧮, study.uq.edu.au/study-option...

MegaMove uncovers where protection is needed for marine megafauna A new Science paper maps global hotspots for marine megafauna & finds that planned increased protection will be insufficient to cover most areas

📢A MegaMove milestone has just been published in @ScienceMagazine!
With ~380 collaborators from 50 countries, we mapped the movements of 12k+ marine megafauna to identify key habitats 🌊🐋🦈
@pewenvironment.bsky.social @uwaoceans.bsky.social
www.sequeiralab.com/news/megamov...

MOBS 1.0: A Database of Interspecific Variation in Marine Organismal Body Sizes Motivation Body size is a fundamental trait influencing an organism's life history, ecology, physiology and evolutionary dynamics. While extensive body-size databases exist for terrestrial vertebrat...

🧵New paper + open database drop!
The Marine Organismal Body Size ( #MOBS ) Database is now live—85,000+ marine species, from plankton to whales, with standardized size data.
A huge leap for biodiversity, conservation, and climate science. #science #marinelife onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This is not the actual cover of Nature, just shown here for illustrative purposes. We did submit this figure for consideration for their cover. Print run in two weeks, we'll know by then if it gets used.

Out today in Nature, our paper on the drivers of the record 2023 summer heating of the North Atlantic. Temperatures warmed to record levels in just a few months. The impacts on climate & ecosystems were severe. A thread on how this work came about and what we found.👇👇🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Global change reshuffles species communities: who could interact with whom? We introduce new ways to measure the capacity of species & communities to rewire interactions, which can be used to predict how ecological networks might adapt to changing conditions.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Marine biodiversity loss in Finnish coastal waters: Evidence and implications for management - Ambio Marine biodiversity loss poses significant ecological and socio-economic challenges. This paper examines how coastal biodiversity loss is expressed and outlines implications for management. Synthesizi...

New paper: Marine biodiversity is declining across Finnish coastal waters, with loss driven by eutrophication, climate change & seabed disturbance. Urgent action, better monitoring & bridging knowledge gaps are key to ecosystem recovery. #Biodiversity #BalticSea

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Functional traits are moderate predictors of above‐ and below‐ground biomass in multispecies seagrass habitats Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

🚨 NEW paper alert!
#Seagrass #functional #traits act as predictors of #biomass, albeit moderately. Study conducted across 1500 km coastline.
Main #biodiversity mechanism driving seagrass #biomass stock is through dominance.

@tvarminne.bsky.social @uwaoceans.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Science for Nature Conservation Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Science for Nature Conservation

Postdoctoral Researcher in Machine Learning for Nature Conservation:
jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Doctoral Researcher in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Deadline for applications: 15 May 2025.

@ediminin.bsky.social
@helsinki.fi #HELICSlab

Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Science for Nature Conservation Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Science for Nature Conservation

Apply for postdoctoral researcher and doctoral researcher positions at our department!

Postdoctoral Researcher in Machine Learning for Nature Conservation: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Deadline for applications: 15 May 2025.

@helsinki.fi @ediminin.bsky.social #HELICSlab

Read our new review led by the fantastic Tin Buenafe on climate smart systematic conservation planning! A major contribution!

Postdoctoral Scholar in Quantitative Marine Ecology University of California, Santa Cruz is hiring. Apply now!

it's a hard and sad time in science / higher ed in the US right now. on the other hand, lots of PhDs are looking for work, so I wanted to share—

I'm hiring a postdoc!

it's a two-year position at UCSC to do (preferably Bayesian) modeling of marine ecosystems: recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01892

Quantifying disturbance effects on ecosystem services in a changing climate - Nature Ecology & Evolution A generalizable, functional-trait-based approach for quantifying the effects of disturbances to ecosystem services and economic outcomes, including under climate change, highlights the need for incorp...

This paper - Quantifying disturbance effects on ecosystem services in a changing climate - was motivated by the need to anticipate and quantify how extreme events, which are accelerating with climate change, impact nature;s contributions to people, YET ... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our new paper on advances of conservation planning is now out! What a great team 🙌🏻 and thanks @sylvainegiakoumi.bsky.social for leading it! 🤩

New publication in TREE @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social
Given the political momentum for greater nature protection and restoration articulated in the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, we assessed the state-of-the-art of Systematic Conservation Planning. www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

HS:n tiedot | Hallitus aikoo lakkauttaa ilmastopaneelin ja vähentää uuden tiedon tuottamista Hallitus aikoo mullistaa päätöksenteon tueksi tietoa kokoavat tiedepaneelit. Nykyisenlaiset ilmasto- ja luontopaneelit yhdistettäisiin yhteen ”jättipaneeliin”.

Hallitus aikoo yhdistää riippumattomat tiedepaneelit - vastoin niiden omaa tahtoa.

Hiertääkö hallitusta se, että ilmasto- ja luontopaneelit ovat arvostelleet hallituksen toimia?

Riippumatonta asiantuntijatietoa päätöksenteon tukena pitää vahvistaa - ei heikentää.

Two directed acyclic graphs showing causal relationships. The first shows a simple relationship between the presence of rare plant species (x), illustrated with icons of individual plants, and grassland productivity (y), illustrated with icons of grasses. There is an arrow going from x to y. The second shows the same relationship, but this time with omitted variables (u). The omitted variables include observed omitted variables (like precipitation) and unobserved omitted variables (like legacies of agricultural activity). These are illustrated with an icon of a rain cloud, a fence, and a shovel. There are dashed arrows going from the omitted variables to both x and y.

New paper from me + @lauradee.bsky.social on using causal inference methods and concepts in ecology! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... (1/5)

Illuminating the multidimensional contributions of small-scale fisheries - Nature A study aimed at revealing the role of small-scale fisheries in sustainable development shows they provide at least 40% of the global fishing catch and affect the livelihoods of 1 in 12 people in the ...

Small-scale fisheries account for 40% of global catch, providing 20% of micronutrient intakes for up to 2.3 billion people and livelihoods for 1 in 12 people.

Huge effort involving @fao.org & 800 experts, out now in @nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1917

‘Bending the curve towards nature recovery: building on Georgina Mace's legacy for a biodiverse future’ - a special issue of Phil Trans R Soc B in honour of a very special biodiversity scientist - is published today by @royalsociety.org. royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Postdoctoral Researcher in Ecological Modelling or Trait-based Ecology Postdoctoral Researcher in Ecological Modelling or Trait-based Ecology

📢#WeAreHiring! I am looking for a #postdoc (2yr position) either in ecological modelling or experimental trait-based ecology to join us in Northern Biodiversity and Ecosystem functioning group at @helsinkiuni.bsky.social

Thanks for reposting!
jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Open PhD position in pelagic biogeochemistry at Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki

👉Open PhD position!
in pelagic biogeochemistry @tvarminne.bsky.social @helsinkiuni.bsky.social

Interested in investigating temporal and spatial variability in coastal sea-air GHG fluxes, impacts of heatwaves and links to biodiversity? Check this out!

Apply before 31 January
👉coastclim.org/news