University of Helsinki
University of Helsinki is a university that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
Cloud level rise from deforestation threatens water supply in African mountains, study finds
International researchers from Finland, Germany, South Africa, and Ethiopia report that deforestation during the last two decades induced a higher warming and cloud level rise than that caused by climate change, which threatens biodiversity and water supply in African montane forests. Montane forests are often cloudy, wet, cold, and occur on isolated mountains in Africa. […]
Threatened urban wetlands play a crucial role in biodiversity and sustainability, says study
Research carried out at the University of Helsinki reveals how urbanisation has affected urban wetlands and what has led to their transformation, deterioration and, in some cases, disappearance in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Fish mercury peaks in winter and near spawning, and reduces after growing season, study suggests
Fish consumption has long been associated with numerous health benefits. However, it is also the main dietary source of toxic mercury in humans. A year-round study from a Finnish boreal lake shows that mercury concentration in some fishes is significantly higher in winter and near spring spawning and lowest in autumn after the growing season. […]
Global warming threatens the existence of an Arctic oasis
The most significant Arctic oasis is susceptible to climate change – researchers say that global warming is threatening the region’s ecosystem, and predict that the oasis will cease to exist.
Historical climate effects of permafrost peatland surprise researchers
Peatlands are an important ecosystem that contribute to the regulation of the atmospheric carbon cycle. A multidisciplinary group of researchers, led by the University of Helsinki, investigated the climate response of a permafrost peatland located in Russia during the past 3,000 years. Unexpectedly, the group found that a cool climate period, which resulted in the formation of permafrost in northern peatlands, had a positive, or warming, effect on the climate.
Pollution impacts food and water consumption for Indigenous peoples worldwide
A new study from the University of Helsinki presents the current state of knowledge on the exposure and vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples to environmental pollution, reviewing the innumerable impacts that pollution poses on Indigenous communities from all over the world. “While the number of studies examining the impacts of environmental pollution upon Indigenous Peoples is […]
Biodiversity has changed in one of the largest and most biodiverse Mediterranean wetlands
The Camargue area in France has considerably fewer grasshopper, cricket, locust, dragonfly, and amphibian species than 40 years ago. On the other hand, there are more birds and vascular plants, some of them considered as new and highly invasive species. The Camargue in southern France is widely recognised as one of the largest and most […]
Finnish rivers transport carbon to the Baltic Sea at an increasing rate
The amount of carbon transported via Finnish rivers to the Baltic Sea has risen substantially in the past few decades. This was found in a collaborative study by the University of Helsinki, Aarhus University and the Finnish Environment Institute. The researchers investigated changes in the amount of organic carbon by exploring water-quality monitoring data for […]
Minerals in mountain rivers tell the story of landslide activity upstream
Researchers from the University of Helsinki and the University of Tübingen have come up with a new way of analysing sand in mountain rivers to determine the activity of landslides upstream, which has important implications for understanding natural hazards in mountainous regions. Landslides occur in hilly and mountainous landscapes, often triggered by extreme rainfall events […]