The Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences (www) covers a range of disciplines: Aquatic Sciences, Biochemistry, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, General Microbiology, Genetics, Physiology and Plant Biology. Academic research at the department is almost completely based on external funding and is internationally oriented with a very wide range of research topics.

The Lammi Biological Station (www) (which belongs to the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences) is located in southern Finland. The laboratories are well equipped for limnological and hydrobiological research with advanced chemical labs and staff.

Tarmo Virtanen is a lecturer in Environmental Biology. His studies have mainly been about the effects of climate and predicted climate changes on insects using GIS-systems, spatial analysis and modelling. In past projects he has produced satellite image based vegetation classifications, compiled GIS-databases, and performed spatial analyses and modeling of the potential future vegetation changes utilizing digital map data and GIS techniques.

Lauri Arvola is a phytoplankton ecologist with more than twenty years’ experience of environmental research and is Director of Lammi Biological Station, University of Helsinki.