Kvantum Institute

Polar upper atmosphere and space environment studied with the EISCAT3D radar and other cutting-edge instruments (POLAR). Aikio Anita, Vanhamäki Heikki, Virtanen Ilkka

The POLAR (Polar upper atmosphere and space environment studied with the EISCAT3D radar and other cutting-edge instruments) project will use the novel EISCAT3D ESFRI Landmark radar facility to study the partially ionized polar upper atmosphere together with complementary research instruments, specifically the scanning Fabry Perot interferometer SDI-3D. These instruments allow us to study the effects of solar storms on the ionosphere-thermosphere system and the resulting phenomena such as Joule heating, atmospheric expansion and precipitating auroral particles at high latitudes. The results of the project will help to predict and mitigate the effects of space weather and solar storms on our society and its technological systems. The research is carried out at the Space Physics and Astronomy Research Unit in the Ionospheric Physics research group.

Unraveling the effects of contemporary and historical changes in climate and land use on freshwater biodiversity in high-latitude regions of Europe and North America. Alahuhta Janne

This project aims to understand how past and current climate and land uses affect aquatic plant communities in freshwater lakes and rivers in northern latitudes. Aquatic plants are important to freshwater ecosystems, including food for waterfowl, fish, and people. Aquatic plants can also cleanse water and attract fish and birds for enhancing human recreation. Our research compares how freshwater plant communities are affected by climate and land use in parts of Europe in North America, which differ in their climates and land use histories over the past 10000 years. To do so, we use large datasets from around the world and complex computer models to understand relationships of plants and their past and present environments. This information helps natural resource policy makers and wildlife managers to make decisions for water quality standards, land conversion policies, and climate actions to protect plant diversity and the people that depend on healthy freshwater ecosystems.

Energetic Particle Influence on polar vortex under Climate Change – EPICC.
Asikainen Timo

Energetic particle precipitation from space into the atmosphere leads to ozone destruction in the wintertime polar stratosphere. This influences the polar vortex and ground weather variations during winter. These effects also depend on the atmospheric wave activity and meridional circulation, which both will likely increase due to climate change. EPICC project (Energetic Particle Influence on polar vortex under Climate Change) considers for the first time how the particle precipitation effect changes due to the climate change. The research uses both past observations and climate modeling for possible scenarios of future climate change. We will develop new reconstructions of past and future particle precipitation with deep learning networks. The results will improve our understanding on joint influence of solar activity and climate as well as long-term predictions of climate and weather. The site of research is the Space Physics and Astronomy research unit of University of Oulu.

Towards Metal-Free Catalysis: CO2 and H2 Activation by T-shaped Metal Mimics. Bezuidenhout Daniela, Karhu Aino

This project addresses the grand challenge of metal-free catalysis for the synthesis of value-added chemicals. New main-group compounds based on bismuth and tellurium will be developed in this project at the University of Oulu, as viable metal surrogates for the activation and conversion of carbon dioxide and hydrogen into functional organic compounds. The synthetic strategy of geometric constraint by pincer ligands will be used to harness the non-metals as metal mimics. The project, entitled ‘Towards Metal-Free Catalysis: CO2 and H2 Activation by T-shaped Metal Mimics’, will provide new information about the fundamental chemistry of the main group elements bismuth and tellurium, and their application in homogeneous catalysis in the pursuit of a carbon-neutral society. Both academia and industry are anticipated to benefit from this research that will generate valuable fundamental chemistry knowledge for the wider scientific field of chemical synthesis and catalysis.

Hybrid Panel Reactor for Direct Production and Separation of Solar Hydrogen – HYDRO. Cao Wei, Ojala Satu, Uprelainen Samuli, Jullok Nora

In front of the deepening energy crisis, special efforts have been emphasized on clean energy production through solar energy conversion. Photocatalytic process is utilizing sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, yet, providing clean and sustainable energy carrier in form of hydrogen. HYDRO project aims to act as the pathfinder to reach solar hydrogen production directly from water and sunlight, highlighting the bright future of clean hydrogen production for various applications. It invents and demonstrates new photocatalysts, hydrogen separation membranes, and hybrid materials allowing simultaneous H2 production and separation along with novel panel reactor concepts. HYDRO practises responsibilities in knowledge extension and development of clean transition process aimed for sustainability. HYDRO unites research strengths of photocatalyst development from NANOMO (Faculty of Science) and membrane and device engineering from the ECE (Faculty of Technology) Research units.

High-latitude greenhouse gases – a balancing act (HILAC). Christensen Torben

This project aims to study the carbon cycling in the Arctic, which includes the exchange of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, as well as the export of carbon through other means than atmospheric exchanges. These include transport in rivers and the effects of grazing by large mammals. The project will try to understand the full budget of carbon, the so-called net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB), in the context of climate change. The impact of climate change on the NECB at two contrasting sites in the Arctic will be studied with a particular emphasis on the additional effects of local scale influences through disturbances such as grazing, insect outbreaks, and extreme events. The basic hypothesis to be studied is that local scale and episodic factors may overrule the impacts of an overarching warming trend.

Green Transition through 4th Generation steels Innovations and clean technology (Green4GTech). Ghosh Sumit, Kömi Jukka

Green4GTech project optimises the steel nanostructures and increases understanding on creation of high-strength medium carbon-medium manganese steels. Scientific methods are used to create new fourth generation (4G) steels whose nanostructure ensures excellent tensile strength, ductility and unprecedented fracture toughness. The study produces new information on the metallurgy of high-strength steels. The aim is to enable the manufacture of 4G steels both costeffectively and by using eco-friendly processes. The new 4G steel products make it possible to significantly lighten steel structures and bring a competitive advantage to the Finnish steel industry. Green4GTech steels would replace the existing second and third generation special steels in a number of applications, including in the energy, construction, defence and automotive industries. The proposed manufacturing techniques are suitable for use on existing production lines, minimizing the investment cost of the change.

Geodiversity for mapping and conserving biodiversity in the changing Arctic (GeoBioArctic). Hjort Jan

Geodiversity for mapping and conserving biodiversity in the changing Arctic (GeoBioArctic) Biodiversity loss is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Especially, sensitive tundra ecosystems have shown to be vulnerable to climate warming. The diversity of abiotic nature or geodiversity has been put forward as a novel approach to explore, understand, and conserve biodiversity. In this project, the objective is to improve the understanding of geodiversity in explaining and predicting patterns of Arctic biodiversity. Moreover, the aim is to identify the potential of geodiversity in sustaining biodiversity under changing environmental conditions. Our ground-breaking approach is to apply multidisciplinary geoscientific and ecological methods to assess the role of geodiversity in conserving Arctic biodiversity. The site of research is Geography Research Unit. The results have theoretical, environmental, and applied implications and considerable societal significance. The project has the potential to provide benchmark results for biodiversity conservation under global change.

DigiPeat – Digital high-resolution verification tools for documenting peatland restoration and changes. Marttila Hannu, Räsänen Aleksi

DigiPeat develops digital tools for peatland restoration monitoring that will support digital and green transition in restoration actions. By digitalizing processes and changes spatially and temporally, we assess and project the effects of peatland restoration on topography, vegetation, hydrology, and biogeochemistry. The project participates in documenting the first national intensive peatland restoration monitoring site with high spatio-temporal resolution. Digitalization will increase the acceptability and efficiency of peatland restoration and help to improve the peatland restoration success estimates. Developed models, proof of concept, and source codes will be published and shared with a permissive license to further develop the ‘digital twins’.

Developing a Genomic Blueprint for a Bio-literate Future. Mutanen Marko

Despite 260 years of taxonomic scrutiny, only a fraction of the Earth’s species have been scientifically named, rendering humans largely bio-illiterate. Our understanding of biodiversity progresses slowly because of the vast number of species and inefficiency of traditional approaches. Recent development in DNA technologies enables recovery of organisms’ genetic information with unprecedented efficiency. As all relevant information is encoded in DNA, the delimitation of species and clarification of their interconnections by their DNA provide us with novel, efficient solutions. We investigate brand new approaches using parasitic wasps, gall midges and sawflies as models. The diversity of these insect groups remains poorly understood because of their tiny size and enormous species count. The new approaches offer the promise that during the next decades research on biodiversity can be done much more efficiently than before, also enabling automated DNA-based identification of species.

Stream biodiversity under change: Is water quality improvement compromised by intensified land use? Paavola Riku, Muotka Timo

We aim to use several long-term data sets allowing up to 40-year perspective to boreal stream biodiversity change. We will also use a shorter (4 years) data set on ecosystem process rates to relate interannual variation in ecosystem processes to variation in invertebrate biodiversity and abiotic variables in 30 streams spanning a gradient from near-pristine to heavily impacted sites.These unique data sets help us answer an intensely debated question in community ecology, that is, has stream biodiversity responded positively to water quality improvement that occurred late last century and does this management credit overshadow climatic and land-use debts? Our research will be based at Oulanka Research Station which allows us access to state-of-the-art facilities. This project also has a practical aim of providing scientifically justified recommendations for environmental managers and decision makers about long-term biodiversity responses to anthropogenic pressures.

Mosses, nature’s purifier, for reducing land use-derived metal and nutrient loads in catchments (PUREWA). Pirttilä Anna-Maria

Clean water is a crucially important natural resource. However, the aquatic ecosystems are threatened by climate change and increasing land use. Quantities of metals and nutrients rise, disrupting aquatic biodiversity and slowing down the decomposition. This results in water brownification and threatens the quality of drinking water. There is an urgent need for sustainable and cost-effective water treatment solutions. PUREWA (Mosses, nature’s purifier, for reducing land use-derived metal and nutrient loads in catchments) at Ecology and Genetics, Univ. Oulu, Finland aims to 1) Identify the most efficient moss-microbe combinations for phytoremediation of brownified water, 2) Understand the metabolic processes of phytoremediation, 3) Develop tools, and 4) Formulate recommendations on using mosses in phytoremediation. We bring sustainable solutions for cleaning water contaminations resulting from climate change and intensive exploitation of nature at the Arctic.

Sensitive NMR for Sustainable Development. Telkki, Ville-Veikko

The project "Sensitive NMR for Sustainable Development" focuses on the development and application of new experimental and computational NMR methods in multidisciplinary research targeted at green transition and human well-being. The efficiency and information content of NMR are improved by developing new ultrafast Laplace NMR methodology, which provides detailed information about the chemical environment and motion of molecules. The sensitivity of NMR is increased by several orders of magnitude by new, biocompatible nuclear-spin hyperpolarization methods. Experimental processes are modeled realistically by developing multiscale simulations. The methods are applied to the development of materials that support green-energy solutions, circular economy, and carbon neutrality, as well as for biochemical analysis and in understanding the role of aerosols in climate change.

Species Derived Exo Vesicles as Novel Bioaerosol Type & Biodiversity Indicators (AirBioDiV). Vainio Seppo, Elbuken Caglar, Liimatainen Henrikki, Jokipii-Lukkari Soile

Species Derived Exo Vesicles as Novel Bioaerosol Type & Biodiversity Indicators (AirBioDiV) Climate change affects in part biodiversity by increasing greenhouse gases and elevating temperature. Cells of the trees and other species express so called Exo Vesicles that can serve as novel bioaerosol type (BA-EVs), offering new insights to study climate change and biodiversity. BAEVs contain DNA, RNA, metabolites, and proteins, and may shape atmospheric ecosystem interactions. We'll investigate BA-EVs' behaviour using impact filters and microfluidic setups. Field studies in Oulanka and Oulu university botanical garden will supplement lab work. Selective nanocellulose aerosol filters aim to capture airborne 30-250 nm BA-EVs. Identifying BA-EVs from spruce cells aids understanding climate change dynamics at the end. This project may reveal BA-EVs as species markers and potential therapeutics, advancing climate change comprehension.

Climate Impact of Energetic Particle Precipitation in the Arctic Region (CIEPPAR). Verronen Pekka, Kero Antti

Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) is the most important solar-driven process missing from many chemistry-climate models today. We will study EPP, its impact on atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, and the connections to tropospheric climate. We will use the state-ofthe-art Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model which we have designed for EPP studies, together with a novel combination of satellite-based and ground-based observations and advances mathematical methods. Our primary objective is to identify and verify the process chains related to the EPP-climate coupling. Our secondary objective is to assess the coupling in the context of advancing ozone recovery and global climate change, both of which are expected to enhance the EPP impact. Our results will assess the natural variability from solar-driven EPP, thus supporting the work of Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). We will update the EPP solar forcing recommendation for climate simulations.

• Arctic Ionospheric Response to Space Weather Events (ACROSS)
• Exploring geographical mismatch between supply and demand of ecosystem services using big and open source data across high latitudes (AccESS)
• Fall and rise of endangered species: Detection of genomic and population ecological signals of decreasing and increasing populations
• Global change impacts on northern animal communities: from mechanisms to ecosystem-level implications
• Hybrid modelling for improved permafrost risk assessments (HYPERISK)
• Interacting processes in Arctic reindeer systems experiencing rapid climate change
• Ionospheric Situational Awareness (ISAw)
• Advanced NMR for sustainability
• Carbon-capturing magnesium cement (CARBO-CEM)
• Continuously observed quantum matter with superconducting circuits
• Electronic level understanding of transition metal based heterojunction catalysis (NANOCAT)
• Energy- and cost-efficient production of solar energy under arctic environmental conditions
• Production and Development of Novel Natural Nano and Micro Biomaterials and Diagnostic Technologies for Catalytic, and Bio- and Circular Economics (BioEVEngine)
• Robust 2D materials for sensors, photo and electrocatalysis (ROAR)
• Towards carbon-neutral steelmaking through hydrogen-reduction and application of clean steels - CLEAN2STEEL

Emerging projects -program is targeted to projects led by starting group leaders who build an association between their own emerging research and top research project in a focus area. 4-year doctoral researcher positions (with partial funding) are allocated to each project.

Emerging projects 2023-2026

• Ionospheric electric currents and their dependence on interplanetary magnetic field: measurements and modeling in different spatial scales (ICONIC). Holappa, Lauri.
• The potential of non-native pink salmon to boost Arctic ecosystems – a threat or an opportunity? Huttunen, Kaisa-Leena.
• Investigating the geodiversity-biodiversity relationship under climate change. Kemppinen, Julia.
• Hybrid Microbial Electrochemical Technology Constructed Wetland (HyMETland). Heiderscheidt, Elisangela.
• Cosmo-local value networks for carbon-capturing magnesium cement. Majava, Jukka.
• T-Capsules: Granulated mine tailings as solid CO2 adsorbents and their performance/ recyclability as secondary aggregate in concrete production. Perumal, Priyadharshini (Priya).

Emerging projects -program is targeted to projects led by starting group leaders who build an association between their own emerging research and top research project in a focus area. 4-year doctoral researcher positions (with partial funding) are allocated to each project.

Emerging projects 2018-2022

• Bayesian techniques for radar observations of the near-Earth space
• Wildlife-originated zoonoses in the changing northern environment
• Charge carrier recombination dynamics in semiconductor materials
• Localization and dissipation in superconducting quantum simulations
• Zero-CO2 cement concept via phase-separated nano-glass

• Vainio Seppo, Professor, Scientific Director
  
  Phone number: +358407470939, e-mail: seppo.vainio (at) oulu.fi
• Paakkari Jussi, Research Director
  
  Phone number: +358294484076, e-mail: jussi.paakkari (at) oulu.fi

• Inkeröinen Jouko, Research Coordinator
  Phone number: +358 294 48 3567, e-mail: jouko.inkeroinen (at) oulu.fi
• Kaisto Susanna, Coordinator of Healthy environment - healthy people -project
  Phone number: +358 50 344 2882, e-mail: susanna.kaisto (at) oulu.fi
• Kamula Riitta, Coordinator
  Phone number: +358 294 48 3566, e-mail: riitta.kamula (at) oulu.fi
• Taskinen Pirjo, Coordinator
  Phone number: +358 294 48 3562, e-mail: pirjo.taskinen (at) oulu.fi