Johanna Honka

I work as a postdoctoral researcher in Ecology and Genetics Research Unit in the University of Oulu. I belong to Wildlife Genomics research group and I'm a biologists specialized in genetics. My research interests are conservation genetics and evolutionary history of domestic animals. I'm specialized in handling samples containing very little DNA such as ancient DNA samples (very old samples) and environmental DNA samples. Environmental DNA is DNA collected from the environment of the study species, not from the individuals of the species themselves. Currently, I'm studying endangered birds in Finnish Lapland using environmental DNA collected from lake waters, which provides a basis to study the effects of climate change to the distribution of these birds. In a previous EU-funded project I studied the occurrence of critically endangered lesser white-fronted goose in Finnish Lapland. In addition, I investigate the domestication history of domestic geese using ancient DNA and I'm involved in projects studying ancient DNA of horses and genetic history of Finnhorses. Besides researcher, I'm also qualified subject teacher in biology and geography.