Miska Luoto
Biographic Data
| ID | 6017989 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Miska Luoto |
| GIVEN NAMES | Miska |
| FAMILY NAME | Luoto |
| SIGNATURE | LUOTO M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Helsinki |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6203-5143 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Limited microclimatic buffering capacity in boreal forests calls for sustainable management strategies
Forest canopies regulate the energy exchange between the atmosphere and Earth’s surface, creating microclimates that are often buffered from open-air temperature extremes and are critical for forest species under climate warming. However, the magnitude of this thermal buffering is strongly influenced by forest structure and management, and remains understudied. Using a comprehensive dataset of in-situ microclimate time series and high-resolution …
Modeling direct above-ground carbon loss due to urban expansion in Zanzibar City Region, Tanzania
Expansion of urban fabric on carbon storages is estimated to cause loss of 1.38 Pg of Above-Ground Carbon (AGC) in pan-tropics between 2000 and 2030. This would be approximately 5% of all emissions caused by tropical land use changes. Despite the significance of the phenomenon, these emissions are rarely measured, monitored, or addressed in climate change mitigation plans, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, we demonstrated a state-of-th…
High potential for loss of permafrost landforms in a changing climate
The presence of ground ice in Arctic soils exerts a major effect on permafrost hydrology and ecology, and factors prominently into geomorphic landform development. As most ground ice has accumulated in near-surface permafrost, it is sensitive to variations in atmospheric conditions. Typical and regionally widespread permafrost landforms such as pingos, ice-wedge polygons, and rock glaciers are closely tied to ground ice. However, under ongoing cl…
Identifying multidisciplinary research gaps across Arctic terrestrial gradients
Global warming is driving environmental change in the Arctic. However, our current understanding of this change varies strongly among different environmental disciplines and is limited by the number and distribution of field sampling locations. Here, we use a quantitative framework based on multivariate statistical modeling to present the current state of sampling across environmental disciplines in the Arctic. We utilize an existing database of …
Biogeophysical controls on soil-atmosphere thermal differences
Soil temperature (ST) has a key role in Arctic ecosystem functioning and global environmental change. However, soil thermal conditions do not necessarily follow synoptic temperature variations. This is because local biogeophysical processes can lead to a pronounced soil-atmosphere thermal offset (T) while altering the coupling ( ) between ST and ambient air temperature (AAT). Here, we aim to uncover the spatiotemporal variation in these parameter…
Urban expansion in Zanzibar City, Tanzania
Arctic shrubification mediates the impacts of warming climate on changes to tundra vegetation
Climate change has been observed to expand distributions of woody plants in many areas of arctic and alpine environments-a phenomenon called shrubification. New spatial arrangements of shrubs cause further changes in vegetation via changing dynamics of biotic interactions. However, the mediating influence of shrubification is rarely acknowledged in predictions of tundra vegetation change. Here, we examine possible warming-induced landscape-level …
Calibrating aquatic microfossil proxies with regression-tree ensembles
We examine the ability of four different regression-tree ensemble techniques (bagging, random forest, rotation forest and boosted tree) in calibration of aquatic microfossil proxies. The methods are tested with six chironomid and diatom datasets, using a variety of cross-validation schemes. We find random forest, rotation forest and the boosted tree to have a similar performance, while bagging performs less well and in several cases has trouble p…
Holocene fen–bog transitions, current status in Finland and future perspectives
Minerotrophic fens and ombrotrophic bogs differ in their nutrient status, hydrology, vegetation and carbon dynamics, and their geographical distribution is linked to various climate parameters. Currently, bogs dominate the northern temperate and southern boreal zones but climate warming may cause a northwards shift in the distribution of the bog zone. To more profoundly understand the sensitivity of peatlands to changes in climate, we first used …
Human population dynamics in Europe over the Last Glacial Maximum
Significance Despite its importance for understanding genetic, cultural, and linguistic evolution, prehistoric human population history has remained difficult to reconstruct. We show that the dynamics of the human population in Europe from 30,000 to 13,000 y ago can be simulated using ethnographic and paleoclimate data within the climate envelope modeling approach. Correspondence between the population simulation and archaeological data suggests …
Microrefugia
Microrefugia are sites that support populations of species when their ranges contract during unfavorable climate episodes. Here, we review and discuss two aspects relevant for microrefugia. First, distributions of different species are influenced by different climatic variables. Second, climatic variables differ in the degree of local decoupling from the regional climate. Based on this, we suggest that only species limited by climatic conditions …
Rescuing Valuable Arctic Vegetation Data for Biodiversity Models, Ecosystem Models and a Panarctic Vegetation Classification
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Loss of Plant Species Richness and Habitat Connectivity in Grasslands Associated with Agricultural Change in Finland
The drastic loss of seminatural grasslands and the decrease in species diversity in Europe during the 20th century are closely linked to social-economic factors. Development in agricultural production drives land-use changes, and thus controls the capacity of landscapes to maintain biodiversity. In this study, we link agricultural production changes to landscape fragmentation and species diversity. Our results show that the termination of grazing…
Loss of Plant Species Richness and Habitat Connectivity in Grasslands Associated with Agricultural Change in Finland
The drastic loss of seminatural grasslands and the decrease in species diversity in Europe during the 20th century are closely linked to social-economic factors. Development in agricultural production drives land-use changes, and thus controls the capacity of landscapes to maintain biodiversity. In this study, we link agricultural production changes to landscape fragmentation and species diversity. Our results show that the termination of grazing…
Summit peats (‘peat cakes’) on the fells of Finnish Lapland
Peat deposits of area up to 50 m 2 and thickness of 10-50 cm on fell summits at 370-622 m a.s.1. in northern Finland have been mapped, analysed and dated. These summit 'peat cakes' are most frequent in northwestern Inari Lapland, in a relatively continental climate and close to the Arctic Ocean. It seems that the most important local factor for their development are irregularities in microtopography, which collect drift snow and shelter plants fr…
Urban expansion in Zanzibar City, Tanzania
Modeling direct above-ground carbon loss due to urban expansion in Zanzibar City Region, Tanzania
Expansion of urban fabric on carbon storages is estimated to cause loss of 1.38 Pg of Above-Ground Carbon (AGC) in pan-tropics between 2000 and 2030. This would be approximately 5% of all emissions caused by tropical land use changes. Despite the significance of the phenomenon, these emissions are rarely measured, monitored, or addressed in climate change mitigation plans, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, we demonstrated a state-of-th…
Holocene fen–bog transitions, current status in Finland and future perspectives
Minerotrophic fens and ombrotrophic bogs differ in their nutrient status, hydrology, vegetation and carbon dynamics, and their geographical distribution is linked to various climate parameters. Currently, bogs dominate the northern temperate and southern boreal zones but climate warming may cause a northwards shift in the distribution of the bog zone. To more profoundly understand the sensitivity of peatlands to changes in climate, we first used …
Microrefugia
Microrefugia are sites that support populations of species when their ranges contract during unfavorable climate episodes. Here, we review and discuss two aspects relevant for microrefugia. First, distributions of different species are influenced by different climatic variables. Second, climatic variables differ in the degree of local decoupling from the regional climate. Based on this, we suggest that only species limited by climatic conditions …
Loss of Plant Species Richness and Habitat Connectivity in Grasslands Associated with Agricultural Change in Finland
The drastic loss of seminatural grasslands and the decrease in species diversity in Europe during the 20th century are closely linked to social-economic factors. Development in agricultural production drives land-use changes, and thus controls the capacity of landscapes to maintain biodiversity. In this study, we link agricultural production changes to landscape fragmentation and species diversity. Our results show that the termination of grazing…
Summit peats (‘peat cakes’) on the fells of Finnish Lapland
Peat deposits of area up to 50 m 2 and thickness of 10-50 cm on fell summits at 370-622 m a.s.1. in northern Finland have been mapped, analysed and dated. These summit 'peat cakes' are most frequent in northwestern Inari Lapland, in a relatively continental climate and close to the Arctic Ocean. It seems that the most important local factor for their development are irregularities in microtopography, which collect drift snow and shelter plants fr…
Summit peats (‘peat cakes’) on the fells of Finnish Lapland
Peat deposits of area up to 50 m 2 and thickness of 10-50 cm on fell summits at 370-622 m a.s.1. in northern Finland have been mapped, analysed and dated. These summit 'peat cakes' are most frequent in northwestern Inari Lapland, in a relatively continental climate and close to the Arctic Ocean. It seems that the most important local factor for their development are irregularities in microtopography, which collect drift snow and shelter plants fr…
Loss of Plant Species Richness and Habitat Connectivity in Grasslands Associated with Agricultural Change in Finland
The drastic loss of seminatural grasslands and the decrease in species diversity in Europe during the 20th century are closely linked to social-economic factors. Development in agricultural production drives land-use changes, and thus controls the capacity of landscapes to maintain biodiversity. In this study, we link agricultural production changes to landscape fragmentation and species diversity. Our results show that the termination of grazing…
Loss of Plant Species Richness and Habitat Connectivity in Grasslands Associated with Agricultural Change in Finland
The drastic loss of seminatural grasslands and the decrease in species diversity in Europe during the 20th century are closely linked to social-economic factors. Development in agricultural production drives land-use changes, and thus controls the capacity of landscapes to maintain biodiversity. In this study, we link agricultural production changes to landscape fragmentation and species diversity. Our results show that the termination of grazing…
Rescuing Valuable Arctic Vegetation Data for Biodiversity Models, Ecosystem Models and a Panarctic Vegetation Classification
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Human population dynamics in Europe over the Last Glacial Maximum
Significance Despite its importance for understanding genetic, cultural, and linguistic evolution, prehistoric human population history has remained difficult to reconstruct. We show that the dynamics of the human population in Europe from 30,000 to 13,000 y ago can be simulated using ethnographic and paleoclimate data within the climate envelope modeling approach. Correspondence between the population simulation and archaeological data suggests …
Microrefugia
Microrefugia are sites that support populations of species when their ranges contract during unfavorable climate episodes. Here, we review and discuss two aspects relevant for microrefugia. First, distributions of different species are influenced by different climatic variables. Second, climatic variables differ in the degree of local decoupling from the regional climate. Based on this, we suggest that only species limited by climatic conditions …
Arctic shrubification mediates the impacts of warming climate on changes to tundra vegetation
Climate change has been observed to expand distributions of woody plants in many areas of arctic and alpine environments-a phenomenon called shrubification. New spatial arrangements of shrubs cause further changes in vegetation via changing dynamics of biotic interactions. However, the mediating influence of shrubification is rarely acknowledged in predictions of tundra vegetation change. Here, we examine possible warming-induced landscape-level …
Calibrating aquatic microfossil proxies with regression-tree ensembles
We examine the ability of four different regression-tree ensemble techniques (bagging, random forest, rotation forest and boosted tree) in calibration of aquatic microfossil proxies. The methods are tested with six chironomid and diatom datasets, using a variety of cross-validation schemes. We find random forest, rotation forest and the boosted tree to have a similar performance, while bagging performs less well and in several cases has trouble p…
Holocene fen–bog transitions, current status in Finland and future perspectives
Minerotrophic fens and ombrotrophic bogs differ in their nutrient status, hydrology, vegetation and carbon dynamics, and their geographical distribution is linked to various climate parameters. Currently, bogs dominate the northern temperate and southern boreal zones but climate warming may cause a northwards shift in the distribution of the bog zone. To more profoundly understand the sensitivity of peatlands to changes in climate, we first used …
Biogeophysical controls on soil-atmosphere thermal differences
Soil temperature (ST) has a key role in Arctic ecosystem functioning and global environmental change. However, soil thermal conditions do not necessarily follow synoptic temperature variations. This is because local biogeophysical processes can lead to a pronounced soil-atmosphere thermal offset (T) while altering the coupling ( ) between ST and ambient air temperature (AAT). Here, we aim to uncover the spatiotemporal variation in these parameter…
Urban expansion in Zanzibar City, Tanzania
Identifying multidisciplinary research gaps across Arctic terrestrial gradients
Global warming is driving environmental change in the Arctic. However, our current understanding of this change varies strongly among different environmental disciplines and is limited by the number and distribution of field sampling locations. Here, we use a quantitative framework based on multivariate statistical modeling to present the current state of sampling across environmental disciplines in the Arctic. We utilize an existing database of …
High potential for loss of permafrost landforms in a changing climate
The presence of ground ice in Arctic soils exerts a major effect on permafrost hydrology and ecology, and factors prominently into geomorphic landform development. As most ground ice has accumulated in near-surface permafrost, it is sensitive to variations in atmospheric conditions. Typical and regionally widespread permafrost landforms such as pingos, ice-wedge polygons, and rock glaciers are closely tied to ground ice. However, under ongoing cl…
Modeling direct above-ground carbon loss due to urban expansion in Zanzibar City Region, Tanzania
Expansion of urban fabric on carbon storages is estimated to cause loss of 1.38 Pg of Above-Ground Carbon (AGC) in pan-tropics between 2000 and 2030. This would be approximately 5% of all emissions caused by tropical land use changes. Despite the significance of the phenomenon, these emissions are rarely measured, monitored, or addressed in climate change mitigation plans, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, we demonstrated a state-of-th…
Limited microclimatic buffering capacity in boreal forests calls for sustainable management strategies
Forest canopies regulate the energy exchange between the atmosphere and Earth’s surface, creating microclimates that are often buffered from open-air temperature extremes and are critical for forest species under climate warming. However, the magnitude of this thermal buffering is strongly influenced by forest structure and management, and remains understudied. Using a comprehensive dataset of in-situ microclimate time series and high-resolution …
Geography (13 works) · Ecology (10 works) · Physical geography (9 works) · Biology (8 works) · Climate change (7 works) · Environmental Science (7 works) · Geology (6 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (6 works) · Arctic (5 works) · Climate change and permafrost (5 works)