Browsing by Subject "EASTERN FINLAND"
Now showing items 1-7 of 7
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(2020)Independent Arctic records of temperature and precipitation from the same proxy archives are rare. Nevertheless, they are important for providing detailed information on long-term climate changes and temperature-precipitation relationships in the context of large-scale atmospheric dynamics. Here, we used chironomid and cladoceran fossil assemblages to reconstruct summer air-temperature and water-level changes, during the past 400 years, in a small lake located in Finnish Lapland. Temperatures remained persistently cold over the Little Ice Age (LIA), but increased in the 20th century. After a cooler phase in the 1970s, the climate rapidly warmed to the record-high temperatures of the most recent decades. The lake-level reconstruction suggested persistently wet conditions for the LIA, followed by a dry period between similar to 1910 and 1970 CE, when the lake apparently became almost dry. Since the 1980s, the lake level has returned to a similar position as during the IAA. The temperature development was consistent with earlier records, but a significant local feature was found in the lake-level reconstruction the LIA appears to have been continuously wet, without the generally depicted dry phase during the 18th and 19th centuries. Therefore, the results suggest local precipitation patterns and enforce the concept of spatially divergent LIA conditions.
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(2016)Background: Previous data suggest that mitral valve leaflets are elongated in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), and mitral valve leaflet elongation may constitute a primary phenotypic expression of HCM. Our objective was to measure the length of mitral valve leaflets by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in subjects with HCM caused by a Finnish founder mutation in the myosin-binding protein C gene (MYBPC3-Q1061X), carriers of the same mutation without left ventricular hypertrophy, as well as in unselected consecutive patients with HCM, and respective controls. Methods: Anterior mitral valve leaflet (AML) and posterior mitral valve leaflet (PML) lengths were measured by CMR in 47 subjects with the Q1061X mutation in the gene encoding MYBPC3 and in 20 healthy relatives without the mutation. In addition, mitral valve leaflet lengths were measured by CMR in 80 consecutive non-genotyped patients with HCM in CMR and 71 age-and gender-matched healthy subjects. Results: Of the subjects with the MYBPC-Q1016X mutation, 32 had left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH, LV maximal wall thickness >= 13 mm in CMR) and 15 had no hypertrophy. PML was longer in patients with the MYBPC3-Q1061X mutation and LVH than in controls of the MYBPC group (12.8 +/- 2.8 vs 10.6 +/- 1.9 mm, P = 0.013), but the difference between the groups was not statistically significant when PML was indexed for BSA (P = 0.066), or when PML length was adjusted for BSA, age, gender, LV mass and ejection fraction (P = 0.195). There was no significant difference in the PML length in mutation carriers without LVH and controls (11.1 +/- 3.4 vs 10.6 +/- 1.9, P = 0.52). We found no difference in AML lengths between the MYBPC mutation carriers with or without hypertrophy and controls. In 80 consecutive non-genotyped patients with HCM, there was no difference either in AML or PML lengths in subjects with HCM compared to respective control subjects. Conclusions: In subjects with HCM caused by the Q1061X mutation in the MYBPC3 gene, the posterior mitral valve leaflets may be elongated, but mitral valve elongation does not constitute primary phenotypic expression of the disease. Instead, elongated mitral valve leaflets seem to be associated with body size and left ventricular remodeling.
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(2018)Wildfires virtually disappeared from the Fennoscandian forests in the 20th century, but have left persistent legacies in forest structure. Here, I reconstructed past fires in three northern boreal landscapes (each 2 km x 2 km) from fire scars, and described the fire regime for the past 300 years. The average fire cycles (1700-1999) were 72 and 156 years in Pinus sylvestris-dominated landscapes, and 579 years in a Picea abies-dominated landscape. At the site level, the number of fires was clearly related to soil hydraulic properties. Age structures from 1800 live and dead trees showed strong cohorts associated with large fires in two of the landscapes. Although tree growth and regeneration in sub-arctic regions are considered highly climate-sensitive, fires have been a major driver of forest dynamics in these areas. Continued absence of fires will lead to considerable changes in the forest structure and species composition in the future.
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(2016)Widespread ecological reorganizations and increases in organic carbon (OC) in lakes across the Northern Hemisphere have raised concerns about the impact of the ongoing climate warming on aquatic ecosystems and carbon cycling. We employed diverse biogeochemical techniques on a high-resolution sediment record from a subarctic lake in northern Finland (70 degrees N) to examine the direction, magnitude and mechanism of change in aquatic carbon pools prior to and under the anthropogenic warming. Coupled variation in the elemental and isotopic composition of the sediment and a proxy-based summer air temperature reconstruction tracked changes in aquatic production, depicting a decline during a cool climate interval between similar to 1700-1900 C.E. and a subsequent increase over the 20th century. OC accumulation rates displayed similar coeval variation with temperature, mirroring both changes in aquatic production and terrestrial carbon export. Increase in sediment organic content over the 20th century together with high inferred aquatic UV exposure imply that the 20th century increase in OC accumulation is primarily connected to elevated lake production rather than terrestrial inputs. The changes in the supply of autochthonous energy sources were further reflected higher up the benthic food web, as evidenced by biotic stable isotopic fingerprints.
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(2017)Dates for early cultivation in Finland obtained from pollen analysis and from remains from archaeological sites are compared to changes in population size derived from the summed calendar year probability distributions published by Tallavaara et al. (2010). The results from these two independent proxies correlate strongly with one another, indicating that population size and the advance of farming were closely linked with each other. Moreover, the results show that the adaptation and development of farming in this area was a complex process comprising several stages and with major differences between regions. The most intensive expansion occurred in and after the Iron Age. It is therefore more accurate describe the introduction of farming into the area as a long-lasting process rather than an event.
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(2015)Aims Mutations in the cardiac myosin-binding protein C gene (MYBPC3) are the most common genetic cause of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) worldwide. The molecular mechanisms leading to HCM are poorly understood. We investigated the metabolic profiles of mutation carriers with the HCM-causing MYBPC3-Q1061X mutation with and without left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and non-affected relatives, and the association of the meta-bolome to the echocardiographic parameters. Methods and Results 34 hypertrophic subjects carrying the MYBPC3-Q1061X mutation, 19 non-hypertrophic mutation carriers and 20 relatives with neither mutation nor hypertrophy were examined using comprehensive echocardiography. Plasma was analyzed for molecular lipids and polar metabolites using two metabolomics platforms. Concentrations of branched chain amino acids, triglycerides and ether phospholipids were increased in mutation carriers with hypertrophy as compared to controls and non-hypertrophic mutation carriers, and correlated with echocardiographic LVH and signs of diastolic and systolic dysfunction in subjects with the MYBPC3-Q1061X mutation. Conclusions Our study implicates the potential role of branched chain amino acids, triglycerides and ether phospholipids in HCM, as well as suggests an association of these metabolites with remodeling and dysfunction of the left ventricle.
