Articles | Volume 23, issue 20
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-7223-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-7223-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
15 Oct 2026
Research article |
| 15 Oct 2026
| 15 Oct 2026
Norway spruce shows stronger growth sensitivity and weaker intrinsic water-use efficiency response than Scots pine under increasing water limitation in southern Finland
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Eduardo Martínez-García
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Helena Haakana
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Juha Heikkinen
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Katja T. Rinne-Garmston
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Petri Kilpeläinen
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Giles Young
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Elina Sahlstedt
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Raisa Mäkipää
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
Aleksi Lehtonen
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland
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Biogeosciences, 23, 7091–7127, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-7091-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-7091-2026, 2026
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As the Boreal climate shifts towards warmer temperatures and more unpredictable precipitation patterns, forest management needs to become more efficient and climate-friendly. We monitored a managed Finnish spruce forest on peat soil for two summer seasons characterized with severe drought episodes. A wide range of data was used, including carbon dioxide exchange, evapotranspiration, tree growth, meteorology and maps of tree health obtained by drone imaging. Clear, but complex forest responses to drought were revealed.
Marco M. Lehmann, Josie Geris, Ilja van Meerveld, Daniele Penna, Youri Rothfuss, Matteo Verdone, Pertti Ala-Aho, Matyas Arvai, Alise Babre, Philippe Balandier, Fabian Bernhard, Lukrecija Butorac, Simon D. Carrière, Natalie C. Ceperley, Zuosinan Chen, Alicia Correa, Haoyu Diao, David Dubbert, Maren Dubbert, Fabio Ercoli, Marius G. Floriancic, Alligin Ghazoul, Teresa E. Gimeno, Damien Gounelle, Frank Hagedorn, Christophe Hissler, Frédéric Huneau, Alberto Iraheta, Tamara Jakovljević, Nerantzis Kazakis, Zoltan Kern, Laura Kinzinger, Karl Knaebel, Johannes Kobler, Jiri Kocum, Charlotte Koeber, Gerbrand Koren, Angelika Kübert, Dawid Kupka, Samuel Le Gall, Aleksi Lehtonen, Thomas Leydier, Philippe Malagoli, Francesca Sofia Manca di Villahermosa, Chiara Marchina, Núria Martínez-Carreras, Nicolas Martin-StPaul, Hannu Marttila, Aline Meyer Oliveira, Gael Monvoisin, Natalie Orlowski, Kadi Palmik-Das, Aurel Persoiu, Andrei Popa, Egor Prikaziuk, Cécile Quantin, Katja T. Rinne-Garmston, Clara Rohde, Martin Sanda, Matthias Saurer, Daniel Schulz, Michael P. Stockinger, Christine Stumpp, Jean-Stéphane Vénisse, Lukas Vlcek, Stylianos Voudouris, Björn Weeser, Mark E. Wilkinson, Giulia Zuecco, and Katrin Meusburger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 6129–6147, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-6129-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-6129-2025, 2025
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This study describes a unique large-scale isotope dataset to study water dynamics in European forests. Researchers collected data from 40 beech and spruce forest sites in spring and summer 2023, using a standardized method to ensure consistency. The results show that water sources for trees change between seasons and vary by tree species. This large dataset offers valuable information for understanding plant water use, improving ecohydrological models, and mapping water cycles across Europe.
Boris Ťupek, Aleksi Lehtonen, Stefano Manzoni, Elisa Bruni, Petr Baldrian, Etienne Richy, Bartosz Adamczyk, Bertrand Guenet, and Raisa Mäkipää
Biogeosciences, 22, 5497–5510, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-5497-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-5497-2025, 2025
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We explored soil microbial respiration (Rh) kinetics of low-dose and long-term N fertilization in N-limited boreal forest in connection with CH4 and N2O fluxes and soil and tree C sinks. The insights show that N fertilization affects C retention in boreal forest soils by modifying Rh sensitivities to soil temperature and moisture. The key findings reveal that N-enriched soils exhibited reduced sensitivity of Rh to moisture, which contributed to enhanced soil C sequestration on an annual level.
Olli-Pekka Tikkasalo, Olli Peltola, Pavel Alekseychik, Juha Heikkinen, Samuli Launiainen, Aleksi Lehtonen, Qian Li, Eduardo Martínez-García, Mikko Peltoniemi, Petri Salovaara, Ville Tuominen, and Raisa Mäkipää
Biogeosciences, 22, 1277–1300, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1277-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1277-2025, 2025
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The emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) were measured from a clear-cut peatland forest site. The measurements covered the whole year of 2022, which was the second growing season after the clear-cut. The site was a strong GHG source, and the highest emissions came from CO2, followed by N2O and CH4. A statistical model that included information on different surfaces at the site was developed to unravel surface-type-specific GHG fluxes.
Vilna Tyystjärvi, Tiina Markkanen, Leif Backman, Maarit Raivonen, Antti Leppänen, Xuefei Li, Paavo Ojanen, Kari Minkkinen, Roosa Hautala, Mikko Peltoniemi, Jani Anttila, Raija Laiho, Annalea Lohila, Raisa Mäkipää, and Tuula Aalto
Biogeosciences, 21, 5745–5771, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-5745-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-5745-2024, 2024
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Drainage of boreal peatlands strongly influences soil methane fluxes, with important implications for climatic impacts. Here we simulate methane fluxes in forestry-drained and restored peatlands during the 21st century. We found that restoration turned peatlands into a source of methane, but the magnitude varied regionally. In forests, changes in the water table level influenced methane fluxes, and in general, the sink was weaker under rotational forestry compared to continuous cover forestry.
Boris Ťupek, Aleksi Lehtonen, Alla Yurova, Rose Abramoff, Bertrand Guenet, Elisa Bruni, Samuli Launiainen, Mikko Peltoniemi, Shoji Hashimoto, Xianglin Tian, Juha Heikkinen, Kari Minkkinen, and Raisa Mäkipää
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 5349–5367, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5349-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5349-2024, 2024
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Updating the Yasso07 soil C model's dependency on decomposition with a hump-shaped Ricker moisture function improved modelled soil organic C (SOC) stocks in a catena of mineral and organic soils in boreal forest. The Ricker function, set to peak at a rate of 1 and calibrated against SOC and CO2 data using a Bayesian approach, showed a maximum in well-drained soils. Using SOC and CO2 data together with the moisture only from the topsoil humus was crucial for accurate model estimates.
Jyrki Jauhiainen, Juha Heikkinen, Nicholas Clarke, Hongxing He, Lise Dalsgaard, Kari Minkkinen, Paavo Ojanen, Lars Vesterdal, Jukka Alm, Aldis Butlers, Ingeborg Callesen, Sabine Jordan, Annalea Lohila, Ülo Mander, Hlynur Óskarsson, Bjarni D. Sigurdsson, Gunnhild Søgaard, Kaido Soosaar, Åsa Kasimir, Brynhildur Bjarnadottir, Andis Lazdins, and Raija Laiho
Biogeosciences, 20, 4819–4839, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4819-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4819-2023, 2023
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The study looked at published data on drained organic forest soils in boreal and temperate zones to revisit current Tier 1 default emission factors (EFs) provided by the IPCC Wetlands Supplement. We examined the possibilities of forming more site-type specific EFs and inspected the potential relevance of environmental variables for predicting annual soil greenhouse gas balances by statistical models. The results have important implications for EF revisions and national emission reporting.
Jukka Alm, Antti Wall, Jukka-Pekka Myllykangas, Paavo Ojanen, Juha Heikkinen, Helena M. Henttonen, Raija Laiho, Kari Minkkinen, Tarja Tuomainen, and Juha Mikola
Biogeosciences, 20, 3827–3855, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3827-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3827-2023, 2023
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In Finland peatlands cover one-third of land area. For half of those, with 4.3 Mha being drained for forestry, Finland reports sinks and sources of greenhouse gases in forest lands on organic soils following its UNFCCC commitment. We describe a new method for compiling soil CO2 balance that follows changes in tree volume, tree harvests and temperature. An increasing trend of emissions from 1.4 to 7.9 Mt CO2 was calculated for drained peatland forest soils in Finland for 1990–2021.
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Short summary
Forests in southern Finland have become increasingly water-limited over the past decades. Growth decline is pronounced in Norway spruce after 2016, indicating strong sensitivity to water limitation, while Scots pine exhibits only marginal reductions beginning around 2009. Intrinsic water-use efficiency derived from tree-ring carbon isotopes increased more steeply in Scots pine than in Norway spruce, suggesting weaker physiological adjustment in spruce to rising atmospheric moisture demand.
Forests in southern Finland have become increasingly water-limited over the past decades. Growth...
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