The AZOLE-ARF evaluates impact of environmental azole chemistry on azole-resistance of fungi and fungal diseases. Azoles are common fungicides used in agriculture, in wood preservation and protecting biomaterials. Problematically, compounds with similar chemical azole structure are also effective drugs against invasive fungal infections. As fungicide-resistant fungi are cross-resistant to medical azoles, the incidence of azole-resistant fungal infections among immunosuppressed patients has raised worldwide leading to excess mortality. Except of this unexpected consquence in using azoles, the azoles are toxic to all eucaryotic cells by them selves. In the project environmental fate of azoles from soil, water and sawdust samples will be investigated and the information joined to the prevalence of azole resistant fungal strains. Resistant mutations will be evaluated and the relation of azole-resistant, wildtype and infection strains analysed by bioinformatic tools, locally and globally.

Phosphorus availability to?plants?can be limited due to its high sorption to soil particles. Many fields have accumulated large fertilizer-phosphorus reserves (legacy P) during decades?of agriculture. Aim of this work is to study how?phosphorus-mining bacteria and thus phosphorus utility from field reserves are affected by?mixed cropping of special crops?and their root exudates. Oats,?faba?bean,?buckwheat?and camelina?are cultivated in mixed setting where their growth parameters are measured, and root exudates sampled. Hypothesis is that the crop mixtures produce various exudates, in response to P-availability, which enhance enrichment of beneficial microbes and phosphorus mining. Plant-growth-promoting properties of the bacteria are tested on the crops in laboratory setting. The work is done in Natural Resources Institute?(Luke)?in?Jokioinen, in collaboration with French National Institute for Agricultural Research?(INRA)?in France and Jyväskylä University.

Mound-building Formica ants are keystone species that provide important ecosystem services especially in forest habitats and their large and long-lived nests are habitat to a broad range of associated species specific to these ants. While there is increasing evidence of local declines and extinctions due to fragmentation of their forest habitats, climate change, changing management practices, or conversion of natural grasslands to more intensively used agricultural land an assessment of population trends and threat status of these ants across European countries is largely lacking. This is mainly due to the lack of a common monitoring strategy and differences in conservation status throughout the EU. In addition, it is unknown how the species depending on Formica nest mounds, are impacted by these threats. The project aims to deliver a harmonized cost-effective EU-wide partially citizen science-based strategy for monitoring long-term population trends of these ants and their associates.

Forest disturbances, such as fire, drought or insect outbreaks are changing all around the globe. The CASCADE project studies the natural disturbance regimes in Fennoscandia under the changing climate. The project results will provide information on how the disturbances have changed and what are the predicted trajectories for future development. Specifically, we will study what factors are affecting the changes in disturbance regimes and how forest can recover after the disturbance events. In addition, we are trying shed light to the complex interactions between different disturbance agents. The results from the CASCADE project can be used to support decision making on forest ecosystems and the endless ecosystem services they provide to the society.