Tytti Kontula

Finnish Environment Institute | ymparisto

A central goal of molecular studies on ancient lake faunas is to resolve the origin and phylogeny of their strikingly diverse endemic species flocks. Another equally intriguing goal is to understand the integrity of individual morphologically diagnosed species, which should help to perceive the nature and speed of the speciation process, and the tr...

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity set the agenda for global aspirations and action to reverse biodiversity loss. The GBF includes an explicit goal for maintaining and restoring biodiversity, encompassing ecosystems, species and genetic diversity (goal A), targets for ecosystem prot...

Towards a coherent protected area network – Priorities of protecting biodiversity in Finland (In Finnish with an English abstract) The objective of the Towards a coherent protected area network (KOKASU) project was to collect data for the national definition and implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which sets the target of protecting 30...

Ihmiskuntana hyvinvointimme on täysin riippuvaista luonnon monimuotoisuudesta – lukemattomista muista lajeista ja niiden elinympäristöistä. Elämän yhteenkietoutuneisuus ja sen arvo itsessään vaatii meiltä kohtuullisuutta luonnonvarojen hyödyntämisessä. Perimmäinen syy niin monimuotoisuuden ehtymiselle kuin ilmastonmuutokselle on elämäntapamme, joka...

In 2014, the International Union for Conservation of Nature adopted the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) criteria as the global standard for assessing risks to terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. Five years on, it is timely to ask what impact this new initiative has had on ecosystem management and conservation. In this policy perspective, w...

Part II of the final report on threatened habitat types presents a total of 420 habitat types, i.e. all habitat types included in the assessment, as well as six new Baltic Sea habitat types which were described but not yet evaluated (NE). Also included are habitat types regarded as of least concern (LC) and those with deficient data (DD). For each...

In 2014, the International Union for Conservation of Nature adopted the Red List of Ecosystems (IUCN RLE) criteria as the global standard for assessing risks to terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. Identifying and quantifying the impacts of biodiversity assessments on the status of nature is key to justifying continued investment in asse...

The European Red List of Habitats provides an overview of the risk of collapse (degree of endangerment) of marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats in the European Union (EU28) and adjacent regions (EU28+), based on a consistent set of criteria and categories and detailed data and expertise from involved countries (http://ec.europa.eu/environmen...

In the Helsinki Commission Red List project 2009–2012, taxonomic and distributional data of benthic (macro) invertebrates were compiled by the present authors in a comprehensive checklist of the Baltic Sea fauna. Based on the most recent and comprehensive data, this paper presents the diversity patterns observed among benthic invertebrates in the B...

Consistent information on threatened habitat types is needed for land use planning and for prioritizing conservation, management, and restoration actions. However, detailed background data for assessing extinction risks of habitat types exists only in few countries. We present a new, flexible procedure for assigning habitat types into Red List Cate...

From morphogical and molecular data we reconsider the systematic composition of the Lake Baikal amphipod genus Babr Kamaltynov & Väinölä (Pallaseidae), until recently part of Pallasea Bate. The morphology of Babr is relatively uniform, but both allozyme and mitochondrial DNA data recognize a deep split into two lineages (, Nei’s D = 1.1uncorrected...

From morphogical and molecular data we reconsider the systematic composition of the Lake Baikal amphipod genusBabr Kamaltynov & Väinölä (Pallaseidae), until recently part of Pallasea Bate. The morphology of Babr is relativelyuniform, but both allozyme and mitochondrial DNA data recognize a deep split into two lineages (Nei's D = 1.1,uncorrected COI...

FIGURE 1. Distributions of (a) Babr baikali (Stebbing, 1899) and (b) B. nigromaculatus (Dorogostaisky, 1922), based on the samples examined (molecular and morphological data). The map shows the 500 - m isobaths of Lake Baikal indicating the three main sub-basins N, C and S.

FIGURE 2. Main mitochondrial DNA lineage variation in Babr. A neighbor-joining tree based on observed (uncorrected) differences in the sequence of the 600 - bp segment of the COI gene. B. baikali lineages are marked with symbols used in Fig. 1 a. The depth of terminal triangles indicates the deepest intralineage divergence, and width the number of...

FIGURE 8. Babr nigromaculatus (Dorogostaisky, 1922): (a) Olkhon Strait, Kurkut Bay, 0 3.07. 2009, 25 mm, lateral view, (b) Okhon Island, Uzury, 0 7.08. 2007, 32 mm, dorsal view.

FIGURE 9. Babr nigromaculatus (Dorogostaisky, 1922), lectotype: (a) total body, lateral view (setae not shown); (b) anterior part of body (right half), dorsal view; (c) urosoma, lateral view. Scale bar 1 mm.

FIGURE 3. Babr baikali (Stebbing, 1899): (a) specimen from Kultuk Bay (type locality), 14.8. 2007, 30 mm, lateral view; (b) specimen from Khul Bay, 23.9. 2000 (stored frozen), 30 mm, dorsal view.

FIGURE 5. Babr baikali (Stebbing, 1899), (a) specimen from Davsha Bay, (b), (c), (d) lectotype: (a) head with antennula and antenna, lateral view; (b) mandibular palp, medial view; (c) maxilla 2, medial view; (d) left maxilla 1; right maxilla 1. Scale bars 1 mm.

FIGURE 7. Babr baikali (Stebbing, 1899), lectotype: (a) uropod 3, dorsal view; (b) telson, dorsal view. Scale bars 1 mm.

FIGURE 4. Babr baikali (Stebbing, 1899), lectotype: (a) total body, lateral view (setae not shown); (b) anterior part of body, dorsal view; (c) urosoma, lateral view. Scale bars 1 mm.

FIGURE 10. Babr nigromaculatus (Dorogostaisky, 1922), lectotype: (a) mandibular palp, medial view; (b) basis and ischium of pereopod 5, lateral view; (c) basis and ischium of pereopod 6, lateral view; (d) basis and ischium of periopod 7, lateral view; (e) telson, dorsal view; (f) uropod 3, dorsal view. Scale bar 1 mm.

FIGURE 6. Babr baikali (Stebbing, 1899), lectotype: (a) gnathopod 1, lateral view; (b) pereopod 5, lateral view; (c) basis and ischium of pereopod 6, lateral view; (d) basis, ischium and merus of pereopod 7, lateral view; (e) carpus, propodus and dactylus of pereopod 7, medial view. Scale bars 1 mm.

The effects of land-use history on plant species richness were studied in mesic semi-natural grasslands in SW Finland. Using generalized additive models, we studied the total number of species, number of species of dry and mesic grasslands and number of rare species of dry and mesic grasslands of 162 grazed or abandoned grassland patches. We studie...

Northern Europe was postglacially colonized from different directions by distinct phylogeographical lineages of the bullhead Cottus gobio L. (Pisces: Scorpaeniformes). These lineages have then come into contact in coastal habitats of the currently brackish Baltic Sea and in the freshwaters north of it. We studied the patterns of intergradation in t...

The relationships among Myoxocephalus quadricornis complex fish from Arctic coastal waters and from 'glacial relict' populations in Nearctic and Palearctic postglacial lakes were assessed using mtDNA sequence data (1978 bp). A principal phylogeographical split separated the North American continental deepwater sculpin (M. q. thompsonii) from a line...

In the ancient Lake Baikal in East Siberia, cottoid fishes have diversified into an endemic flock of 33 species. From an ancestral shallow-water, benthic life-style, Baikalian cottoids have shifted to deep-water life in environments even below 1500 m, and also colonized the pelagic habitat. We examined phylogenetic relationships among 22 Baikalian...

Three major phylogeographic lineages of the cottid fish Cottus gobio (bullhead) were identified in northern Europe from mitochondrial DNA sequences and allozyme data. The largely separate freshwater distributions of the lineages demonstrate distinct postglacial colonization histories. West of the Baltic Sea, Swedish lakes were invaded from the sout...