Molecular approaches to the diversity and history of boreal aquatic fauna

Risto Väinölä & research team

• Team members
• Publications

We use molecular characters to explore the diversity and history of life in the boreal zone, especially in aquatic environments.

Our interests include systematics, phylogeny and speciation of crustaceans; late- and post-glacial colonization history of various animals in North European lakes and coastal waters; and conservation genetics of rare Fennoscandian mammals. Main research tools involve mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences, allozymes and microsatellites.

Recent projects

• Evolution of amphi-boreal marine fauna
• Invasion history and hybrid zones of dominant bivalve molluscs in North European marginal seas (Macoma, Mytilus)
• Evolution of continental crustacean diversity:
  • Evolution of endemic amphipod diversity in Lake Baikal (MOLARCH project)
  • History of the Ponto-Caspian mysid fauna
  • Systematics and colonization history of the "glacial relict" crustaceans of boreal lakes and the Baltic Sea
• Phylogeography and phylogeny of landlocked seals
• Phylogeography of freshwater cottid fishes
• Population genetics of the wild forest reindeer

The team is partly based at the MES laboratory, a joint facility of the FMNH and the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. The studies have been included in the Finnish Biodiversity Research Programme FIBRE (1997-2002), the Baltic Sea Research Programme BIREME (2004-2006), and the ESF EuroDIVERSITY programme (2006-2008), all with funding from the Academy of Finland.

More information on the LUMONET web page of Environmental Administration.

Contact

Risto Vainola (Senior Curator)
Finnish Museum of Natural History, POBox 17
FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Tel +358 9 191 28890 Fax +358 9 191 28843
firstname.lastname@helsinki.fi