I research wood formation and wood properties. Better understanding of wood formation is required in forest management to account for the effects of the wood properties in carbon sequestration, and wood quality. Wood properties are also linked with the resistance and resilience of trees in the changing climate.
Right from the start of my forest studies, I was interested how trees make wood. I finished my doctoral thesis in University of Helsinki in 2020 about the use of laser scanning in the assessment of wood properties in standing timber. The importance of laser scanning in the mapping of natural resources is increasing, as the data are becoming more and more extensive, precise, and detailed. I work currently at the University of Helsinki and Finnish Geospatial Research Institute as a joint postdoctoral researcher. I combine point cloud data of tree stem and crown geometry with tree-ring data to build models that predict the water conduction capacity, mechanical strength, and e.g., the knottiness of sawn timber. The models will serve in the future in more precise and sustainable forest management and use.