Tuomas Aivelo

Rotat liikkuvat syksyllä Rotat liikkuvat syksyllä.

Tutkijamme Santtu Pentikäinen kertoi rottien syksystä Viiden jälkeen -ohjelmassa: www.mtvuutiset.fi/videot/video...

RHEV Helsinki strains clustered together with strains from South Korea and Spain, but polytomous phylogenetic trees and large branch lengths suggest lack of sampling. Our genotype RHEV-C1 has been reported to cause mild liver dysfunction with human case reports from Hong Kong, Spain, and France.

Genetic characterization of rat hepatitis E virus (Rocahepevirus ratti) in urban brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Helsinki, Finland - Archives of Virology We report complete and partial genome sequences of rat hepatitis E virus (RHEV, Rocahepevirus ratti), from archived brown rats captured in Helsinki, Finland. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the presence of the pathogenic RHEV genotype C1 in the Helsinki region. Finnish strains clustered together with strains from South Korea and Spain. However, the polytomous topology of phylogenetic trees and the large genetic distances between spatially distinct strains suggest that RHEV has remained inadequately sampled on a global scale. Further surveillance of rocahepeviruses is needed to assess their threat to public health and to understand their diversity and evolutionary patterns.

Just out of press: genetic characterization of rat hepatitis E virus in Helsinki rats in Archives of Virology!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Earlier we reported that we found RHEV in four of our rat carcasses (prevalence of less than 2%) and now we have complete or partial genomes for these.

The research might be "eclectic disciplinary perspectives", but as Riikka aptly summarizes: "Urban stigmatisation and marginalisation are multispecies processes that emerge with place-making and have consequences for all the multispecies cohabitants of the city."
(5/5)

Waste, humans, rats - junk food, shopping centers, drunk people. "Well, this just happens to be a place where people randomly poop around, business as usual."

Belonging and place-making are multispecies phenomena, and urban is not only human, but more-than-human.
(4/5)

With this invisible rat presence, we examined urban stigmatisation and belonging as examples of societal phenomena which can be rethought as multispecies. They are very territorial in scope, and place-making emerged as a fruitful concept to understand how multispecies urban is formed.
(3/5)

We (as in the ragtag bunch of researchers in CitiRats project) went out to look for rats with lower secondary-school students and we did not see any rats, but we did felt their hidden presence. They were present in stories, stereotypes, memories, and athmospheres.
(2/5)

‘This place cannot be tidied up!’ Stigmatisation, rats, and place-making in a multispecies city This paper presents a multidisciplinary research project which invited young people to critically re-estimate what is environment and nature, and for whom, in the urbanising world. We describe a se...

🚨New paper out today: ‘This place cannot be tidied up!’ Stigmatisation, rats, and place-making in a multispecies city🚨

The paper led by Riikka Hohti out today in Children's Geographies: doi.org/10.1080/1473...

A short thread:
(1/5)

Plaagdieren? Welnee! Ratten zijn onze vrienden, betoogt Finse ecoloog Mensen kunnen vreedzaam samenleven met ratten, betoogt ecoloog Tuomas Aivelo. ‘We geven gemengde signalen af.’

‘Ik ben ecoloog, dus ik probeer ratten niet te zien als een plaagdier.' Ik weet dat dit provocerend klinkt, want ecologen zijn goed in het beoordelen (en doden) van andere dieren.
Mare interviewde mij over ons rattenonderzoek en het samenleven met vervelende dieren: www.mareonline.nl/wetenschap/r...

🚨 Postdoc opportunities! 🚨
We’re looking for postdocs in 🌿 biodiversity science, 🧬 genetic indicator assessment, and 📊 ecological statistics.

Join us in unraveling the drivers & consequences of global change on biodiversity — and be part of a supportive & collaborative environment!
DL 24 September

Breaking News: Read three top CDC officials' resignation emails. The end of an era.

Enough is enough. The health of the country is in danger. Read our resignation letters: insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-n...

Enpäs ole hetkeen hävennyt oman yliopistoni päätöksiä näin paljon.

Things that I learn while doing research: Instagram is just as cut-throat to street plants as to humans.

We had a discussion why pavement plants might be underwhelming in authentic context. Nienke mentioned that it is difficult to take a good photo of pavement plant as you need to pick out the cigarette butts and other trash, figure out the light, find the least scrappy individual and so on.

The finding that I found most intriguing: Those people who did not contribute data and just followed Stoepplantjes on social media perceived pavement plants more positively than those who contributed data.

So, I guess, seeing plants in the wild is less exciting than seeing them in Instagram!

“What's that weed on the street?” Motivation and attitude of contributors and followers in a citizen science project studying pavement plants Plants are essential for life on Earth, yet their importance is often underappreciated. Urban flora are often dismissed as weeds, for example. One sol…

First paper from Nienke Beets on her thesis on Stoepplantjes, a pavement plant citizen science project out in Biological Conservation! Happy to be a coauthor here. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Rethinking journalism’s silence on animal agriculture Journalist Anne Salomäki unpacks the human-centric approach when covering animal farming in the media.

"What does a pig say? In English, a pig says “oink, oink”. In Finnish, “röh, röh”. In Danish, “øf, øf”.
But in the language of journalism a pig is usually silent."

Happy to contribute to Anne Salomäki's project at @reutersinstitute.bsky.social!

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/rethinking-j...

Anna is doing her PhD on the process of how biodiversity research is translated into public understanding and this is a crucial first piece - next stop is to figure out how journalists do decisions on writing about biodiversity.
(5/5)

I was surprised there is so little research on biodiversity-related science communication. While there are many studies on individual cases/species (looking at you, wolves!), the big picture lacks. Especially considering the sheer importance of the sixth mass extinction.
(4/5)

Previous research suggests that this emphasis on causes of biodiversity loss and framing of external over internal solutions could make biodiversity loss less relevant for the readers.
(3/5)

Biodiversity loss is framed in the media through causes, especially economic, whereas the effects are less often presented. There is more emphasis on external solutions, such as economic or political, whereas internal solutions, such as societal solutions are rarer.
(2/5)

Media coverage of biodiversity research in the Netherlands: news triggers, sources, and frames Addressing biodiversity loss requires both policy reforms and active public engagement. Media coverage plays a critical role in shaping societal aware…

My first Leiden paper out now - first-authored by PhD candidate Anna Heerdink in Journal of Nature Conservation w/ Nel Ruigrok & @ionica.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy We look at how biodiversity research is presented in the Dutch print media.

A short thread:
(1/5)
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Voimme neuvotella rottien kanssa ja löytää uusia yhdessäelon tapoja | Kaupunkirotat | Helsingin yliopisto Usein suhtaudumme kaupunkeihin ihmisten tilana, johon muut eläimet tunkeutuvat. Rotat ovat eritysen epähaluttuja naapureita. Mutta voimmeko oppia elämään niiden kanssa? Voimmeko neuvotella rottien kan...

Voimme neuvotella rottien kanssa ja löytää uusia yhdessäelon tapoja - Karolina kirjoitti lyhyen tiivistelmän uudesta tutkimuksesta @helsinkirats.bsky.social-nettisivuille: www.helsinki.fi/fi/projektit...

Näin kutsut puutarhassa temmeltävät jyrsijät neuvottelupöytään Olen rakentanut uuden kotini autiosta nurmikkopihasta pientä monimuotoisuuden keidasta. Sellaista, johon kaikki lajit ovat tervetulleita. Vai ovatko sittenkään? Vesimyyrä sai puutarhurin hyppäämään ta...

.@suomenluonto.bsky.social: Näin kutsut puutarhassa temmeltävät jyrsijät neuvottelupöytään suomenluonto.fi/nain-kutsut-...

Our thinking has always been that if we can live with rats, many other urban species are easier. Thus, this code of conduct is worth exploring also in other species!
(9/9)

We call this implicit code of conduct that became part of everyday garden life. Indeed, our research itself became interweaved in this process and I think that we did our share of facilitating cohabitation.
(8/9)

We outline this process where gardeners learned to communicate consistently with rats by fences, removing food and giving refuge for rats. In response, rats frequented less in the places and times they were not wanted.
(7/9)

Indeed, both gardens tried lethal control of rats but this failed (Even quite spectacularly in the other - the cost was 250 euros per dead rat). The gardeners had to find ways of living with rats.
(6/9)

How to deal then with these denizens? We draw inspiration here both from de Bondt et al. work on Amsterdam rats and von Essen et al. work on interspecies communication.
(5/9)

Visitors in urban gardens are interesting: many are not wildlife as such as they are synanthropic and dependent on humans (think species like rats!), yet they are not pets either. These species have been called 'denizens'.
(4/9)