Suvi Ruuskanen
PhD, adjunct professor
skruus@utu.fi Vesilinnantie 5 Turku Office: 042 ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5582-9455 |
Areas of expertise
Evolutionary ecology; physiological ecology; ecotoxicology and environmental ecology; behavioral ecology;epigenetics; avian ecology
Evolutionary ecology; physiological ecology; ecotoxicology and environmental ecology; behavioral ecology;epigenetics; avian ecology
Biography
2015-2020 Academy of Finland research fellow, Univ Turku
2012-2015 Academy of Finland postdoc researcher, Netherlands Institute of ecology/University of Groningen, NL
2010-2012 Post-doctoral researcher, Univ Turku
2007-2010 PhD, Univ Turku
Research
My research fields are at the intersection of evolutionary ecology, ecophysiology and behavioral and environmental ecology. I am broadly interested in the proximate physiological mechanisms underlying variation in phenotypic, behavioral and fitness traits and their plasticity. I want to understand how physiologically-regulated traits enable organismal adaptation to changing environmental conditions and play a part in species interactions, potentially even affecting population processes. I am also interested in how interactions with microbes (gut microbiome) relate to phenotypic variation in wild populations. I further want to understand more broadly how various early-life environmental conditions affects offspring development and fitness with a specific interest in non-genetic inheritance, such as maternal effects and epigenetics
Current group members:
Post-docs: Bin-Yan Hsu (UTU), Antoine Stier (UTU)
PhD students: Tom Sarraude (UTU/University of Gronigen), Nina Cossin-Sevrin (UTU)
MSc students: Lotta Holmen (UTU), Mark Verschuuren (NIOO, NL), Lyydia Leino (UTU)
BSc students: Mikaela Hukkanen (UTU)
Visiting: Coline Marciau
Interns:
Research group pages: https://sites.utu.fi/ruuskanengroup/
Teaching
Ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology:
2018-2019-2020
Vertebrate ecology research (BIOL2204)
Seminars in Biology (BIOL5200)
Ecotoxicology (FYGE2060)
Presenting and Publishing Data (BIOL5201)
Publications 
2 of 4
- Endocrinology of thermoregulation in birds in a changing climate (2021)
- Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Explorative behaviour is not associated with metabolism in the European Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca (2021)
- Ibis
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Is maternal thyroid hormone deposition subject to a trade-off between self and egg because of iodine? An experimental study in rock pigeon (2021)
- Journal of Experimental Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Long-term data reveal the associations of the egg quality with abiotic factors and female traits in the Baltic Herring under variable environmental conditions (2021)
- Frontiers in Marine Science
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Risk in the circular food economy: Glyphosate-based herbicide residues in manure fertilizers decrease crop yield (2021)
- Science of the Total Environment
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Stress Responses (2021)
- Trends in Ecology and Evolution
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal ) - Bird Feces as Indicators of Metal Pollution: Pitfalls and Solutions (2020)
- Toxics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Born to be young? Prenatal thyroid hormones increase early-life telomere length in wild collared flycatchers (2020)
- Biology Letters
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Effects of parental exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides on embryonic development and oxidative status: a long-term experiment in a bird model (2020)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Experimental copper exposure, but not heat stress, leads to elevated intraovarian thyroid hormone levels in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) (2020)
- Ecotoxicology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Female Preference and Adverse Developmental Effects of Glyphosate-Based Herbicides on Ecologically Relevant Traits in Japanese Quails (2020)
- Environmental Science and Technology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Glyphosate-based herbicides influence antioxidants, reproductive hormones and gut microbiome but not reproduction: A long-term experiment in an avian model (2020)
- Environmental Pollution
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Manipulation of Prenatal Thyroid Hormones Does Not Affect Growth or Physiology in Nestling Pied Flycatchers (2020)
- Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Testing different forms of regulation of yolk thyroid hormone transfer in pied flycatchers (2020)
- Journal of Experimental Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Testing for context-dependent effects of prenatal thyroid hormones on offspring survival and physiology: an experimental temperature manipulation (2020)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Testing the short-and long-term effects of elevated prenatal exposure to different forms of thyroid hormones (2020)
- PeerJ
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Between- and Within-Individual Variation of Maternal Thyroid Hormone Deposition in Wild Great Tits (Parus major) (2019)
- American Naturalist
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Maternal food supplementation and perceived predation risk modify egg composition and eggshell traits but not offspring condition (2019)
- Journal of Experimental Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Plastic but repeatable: Rapid adjustments of mitochondrial function and density during reproduction in a wild bird species (2019)
- Biology Letters
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Transgenerational endocrine disruption: Does elemental pollution affect egg or nestling thyroid hormone levels in a wild songbird? (2019)
- Environmental Pollution
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)
UTU Research Portal