Miia Rainio
Ph.D
miikoi@utu.fi Office: 136 ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/orcid.org/0000-0003-0420-9314 |
Antioxidants, birds, Colorado potato beetle, ecology, ecophysiology, ecotoxicology, glyphosate, gut microbiota, metals, nest microbiota, oxidative stress, pollution, ROS
- 2022-2025 Senior researcher, University of Turku
- 2021- 2022 Post-doc researcher, University of Turku
- 2021 Title of Docent in Ecophysiology, University of Turku
- 2016 - 2021 Post-doc researcher, University of Turku
- 2017 - 2018 Visiting researcher, University of Jyväskylä
- 2013 - 2014 Post-doc researcher, University of Turku
- 2013 PhD, University of Turku
- 2008 - 2013 PhD student, University of Turku
- 2006 - 2007 Research assistant/researcher in University of Jyväskylä
- 2005 Master of Science, University of Jyväskylä
I'm working as a senior researcher in the University Turku, studying the effects of metal pollution on early-life microbial environment in birds to understand the interconnection and function between pollution and microbiota and to reveal whether changes in microbiota are related to the physiology and health of the birds. I'm broadly interested in ecotoxicology and ecophysiology as well as the effects of environmental changes on life-history traits and microbial communities in wildlife. In addition, I've been studying the effects of glyphosate-based herbicides on non-target organisms, more specifically the effects on life-history traits, physiological functions and microbiota in invertebrates and vertebrates.
My research interests have been to understand the human induced changes on animals from ecological, genetic and physiological perspective. I am broadly interested in ecological physiology and ecotoxicology as well as effects of environmental changes on on life-history traits and microbial communities in wildlife. I have a versatile background in ecotoxicology, ecophysiology and ornithology in broader scale. I have experience in handling and banding birds, rearing birds in captivity, and conducting field and novel world experiments at indoor aviaries. I have also experienced in performing rearing experiment in insects (plant-herbivore interaction studies) and various physiological measurements in laboratory (e.g. oxidative status measurements, microbial sequencing). I am keen to learn new methodologies in statistics and in the field of evolutionary ecology and ecophysiology.
Teaching:
- Giving lectures in the master program courses, Dept. of Biology, UTU: Principles of Ecotoxicology (responsible teacher 2020, 2022-23), Presenting and Publishing Scientific Data in Biology (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), Environmental Ecology (2019), Environmental Chemicalization (2019, Open University lecture)
Supervision:
- Supervisor of the 2 PhD theses 2022-2027, Dept. of Biology, University of Turku
- Supervisor of the 3 MSc. theses 2019-2022, Dept. of Biology, University of Turku
- Co-supervisor of the Bachelor thesis 2021, University of Jyväskylä
- Supervisor of the MSc. thesis 2017-2018, University of Turku/University of Jyväskylä
- Supervising a student in a “working in the research group” -course (2018 Dept. of Biology, UTU)
- Supervision of MSc students and trainees in Department of Biology (field and laboratory work, 2008-2024 Dept. of Biology, UTU)
Evaluations:
- 1 PhD thesis evaluation (2022)
- 6 MSc theses evaluations (2013, 2019, 2021, 2023, UTU, HY)
- Collaboration in the Evolution in Action project led by researchers from the University of Jyväskylä
- Metal-polluted environments across Europe show location dependent associations with gut microbiota and nestling performance in an insectivorous passerine (2026)
- Environmental Research
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Metal-induced changes in the early-life gut microbial composition and life-history traits in three insectivorous passerines (2025)
- Environmental Science and Pollution Research
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Assessing avian incubation behavior in response to environmental pollution with temperature-humidity loggers (2024)
- Ornis Fennica
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Fecal calcium levels of bird nestlings as a potential indicator of species-specific metal sensitivity (2024)
- Environmental Pollution
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Glyphosate residues in soil and phosphate fertilizer affect foliar endophytic microbial community composition and phytohormone levels in potato (2024)
- Phytobiomes journal
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Pollution-related changes in nest microbiota: Implications for growth and
fledging in three passerine birds (2024)- Environmental Pollution
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Ecosystem consequences of herbicides: the role of microbiome (2023)
- Trends in Ecology and Evolution
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal ) - The effects of short-term glyphosate-based herbicide exposure on insect gene expression profiles (2023)
- Journal of Insect Physiology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Does Glyphosate Affect the Human Microbiota? (2022)
- Life
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Adaptation of bacteria to glyphosate: a microevolutionary perspective of the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (2021)
- Environmental Microbiology Reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



