The conditions and changes of Earth’s freshwater and permafrost systems affect people and ecosystems and are central in global change. We study these conditions and their changes in order to better understand and quantify them and thereby contribute to knowledge and capacity advancement needed for sustainable development.

Our research focuses on water quantity and quality, how liquid and frozen, subsurface and surface water interacts, and how water flows and carries other substances and energy with it through the landscape – locally, regionally and globally, and from past, through present, to future times. We analyze soil water and groundwater, lakes and rivers, wetlands, permafrost and glacial water, engineered water systems and water use by vegetation - separately and linked in hydrological catchments, landscapes and water management districts – in different parts of the world.

We also study permafrost regions, not least the northern circumpolar region, regarding their possible fate under conditions of future global warming and the total amount, landscape distribution and vertical partitioning of soil organic carbon stocks in these regions. An additional focus is Holocene and recent permafrost dynamics in subarctic palsas and peat plateaus of Northern Europe.

In general, our studies include field and laboratory observations, measurements and experiments, as well as quantitative modeling and computational methods.