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- Abrahamsson, Markus, et al.
(författare)
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Saproxylic beetle assemblages in artificially created high-stumps of spruce (Picea abies) and birch (Betula pendula/pubescens) – does the surrounding landscape matter?
- 2009
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Ingår i: Insect Conservation and Diversity. - : Wiley. - 1752-458X .- 1752-4598. ; 2, s. 284-294
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract. 1. To create high-stumps (snags) is a common conservation action during final felling in Swedish production forests. However, many wood-living beetle species are only found in certain areas with higher overall biodiversity, so called hotspots. It has been argued that it is efficient to concentrate conservation efforts to hotspots. 2. The saproxylic beetle fauna was sampled on ten clearcuts inside hotspots and ten clearcuts outside the hotspots. They were collected with window traps mounted on 2- and 4-year-old spruce and birch high-stumps. We also used environmental data (e.g. tree species composition) to confirm differences between the surroundings of two, the clearcut types. 3. High-stumps on the hotspot clearcuts did not attract more saproxylic beetle species, or red-listed species, than high-stumps outside the hotspots. The environmental data showed that the clearcuts differed in several important aspects, for instance, were there a higher proportion of broadleaved trees around the hotspot compared with the clearcuts outside the hotspots. In a Canonical Correspondence Analysis, the proportion of coniferous and broadleaved forest was an important explanatory variables. The hotspot variable did contribute significantly in explaining the beetle composition on the birch high-stumps, but not on the spruce high-stumps. 4. In general, the study suggests that concentrating high-stumps to hotspot areas will not benefit more species. However, the result indicates birch high-stumps could be prioritised in a biologically rich landscape. The hotspot effect may be more noticeable in the future as the high-stumps decay and their importance for late successional species increase
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| 4. |
- Brukas, Vilis, et al.
(författare)
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Linking forest management, policy and biodiversity indicators - A comparison of Lithuania and Southern Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: Forest Ecology and Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-1127 .- 1872-7042. ; 291, s. 181-189
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lithuania and Southern Sweden share similar natural conditions, but differ considerably in forest policies and management; thereby providing an opportune basis for comparative studies. Since the 1990s, Sweden has attempted to reduce the negative impact of its forest management on biodiversity, after decades of intensive production forestry. In contrast, Lithuania has been intensifying forestry practices associated with the post-soviet socio-economic transition. Here we assess the actual outcomes by comparing selected forest structure and composition variables known to be indicators for forest biodiversity; and estimate the prospective trends by scrutinising current forest policies and management. Our results indicate that Lithuanian forests consistently possessed higher rankings in six indices related to tree species composition, stand age, and deadwood quantities that are positively associated with forest biodiversity. The reverse is indicated by those data on stand age and tree diameter that are associated with centennial dynamics in forest utilisation intensity. With respect to policy instruments, Lithuania designates a substantially greater share of forest area to non-timber functions and legislates more severe management restrictions in forests targeting timber production. Concurrently, all estimates of forestry activities indicate more intensive forest management in Southern Sweden, including a higher share of artificial regeneration and shorter rotations. This allows concluding that, if current forest management practices persist, then an increased “biodiversity gap” may be expected between the two countries. The study concludes with discussing to what degree the identified trends are the direct product of targeted policies versus merely by-products of other factors.
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| 6. |
- Brunet, Jörg, et al.
(författare)
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Understory succession in post-agricultural oak forests: Habitat fragmentation affects forest specialists and generalists differently
- 2011
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Ingår i: Forest Ecology and Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-7042 .- 0378-1127. ; 262:9, s. 1863-1871
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The herbaceous understory forms the richest stratum in temperate broadleaved forests in terms of plant diversity. Understanding the process of understory succession is thus of critical importance for the development of management guidelines for biodiversity restoration in post-agricultural plantation forests. We studied effects of stand age, forest fragmentation, and soil and canopy conditions on species richness and abundance of four species groups in the understory of post-arable oak plantations in southern Sweden: herbaceous forest specialists, habitat generalists and open-land species, and woody species. The group of forest specialists may approach the richness of continuously forested sites after 60-80 years in non-fragmented plantations, but many forest species were sensitive to habitat fragmentation. Open-land species richness decreased during succession, while the richness of woody species and of generalists remained stable, and was not affected by fragmentation. Abundance of generalists gradually decreased in non-fragmented plantations, probably due to competition from colonizing forest specialists. Soil pH in post-arable stands remained consistently higher than in continuously forested stands, which maintained differences in species composition. The development of a shrub layer seemed to imply a competitive advantage for forest specialists compared to generalist species. For successful recovery of a rich understory, we suggest that post-arable plantations should be established on loamy soils of intermediate to high pH proximate to older forest with source populations, and that a continuous overstory canopy cover of 70-80% is maintained by regular light thinnings and promotion of a shrub layer. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 7. |
- Drobyshev, Igor, et al.
(författare)
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Did forest fires maintain mixed oak forests in southern Scandinavia? A dendrochronological speculation
- 2021
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Ingår i: Forest Ecology and Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-1127 .- 1872-7042. ; 482
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In northern Europe, a long history of human exploitation effectively eliminated legacies of natural disturbances in mixed oak forests and we currently lack understanding of the role of natural disturbance factors in affecting oak regeneration into the forest canopies. We compiled dendrochronological, observational and paleochronological data from Southern Sweden to discuss the role of forest fires in oak (Quercus spp.) dynamics. We analyzed oak age structure and its growth dynamics in six southern Swedish forests, which experienced fires between 42 and 158 years prior to our sampling. Extending our analysis over longer time frames, we studied the relationship between sediment charcoal and oak pollen in an area of south-eastern Sweden, where oak has been a common canopy species. In three of the study sites, forest fires resulted in increased oak regeneration. Although fires were generally not associated with a wave of growth releases in surviving trees, the mean basal area growth rate of oaks increased by a range of 108% to 176%, following the fires. The overall pattern indicated that historical fires in oak-dominated forests were of low severity, did not kill canopy oaks, and yet provided a window of regeneration opportunities for that species. Post-fire sprouting of oak and an increase in oak seedling densities following modern prescribed fires are consistent with this explanation. Consistent with this conclusion were significant positive correlations between charcoal concentration and the oak pollen percentage in a site in southeastern Sweden. We discuss the co-occurrence of oak and pine in the historical southern Swedish landscape, as a possible analogy to eastern North American oak-pine forests. Modern conservation policies aimed at the preservation of oak in the southern Swedish landscape should consider the use of low severity fires to maintain natural oak regeneration.
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| 8. |
- Drobyshev, Igor, et al.
(författare)
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Thinning around old oaks in spruce production forests: current practices show no positive effect on oak growth rates and need fine tuning
- 2019
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0282-7581 .- 1651-1891. ; 34, s. 126-132
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The expansion of spruce-dominated forestry in Southern Sweden during the twentieth century has led to a considerable amount of oak (Quercus robur L.) woodlands being converted into stands dominated by planted spruce. The thinning of spruces around oak trees is currently done in Sweden to improve local diversity of insects, oak growing conditions and eventually decrease their mortality. To evaluate the effect of these treatments, we dendrochronologically studied growth of old (100-200 years old) oaks subjected to thinning of different intensity at nine locations in southern Sweden, and compared them to oaks located in nearby pastures. The overall pattern suggests that commonly adopted thinning intensities do not significantly affect oak growth. Oak growth was positively related to oak age and negatively to the amount of dead oak crown. Analyses of correlations between oak growth and summer drought conditions, as reflected by location-specific chronologies of the Monthly Drought Code (MDC), indicated that older trees exhibited generally negative correlations, whereas the correlation remained generally positive for the younger trees, both inside and outside forest stands. We propose that removal of spruces should be primarily done around older and healthier-looking trees.
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| 9. |
- Felton, Adam, et al.
(författare)
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A comparison of avian diversity in spruce monocultures and spruce-birch polycultures in southern Sweden
- 2011
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Ingår i: Silva Fennica. - : Finnish Society of Forest Science. - 0037-5330 .- 2242-4075. ; 45:5, s. 1143-1150
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The replacement of some spruce monocultures with stands composed of planted Norway spruce (Picea abies) and naturally regenerated birch (Betula spp.) has a range of potential benefits, but the implications for biodiversity are generally unknown. Here we conduct a paired replicated study in southern Sweden of the avian biodiversity found within Norway spruce monocultures, and within Norway spruce stands possessing approximately 20% birch. Our research leads us to three findings. First, avian diversity was significantly higher in the spruce birch polycultures. Second, spruce birch polycultures exclusively attracted broadleaf-associated bird species and retained the majority of conifer-associated bird species found in the spruce monocultures. Third, avian biodiversity within the spruce birch polycultures did not incorporate threatened taxa. We suggest that in addition to the apparent benefits for stand level diversity, widespread use of spruce birch polycultures could provide a means of softening the matrix for broadleaved-associated species, while concurrently providing an increased broadleaf base from which future conservation actions could be implemented. Our results are relevant to multi-use forestry, and recent policy initiatives by forest certification agencies which aim to increase broadleaf-associated biodiversity within conifer-dominated production forest landscapes.
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| 10. |
- Felton, Adam, et al.
(författare)
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Correction to: Keeping pace with forestry : Multi-scale conservation in a changing production forest matrix (vol 49, pg 1050, 2020)
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 49:5, s. 1065-1066
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the original published article, the sentence “Nevertheless, semi-natural forest remnants continue to be harvested and fragmented (Svensson et al. 2018; Jonsson et al. 2019), and over 2000 forest-associated species (of 15 000 assessed) are listed as threatened on Sweden’s red-list, largely represented by macro-fungi, beetles, lichens and butterflies (Sandström 2015).”under the section Introduction was incorrect. The correct version of the sentence is “Nevertheless, semi-natural forest remnants continue to be harvested and fragmented (Svensson et al. 2018; Jonsson et al. 2019), and approximately 2000 forest-associated species (of 15 000 assessed) are on Sweden’s red-list, largely represented by macro-fungi, beetles, lichens and butterflies (Sandström 2015).”
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