| 1. |
- Blixt, Torbjörn, et al.
(författare)
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Clear-cuts in production forests: From matrix to neo-habitat forbutterflies
- 2015
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Ingår i: Acta Oecologica. - : Elsevier. - 1146-609X .- 1873-6238. ; 69, s. 71-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Butterfly conservation in Europe is mainly focused on well-defined grassland habitat patches. Such anapproach ignores the impact of the surrounding landscape, which may contain complementary resourcesand facilitate dispersal. Here, we investigated butterfly species richness and abundance in a habitatnormally regarded as unsuitable matrix: production forestry clear-cuts. Butterflies were recorded in 48clear-cuts in southern Sweden differing with regards to the time since clear-cutting and land-use history(meadow or forest based on historical maps from the 1870s). All clear-cuts had been managed as productionforests for at least 80e120 years. A total of 39 species were found in clear-cuts of both land-usehistories, but clear-cuts with a history as meadow had on average 34% higher species richness and 19%higher abundance than did clear-cuts with a history as forest. No effect of the time since clear-cuttingwas found, irrespective of land-use history, which was likely due to the narrow timespan sampled (<8years). The absence of temporal effect suggests that clear-cuts may provide butterflies with valuableresources for 10e15 years. Assuming a 100 year forest rotational cycle, this means that 10e15% of thetotal forested area are made up by clear-cuts valuable to butterflies, which corresponds to an area aboutfour times as large as that of species-rich semi-natural grasslands. The study illustrates the importance ofconsidering land-use legacies in ecological research and question the landscape-ecological view thatclear-cuts make up an unsuitable matrix for butterflies. Moreover, forest conservation management withspecial attention to land-use history may increase the quality of the landscape, thus facilitating butterflymetapopulation persistence. Given their large area and assets of nectar and host plant resources, clearcutsmust be considered as a butterfly habitat in its own right. Being a man-made environment withshort history, we might call it a neo-habitat.
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| 2. |
- Jonason, Dennis, et al.
(författare)
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Land-use history exerts long-term effects on the clear-cut flora in boreonemoral Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: Applied Vegetation Science. - : WILEY-BLACKWELL. - 1402-2001 .- 1654-109X. ; 19:4, s. 634-643
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- QuestionsCan signs of 19th century grassland management, which can be observed in the flora immediately (2-4yrs) after clear-cutting in boreonemoral Sweden, still remain 4yrs later? Do the effects from the time since clear-cutting differ between forest and grassland plant species? LocationProvince of ostergotland, southern Sweden. MethodsTwelve contemporary clear-cut areas that were once meadows and 12 that were once forests were selected using land-use maps from the 1870s. Grasses and herbaceous plants were surveyed twice, once in 2009 and once in 2013 (2-4 and 6-8yrs after clear-cutting, respectively). Plant presence was recorded within 100 circular sample plots (radius 1m) placed evenly throughout each respective clear-cut area along transects spaced 25-m apart. The number of sample plots in which a species was present was taken as a measure of that species frequency. Random effects meta-analysis, odds ratios and ANCOVA were used to analyse species responses to clear-cutting over time. ResultsA total of 170 plant species were found in the study, of which 33 were classified as grassland indicator species and 31 as plants primarily confined to forests. Clear-cut areas with a history as meadowland had, on average, up to 64% higher total species richness and 110% more grassland indicator species than did clear-cut areas with a history as forest. The time since clear-cutting had no effect on total species richness. However, the odds of finding a grassland indicator species decreased with the time since clear-cutting, whereas the odds of finding a forest species increased. ConclusionsWe concluded that land-use history plays an important role in explaining the flora found in Swedish clear-cuts, and that its effects on species richness remain for a minimum of 8yrs after harvest (conservative estimate). This phenomenon highlights the importance of acknowledging land-use legacies in ecological research and conservation. Future studies should investigate various options for the promotion of grassland plants in clear-cuts with a history of grassland management while also acknowledging the potential conflicts between conservation and production. The results may pertain to other countries with similar land-use histories.
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| 3. |
- Jonason, Dennis, et al.
(författare)
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Weak functional response to agricultural landscape homogenisation among plants, butterflies and birds
- 2017
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Ingår i: Ecography. - : Wiley. - 0906-7590 .- 1600-0587. ; 40:10, s. 1221-1230
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Measures of functional diversity are expected to predict community responses to land use and environmental change because, in contrast to taxonomic diversity, it is based on species traits rather than their identity. Here, we investigated the impact of landscape homogenisation on plants, butterflies and birds in terms of the proportion of arable field cover in southern Finland at local (0.25 km2) and regional (> 10 000 km2) scales using four functional diversity indices: functional richness, functional evenness, functional divergence and functional dispersion. No uniform response in functional diversity across taxa or scales was found. However, in all cases where we found a relationship between increasing arable field cover and any index of functional diversity, this relationship was negative. Butterfly functional richness decreased with increasing arable field cover, as did butterfly and bird functional evenness. For butterfly functional evenness, this was only evident in the most homogeneous regions. Butterfly and bird functional dispersion decreased in homogeneous regions regardless of the proportion of arable field cover locally. No effect of landscape heterogeneity on plant functional diversity was found at any spatial scale, but plant species richness decreased locally with increasing arable field cover. Overall, species richness responded more consistently to landscape homogenisation than did the functional diversity indices, with both positive and negative effects across species groups. Functional diversity indices are in theory valuable instruments for assessing effects of land use scenarios on ecosystem functioning. However, the applicability of empirical data requires deeper understanding of which traits reliably capture species' vulnerability to environmental factors and of the ecological interpretation of the functional diversity indices. Our study provides novel insights into how the functional diversity of communities changes in response to agriculturally derived landscape homogenisation; however, the low explanatory power of the functional diversity indices hampers the ability to reliably anticipate impacts on ecosystem functioning.
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| 4. |
- Lichtenberg, Elinor M., et al.
(författare)
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A global synthesis of the effects of diversified farming systems on arthropod diversity within fields and across agricultural landscapes
- 2017
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 23:11, s. 4946-4957
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agricultural intensification is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, which can reduce the provisioning of ecosystem services in managed ecosystems. Organic farming and plant diversification are farm management schemes that may mitigate potential ecological harm by increasing species richness and boosting related ecosystem services to agroecosystems. What remains unclear is the extent to which farm management schemes affect biodiversity components other than species richness, and whether impacts differ across spatial scales and landscape contexts. Using a global metadataset, we quantified the effects of organic farming and plant diversification on abundance, local diversity (communities within fields), and regional diversity (communities across fields) of arthropod pollinators, predators, herbivores, and detritivores. Both organic farming and higher in-field plant diversity enhanced arthropod abundance, particularly for rare taxa. This resulted in increased richness but decreased evenness. While these responses were stronger at local relative to regional scales, richness and abundance increased at both scales, and richness on farms embedded in complex relative to simple landscapes. Overall, both organic farming and in-field plant diversification exerted the strongest effects on pollinators and predators, suggesting these management schemes can facilitate ecosystem service providers without augmenting herbivore (pest) populations. Our results suggest that organic farming and plant diversification promote diverse arthropod metacommunities that may provide temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem service provisioning. Conserving diverse plant and arthropod communities in farming systems therefore requires sustainable practices that operate both within fields and across landscapes.
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| 5. |
- Milberg, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Flower abundance and vegetation height as predictors fornectar-feeding insect occurrence in Swedish semi-natural grasslands
- 2016
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Ingår i: Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0167-8809 .- 1873-2305. ; 230, s. 47-54
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With steadily shrinking areas of species-rich semi-natural grasslands in Europe, the management of theremaining fragments becomes ever more crucial for the preservation of key elements of biodiversity inthe agricultural landscape. Detailed knowledge about species-wise, as well as group-wise, relationshipscan provide guidelines for conservation management and a basis for predictions about differentmanagement scenarios. In the present study, we related the occurrence of species of bumblebees (N = 12),butterflies (31) and day-flying moths (4) and their total richness in 424 sites in southern Sweden to threegrass sward attributes, (i)flower abundance, (ii) height of the grass sward and (iii) within-site variation inheight of vegetation. The abundance of nectar-bearingflowers proved overall the best predictor ofrichness and in most of the occurrence-based species-wise models. However, both high grass swardheight and high variation in grass sward height contributed significantly to species richness andoccurrence of individual species. There was a tendency for bumblebees to respond less positively toflower abundance and vegetation height than butterflies and moths. One expectation was that grasslandspecialists, red-listed species, or species decreasing in other part of Europe, would be more responsive totall vegetation orflower abundance but there was no support for this in the data. Hence, managementstrategies that promote common species will also benefit all, or most of, the rare ones as well.
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| 6. |
- Milberg, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Land-use history influence the vegetation in coniferous production forests in southern Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: Forest Ecology and Management. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0378-1127 .- 1872-7042. ; 440, s. 23-30
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the last centuries, land use in Europe intensified, which has led to a drastic decrease in the cover of semi-natural grasslands. In Sweden, much of the lost grasslands was turned into forest. This study investigated if species typical of managed grasslands could be found in coniferous production forests more than 80 years after grassland management ceased. Species and trait composition for plants was investigated in two types of forest differing in land use history (meadow in the 1870s or continuous coniferous forest), and in reference grasslands. The average plant species richness as well as the richness of grassland indicator species were 30% higher in forests with a history as meadow compared to in forests with a history as forest, hence clear signs of historical grassland management in todays forests. Compared with forests with continuous coniferous history, vegetation in forests with a meadow history tended to be more similar to reference grassland regarding both plant species and especially plant trait composition. The study provides proof of remnant grassland populations in coniferous production as the source for the biodiversity of clearcuts, rather than seed dispersal or seed bank survival. The result highlights the importance of land use for biodiversity of clearcuts, and points to the potential value of forests with a history of meadow in grassland conservation and restoration.
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| 7. |
- Ranius, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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The evolutionary species pool concept does not explain occurrence patterns of dead-wood-dependent organisms: implications for logging residue extraction
- 2019
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 191, s. 241-252
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Emulation of natural disturbances is often regarded as a key measure to make forestry biodiversity-oriented. Consequently, extraction of logging residues is assumed to have little negative effect in comparison to extraction of dead wood mainly formed at natural disturbances. This is consistent with the evolutionary species pool hypothesis, which suggests that most species are evolutionary adapted to the naturally most abundant habitats. We tested this hypothesis for dead-wood-dependent macrofungi, lichens, and beetles in a boreal forest landscape in central Sweden, assuming that species are adapted to conditions similar to today's unmanaged forest. No occurrence patterns, for the species groups which we investigated, were consistent with the hypothesis. Overall, stumps and snags had the highest habitat quality (measured as average population density with equal weight given to each species) and fine woody debris the lowest, which was unexpected, since stumps were the rarest dead-wood type in unmanaged forest. We conclude that the evolutionary species pool concept did not explain patterns of species' occurrences, and for two reasons, the concept is not reliable as a general rule of thumb: (1) what constitute habitats harbouring different species communities can only be understood from habitat-specific studies and (2) the suitability of habitats is affected by their biophysical characteristics. Thus, emulation of natural disturbances may promote biodiversity, but empirical studies are needed for each habitat to understand how natural disturbances should be emulated. We also conclude that stump extraction for bioenergy is associated with larger risks for biodiversity than fine woody debris extraction.
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