The mechanistic basis of changes in community assembly in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and productivity

Anthropogenic disturbance often causes changes in communities. However, the mechanistic basis of these changes remains elusive. As all patterns in community ecology can be understood as a result of four processes (speciation, selection, drift, and dispersal), the effect of disturbance should depend on how disturbance disrupt these processes. We studied the effects of disturbance and productivity on species richness, community composition, and community dispersion (i.e., variation in community composition) in the vegetation of 120 boreal peatlands using null-model approach to determine whether community assembly processes differ between pristine and disturbed sites. Sites represented three p…

Combining spatial prioritization and expert knowledge facilitates effectiveness of large-scale mire protection process in Finland

Conservation resource allocation involves a complex set of considerations including species, habitats, connectivity, local to global biodiversity objectives, alternative protection and restoration actions, while requiring cost-efficiency and effective implementation. We present a national scale spatial conservation prioritization analysis for complementing the network of protected mires in Finland. We show how spatial prioritization coupled with regional targets and expert knowledge can facilitate structured decision-making. In our application, discussion between experts was structured around the prioritization model enabling integration of quantitative analysis with expert knowledge. The u…

Exposing ecological and economic costs of the research-implementation gap and compromises in decision making

The frequently discussed gap between conservation science and practice is manifest in the gap between spatial conservation prioritization plans and their implementation. We analyzed the research-implementation gap of one zoning case by comparing results of a spatial prioritization analysis aimed at avoiding ecological impact of peat mining in a regional zoning process with the final zoning plan. We examined the relatively complex planning process to determine the gaps among research, zoning, and decision making. We quantified the ecological costs of the differing trade-offs between ecological and socioeconomic factors included in the different zoning suggestions by comparing the landscape-l…

Restoration priorities and strategies : Restoration to protect biodiversity and enhance Green Infrastructure : Nordic examples of priorities and needs for strategic solutions

Exposing ecological and economic costs of the research-implementation gap and compromises in decision making

The frequently discussed gap between conservation science and practice is manifest in the gap between spatial conservation prioritization plans and their implementation. We analyzed the research-implementation gap of one zoning case by comparing results of a spatial prioritization analysis aimed at avoiding ecological impact of peat mining in a regional zoning process with the final zoning plan. We examined the relatively complex planning process to determine the gaps among research, zoning, and decision making. We quantified the ecological costs of the differing trade-offs between ecological and socioeconomic factors included in the different zoning suggestions by comparing the landscape-l…

Ravinnetason ja ojituksen vaikutus suokasvillisuuden monimuotoisuuteen ja lajikoostumukseen

Lajistollisessa monimuotoisuudessa on havaittavissa ajallista ja paikallista vaihtelua, joka on jo vuosisatojen ajan innoittanut ekologeja selvittämään lajirikkauden määrittäviä tekijöitä. Muun muassa pinta-alan, elinympäristön heterogeenisyyden, energian ja resurssien saatavuuden sekä erilaisten häiriöiden on havaittu vaikuttavan lajistolliseen monimuotoisuuteen. Osa monimuotoisuuteen vaikuttavista prosesseista on yhä huonosti tunnettuja, ja yksittäisen tekijän vaikutusta voi olla vaikea tulkita, sillä eri tekijät ovat keskenään vuorovaikutuksessa. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää suokasvillisuusyhteisöjen avulla, vaikuttavatko resurssit tai häiriö (1) yhteisön lajimäärään (alfa…

Ecosystem rescue : when protection is not enough

Soiden ennallistamisen suoluonto-, vesistö-, ja ilmastovaikutukset. Vertaisarvioitu raportti.

Tämän selvityksen tarkoituksena on tuottaa kirjallisuuskatsaus ja siihen pohjautuvia johtopäätöksiä soiden ennallistamisen ilmasto-, vesistö- ja suoluontovaikutuksista. Selvitys pyrkii erityisesti kasaamaan yhteen uusimpia tutkimustuloksia ja aineistoja ennallistamisen vaikutuksiin liittyen ja toisaalta muodostamaan kokonaiskuvan laaja-alaisempaa soiden ennallistamisstrategiaa silmällä pitäen. Suoekosysteemit reagoivat kokonai-suutena varsin hyvin perinteisiin ennallistamistoimiin. Ennallistaminen ei kuitenkaan ole ongelmatonta, sillä ennallistamistoimet eli yleensä kaivin- ja metsäkonetyöt sekä ennallistamisen jälkeisen alkuvaiheen voimakkaat ekosysteemin muutokset voivat aiheuttaa yhteisk…

Recovery of plant communities after ecological restoration of forestry-drained peatlands

Ecological restoration is expected to reverse the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Due to the low number of well-replicated field studies, the extent to which restoration recovers plant communities, and the factors underlying possible shortcomings, are not well understood even in medium term. We compared the plant community composition of 38 sites comprising pristine, forestry-drained, and 5 or 10 years ago restored peatlands in southern Finland, with special interest in understanding spatial variation within studied sites, as well as the development of the numbers and the abundances of target species. Our results indicated a recovery of community composition 5–10 years after re…

Age-dependent responses to alarm calls depend on foraging activity in Willow TitsPoecile montanus

Survivorship in animals depends on both foraging activities and avoidance of predation, and thus behavioural decisions often reflect a trade-off between predation risk and foraging efficiency. In this experimental study, we compared behavioural responses of free-living adult and juvenile Willow Tits Poecile montanus to a conspecific alarm call in two treatments. The alarm call was played back when a focal bird was either not feeding, or feeding on a sunflower seed on the middle part of a spruce branch. When feeding at the time of the alarm call, juveniles more often stayed motionless or moved shorter distances than adults. Our results suggest that in hierarchical groups, juveniles are force…

Quantifying trade-offs between ecological gains, economic costs, and landowners' preferences in boreal mire protection.

Private land often encompasses biodiversity features of high conservation value, but its protection is not straightforward. Commonly, landowners’ perspectives are rightfully allowed to influence conservation actions. This unlikely comes without consequences on biodiversity or other aspects such as economic considerations, but these consequences are rarely quantitatively considered in decision-making. In the context of boreal mire protection in Finland, we report how acknowledging landowners’ resistance to protection changes the combination of mires selected to conservation compared to ignoring landowners’ opinions. Using spatial prioritization, we quantify trade-offs arising between the amo…

Fighting carbon loss of degraded peatlands by jump-starting ecosystem functioning with ecological restoration

Degradation of ecosystems is a great concern on the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Ecological restoration fights degradation aiming at the recovery of ecosystem functions such as carbon (C) sequestration and ecosystem structures like plant communities responsible for the C sequestration function. We selected 38 pristine, drained and restored boreal peatland sites in Finland and asked i) what is the long-term effect of drainage on the peatland surface layer C storage, ii) can restoration recover ecosystem functioning (surface layer growth) and structure (plant community composition) and iii) is the recovery of the original structure needed for the recovery of ecosystem f…

Alarm calls in action - does it pay off to help?

Ekosysteemin ennallistamisen ja luonnonhoidon ekologia

Use of Inverse Spatial Conservation Prioritization to Avoid Biological Diversity Loss Outside Protected Areas

Globally expanding human land use sets constantly increasing pressure for maintenance of biological diversity and functioning ecosystems. To fight the decline of biological diversity, conservation science has broken ground with methods such as the operational model of systematic conservation planning (SCP), which focuses on design and on-the-ground implementation of conservation areas. The most commonly used method in SCP is reserve selection that focuses on the spatial design of reserve networks and their expansion. We expanded these methods by introducing another form of spatial allocation of conservation effort relevant for land-use zoning at the landscape scale that avoids negative ecol…

Challenges of ecological restoration: Lessons from forests in northern Europe

The alarming rate of ecosystem degradation has raised the need for ecological restoration throughout different biomes and continents. North European forests may appear as one of the least vulnerable ecosystems from a global perspective, since forest cover is not rapidly decreasing and many ecosystem services remain at high level. However, extensive areas of northern forests are heavily exploited and have lost a major part of their biodiversity value. There is a strong requirement to restore these areas towards a more natural condition in order to meet the targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Several northern countries are now taking up this challenge by restoring forest biodiv…

Monitoring peatland water table depth with optical and radar satellite imagery

Peatland water table depth (WTD) and wetness have widely been monitored with optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing but there is a lack of studies that have used multi-sensor data, i.e., combination of optical and SAR data. We assessed how well WTD can be monitored with remote sensing data, whether multi-sensor approach boosts explanatory capacity and whether there are differences in regression performance between data and peatland types. Our data consisted of continuous multiannual WTD data from altogether 50 restored and undrained Finnish peatlands, and optical (Landsat 5–8, Sentinel-2) and Sentinel-1 C-band SAR data processed in Google Earth Engine. We calculated rando…

Effect of Willow TitPoecile montanusalarm calls on attack rates by Pygmy OwlsGlaucidium passerinum

One suggested anti-predator function of alarm calls is to deliver a message to a predator that it has been detected. Moreover, giving the alarm call could provide a signal to the predator that capturing the individual giving the alarm is more difficult than capturing its silent group members, as the caller is probably the most aware of the predator's location. In an aviary experiment using stuffed dummy Willow Tits Poecile montanus, we assessed whether an authentic alarm call given by Willow Tit affected Pygmy Owl Glaucidium passerinum prey preference. In the experiment, the Owls attacked only the ‘silent’ dummy individuals, suggesting that alarm calling could offer direct fitness benefits …

Ojituksen ja ennallistamisen aiheuttamat muutokset kasvilajistossa ja –yhteisöissä

Ranking Natura 2000 habitats and Natura 2000 areas for nature

We ranked 1 541 Finnish Natura 2000 areas and their 69 different habitat types for ecological restoration and nature management based on their potential for cost-effective ecosystem improvement. We did it by Zonation software and its principles: complementarity, connectivity, condition and cost-effectiveness. We had biodiversity data (GIS: location and current state of 67 N2000 habitats and threatened species) and expert knowledge of improvement methods, effects and costs. As results we got maps, curves of trade-offs and also a ranking list of Natura 2000 areas. peerReviewed

The potential biodiversity effects of voluntary peatland conservation in Finland

Extending conservation area networks is one of the most important measures in the struggle against biodiversity loss. Many areas with high conservation effect locate in privately owned land so establishing new protected areas on private land is often seen necessary. In many countries, protection of private land has traditionally been top-down controlled and landowners have had little or no power to affect conservation decisions. A good example is European Union’s Natura 2000 programme that led to conservation conflicts locally. To avoid conflicts and to increase acceptability of new protected areas located in privately owned land, many voluntary and incentive-based conservation measures hav…

The mechanistic basis of changes in community assembly in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and productivity

In the human-dominated world the natural drivers of species diversity, such as productivity and habitat heterogeneity, have been accompanied by anthropogenic disturbance resulting in increased extinction rates at global scale. However, decrease in species richness does not necessarily result in local decreases in species richness. Moreover, species richness provides limited information on processes that cause changes within and between communities, and the mechanistic basis of these changes remains elusive. As all patterns in community ecology can be understood as a result of four processes (speciation, selection, drift, and dispersal), the effect of disturbance should depend on how disturb…