0000000000187956
AUTHOR
Aveliina Helm
showing 7 related works from this author
Benchmarking plant diversity of Palaearctic grasslands and other open habitats
2021
© 2021 The Authors.
Semi-natural habitats in the European boreal region: Caught in the socio-ecological extinction vortex?
2022
AbstractWe propose to consider semi-natural habitats—hotspots for biodiversity—being caught in a socio-ecological extinction vortex, similar to the phenomenon described for species threatened with extinction. These habitats are essentially socioecological systems, in which socioeconomic drivers are interlinked with ecological processes. We identify four highly interlinked and mutually reinforcing socio-economic processes, pertaining to the importance of semi-natural habitats for (i) agricultural production, (ii) policy, research and development; (iii) vocational education in the fields of agricultural sciences and (iv) public’s experiences with semi-natural habitats. Evidence from six count…
Harnessing the biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland
2015
A large proportion of European biodiversity today depends on habitat provided by low‐intensity farming practices, yet this resource is declining as European agriculture intensifies. Within the European Union, particularly the central and eastern new member states have retained relatively large areas of species‐rich farmland, but despite increased investment in nature conservation here in recent years, farmland biodiversity trends appear to be worsening. Although the high biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland has long been reported, the amount of research in the international literature focused on farmland biodiversity in this region remains comparatively ti…
Temperature and pH define the realised niche space of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
2021
Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T11:52:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-03-04 European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence EcolChange) University of Tartu (Estonian Research Council ) Moscow State University Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant Russian Science Foundation Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet) The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are a globally distributed group of soil organisms that play critical roles in ecosystem function. However, the ecological niches of individual AM fungal taxa are poorly understood. We collected > 300 s…
Semi-natural habitats in boreal Europe: a rise of a social-ecological research agenda
2021
The European continent contains substantial areas of semi-natural habitats, mostly grasslands, which are among the most endangered habitats in Europe. Their continued existence depends on some form of human activity, for either production or conservation purposes, or both. We examined the share of semi-natural grasslands within the general grassland areas in boreal Europe. We reviewed research literature across the region to compile evidence on semi-natural grasslands and other semi-natural habitats, such as wooded pastures, in respect to a range of topics such as ecology, land-use change, socioeconomics, and production. We also explored drivers of the research agenda and outlined future re…
The importance current and historical landscape structure and biodiversity on the provision of ecosystem services in cultural landscapes with high co…
2018
Calcareous semi-natural alvar grasslands in Estonia have lost up to 80% of their area since the 1930s due to changes in human activities and land use. Recently, under the European Union LIFE+ Nature project "Life to alvars", this situation has improved as 1500ha of these semi-natural grasslands have been recovered. These changes over time in landscape structure have strong effects on biodiversity and ecosystem processes, resulting also on profound impacts on the provision of ecosystem services (ES) and human well-being. However, for many ecosystem characteristics, changes in the landscape do not have immediate effects but are manifested after a considerable time-lag. Not considering this di…
Effects of grassland habitat loss on selection of nature’s contributions to people
2018
Nature's contributions to people (NCP) are nature's characteristics that are vital for human well-being. During recent years, the maintenance and safeguarding of these contributions has become the key issue in nature conservation. Variety of NCP are related to biodiversity of habitats. Biodiversity, in turn, is highly dependent on landscape composition and environmental conditions of habitats. Land use change, habitat degradation and destruction are the primary causes of biodiversity loss and also degradation of NCP's. Our study was carried out on calcareous grasslands in Estonian islands Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhu and on the mainland of Western Estonia. A total of 35 study sites were sampled.…