0000000000310143
AUTHOR
Timo Kuuluvainen
Forest Naturalness in Northern Europe: Perspectives on Processes, Structures and Species Diversity
Saving the remaining natural forests in northern Europe has been one of the main goals to halt the ongoing decline of forest biodiversity. To facilitate the recognition, mapping and efficient conservation of natural forests, there is an urgent need for a general formulation, based on ecological patterns and processes, of the concept of âforest naturalnessâ. However, complexity, structural idiosyncracy and dynamical features of unmanaged forest ecosystems at various spatio-temporal scales pose major challenges for such a formulation. The definitions hitherto used for the concept of forest naturalness can be fruitfully grouped into three dimensions: 1) structure-based concepts of natural …
Rehabilitating boreal forest structure and species composition in Finland through logging, dead wood creation and fire: The EVO experiment
This paper reviews an ongoing, large-scale multidisciplinary experiment designed to study the possibilities of rehabilitating forest structure and species composition through logging, dead wood creation and fire in managed Norway spruce (Picea abies) forests in southern Finland. These forests have been utilized for several centuries with intensive management and clear-cut harvesting, which has been the dominant practice in Finland since World War II. During this era, the forest structure has become relatively even-aged, and the amount of dead wood has been reduced considerably. Simultaneously, due to an effective fire suppression policy, the role of fire in Finnish nature has been almost co…
Supplementary_material_2 – Supplemental material for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe
Supplemental material, Supplementary_material_2 for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe by Normunds Stivrins, Tuomas Aakala, Liisa Ilvonen, Leena Pasanen, Timo Kuuluvainen, Harri Vasander, Mariusz Gałka, Helena R Disbrey, Janis Liepins, Lasse Holmström and Heikki Seppä in The Holocene
Supplementary_material_1 – Supplemental material for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe
Supplemental material, Supplementary_material_1 for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe by Normunds Stivrins, Tuomas Aakala, Liisa Ilvonen, Leena Pasanen, Timo Kuuluvainen, Harri Vasander, Mariusz Gałka, Helena R Disbrey, Janis Liepins, Lasse Holmström and Heikki Seppä in The Holocene
Supplementary_material_2 – Supplemental material for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe
Supplemental material, Supplementary_material_2 for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe by Normunds Stivrins, Tuomas Aakala, Liisa Ilvonen, Leena Pasanen, Timo Kuuluvainen, Harri Vasander, Mariusz Gałka, Helena R Disbrey, Janis Liepins, Lasse Holmström and Heikki Seppä in The Holocene
Multiscale variation in drought controlled historical forest fire activity in the boreal forests of eastern Fennoscandia
Forest fires are a key disturbance in boreal forests, and characteristics of fire regimes are among the most important factors explaining the variation in forest structure and species composition. The occurrence of fire is connected with climate, but earlier, mostly local-scale studies in the northern European boreal forests have provided little insight into fire-climate relationship before the modern fire suppression period. Here, we compiled annually resolved fire history, temperature, and precipitation reconstructions from eastern Fennoscandia from the mid-16th century to the end of the 19th century, a period of strong human influence on fires. We used synchrony of fires over the network…
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…
Supplementary_material_1 – Supplemental material for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe
Supplemental material, Supplementary_material_1 for Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe by Normunds Stivrins, Tuomas Aakala, Liisa Ilvonen, Leena Pasanen, Timo Kuuluvainen, Harri Vasander, Mariusz Gałka, Helena R Disbrey, Janis Liepins, Lasse Holmström and Heikki Seppä in The Holocene
Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe
Fire is a major disturbance agent in the boreal forest, influencing many current and future ecosystem conditions and services. Surprisingly few studies have attempted to improve the accuracy of fire-event reconstructions even though the estimates of the occurrence of past fires may be biased, influencing the reliability of the models employing those data (e.g. C stock, cycle). This study aimed to demonstrate how three types of fire proxies – fire scars from tree rings, sedimentary charcoal and, for the first time in this context, fungal spores of Neurospora – can be integrated to achieve a better understanding of past fire dynamics. By studying charcoal and Neurospora from sediment cores f…
Red List of Ecosystems: assessing the quality of boreal forests in Finland
IUCN recently published guidelines for Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) risk assessment [1]. The RLE criteria include consideration of changes in an area and the geographic distribution of ecosystems but also of changes in the biotic and abiotic ecological quality of ecosystems. In widely distributed ecosystems, such as boreal forests in Finland, ecological quality is often more important than the spatial extent of an area in assessing threat status. Therefore, it is important to find quantitative variables that are good surrogates for the overall quality of an ecosystem. In the RLE assessment of Finland, we divided boreal forests into 40 ecosystem types. Of these, forests with mineral soils (1…
Global-scale assessment of forest management impacts on biodiversity patterns
Integrating biodiversity conservation into forest management has been highlighted as one of the means for halting and reversing the recent biodiversity loss. This integration requires that we understand the mechanistic linkage between anthropogenic disturbances and biodiversity patterns, and it is fundamental for implementing ecological management actions, such as impact mitigation and offsetting by restoration. The empirical evidence on forest management impacts on biodiversity has been accumulated mostly locally, but the response of biodiversity patterns to anthropogenic disturbances remains poorly known. Furthermore, there is no consensus about how diversity patterns of local communities…
Environmental drivers of canopy gap geometry: a meta-analysis of gap disturbance regimes across forest biomes
Forest degradation and related biodiversity loss require urgent improvement of forest management practices. Ecological forestry, including emulation of natural disturbances and retention management is considered a promising candidate for a management strategy aiming for reducing logging impact on biodiversity processes underpinning ecosystem services. However, properties of natural disturbances and their consequences on forest ecosystems show immense variations across different forest biomes. Therefore, understanding region-specific properties of natural disturbances (e.g. canopy gap formations) is fundamental to implement the appropriate emulation practices. Moreover, recent climate change…