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 …
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…
Behavior in a wide range of choices: substrate preferences of threatened wood-inhabiting species in a mixed old-growth boreal forest
When everything is available: substrate preferences of threatened wood-inhabiting species in a mixed old-growth boreal forest In intensively managed forests, many wood-inhabiting species became threatened because of the lack of their habitat - deadwood, especially coarse woody debris (CWD). We examined a multi-taxon diversity of species associated with fallen logs of Picea abies (22), Betula pubescens, B. pendula (14), Pinus sylvestris (19) and Populus tremula (19) in a chronosequence of decomposition in the old-growth (OG) forest located in the State Strict Nature Reserve 'Kivach', Russia. We hypothesized dynamic and log (tree) species specific patterns for threatened (red-listed and regio…