0000000001326122
AUTHOR
Thomas Ranius
Cost-efficient strategies to preserve dead wood-dependent species in a managed forest landscape
Negative consequences of intensive forest management on biodiversity are often mitigated by setting aside old forest, but alternative strategies have been suggested. We have compared using simulations the consequences of two of these alternatives setting aside young forests or extending rotation periods - to that of current practice in managed boreal forest In all scenarios we applied a constant conservation budget and predicted forest development and harvesting over 200 years. As a proxy for biodiversity conservation, we projected the extinction risk of a dead wood-dependent beetle, Diacanthous undulatus, in a 50 km(2) landscape in central Sweden, using a colonization-extinction model. Dur…
Projecting biodiversity and wood production in future forest landscapes: 15 key modeling considerations
A variety of modeling approaches can be used to project the future development of forest systems, and help to assess the implications of different management alternatives for biodiversity and ecosystem services. This diversity of approaches does however present both an opportunity and an obstacle for those trying to decide which modeling technique to apply, and interpreting the management implications of model output. Furthermore, the breadth of issues relevant to addressing key questions related to forest ecology, conservation biology, silviculture, economics, requires insights stemming from a number of distinct scientific disciplines. As forest planners, conservation ecologists, ecologica…
Density-dependent detectability in dynamic occupancy survey: a case study on a vulnerable beetle species in hollow trees
Conservation of threaten species living in fragmented habitats crucially relies on evaluating their occupancy and their ability to colonize and persist in habitat patches. Fitting stochastic patch occupancy models (SPOMs) to occupancy data can help assessing these features. However it is critical to account for the limited detectability of target species in this type of analysis to avoid severe biases in estimation. Detectability of a population in a habitat patch often tightly depends on the local density of individuals. This connection between density and detectability has rarely been used in SPOM analysis, even when abundance data are available. The two quantities are often considered in…
Conservation value of low-productive forests measured as the amount and diversity of dead wood and saproxylic beetles
In many managed landscapes a major part of all remaining unmanaged land is low-productive. Low-productive land is also often over-represented within protected areas, as it is less expensive to set aside. Despite this the relationship between productivity and conservational value of a site is not well known, although it has been hypothesized that biodiversity generally increases with productivity due to higher resource abundance and heterogeneity. If biodiversity is indeed higher in more productive land, there is a risk that an important part of diversity will remain unprotected when mainly low-productive land is set aside. We examined the conservational value of low-productive forest land b…
The effects of logging residue extraction for energy on ecosystem services and biodiversity: a synthesis
This presentation is based on a paper in press in Journal of Environmental Management. We review the consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services from the industrial-scale extraction of logging residues (tops, branches and stumps from harvested trees and small-diameter trees from thinnings) in managed forests. Logging residue extraction can be used in place of fossil fuels, and thus contribute to climate change mitigation. The additional biomass and nutrients removed, and soils and other structures disturbed, have several potential environmental impacts. To evaluate potential impacts on ecosystem services and biodiversity we reviewed 279 scientific papers that compared logging resid…
Allocation and size of conservation measures in a production boreal forest landscape: insights from applying the Delphi technique
This study aims to assess the effects of spatial allocation and size of individual conservation measures on provision of ecosystem services and preservation of biodiversity in a production forest landscape. Since it is difficult to get a complete picture of the long-term outcome using only empirical studies, we combined simulations with an expert assessment method – the Delphi technique. Using data from a forest landscape of 15000 ha in central Sweden we constructed seven scenarios. In all of them 2% of total area is allocated to each of the following measures representing untouched areas of different sizes: nature reserves (approximately 100 ha each), set asides (less than 50 ha each) and …