0000000001326844
AUTHOR
Lena Gustafsson
Hotspots in cold climate: Conservation value of woodland key habitats in boreal forests
The concept of Woodland Key Habitats (WKH, small-scaled presumed hotspots of biodiversity) has become an essential component of biodiversity conservation in Fennoscandian and Baltic forests. There have been debates over the importance of WKHs in relation to the conservation of biodiversity in production forests. We applied a systematic review protocol and meta-analysis to summarize knowledge on comparisons of biodiversity qualities, such as dead wood and species richness, between WKHs and production forests in relevant countries. We also summarized the knowledge on the impact of edge effects by comparing WKHs surrounded by production forests to WKHs surrounded by clear cuts. Studies had bee…
Woodland key habitats in northern Europe: concepts, inventory and protection
Abstract The woodland key habitat (WKH) concept has become an essential instrument in biodiversity-orientated forest management in northern Europe. The philosophy behind the concept is basically the same in all of the countries: to conserve the biodiversity of production landscapes by preserving small habitat patches that are supposed to be particularly valuable. This article reviews the definitions, inventories and implementation processes of WKHs in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Sweden and the Baltic countries have similar WKH models, while the models in Finland and Norway are clearly deviating. Depending on the country, the definitions emphasize different factor…
Half a century of multiple anthropogenic stressors has altered northern forest understory plant communities
The boreal forests constitute the largest forest biome in the northern hemisphere. These forests are under increasing anthropogenic impact from intensified forest management, eutrophication and climate change, which may change their ecosystem functions and the services they provide. Swedish forests cover a long climatic gradient, receive highly variable rates of nitrogen deposition, and have a long history of forest use. Extensive systematic long-term data on vegetation from the National Forest Inventories (NFI) make Sweden an ideal area to study how species composition and function of other, more pristine boreal forests, might change under increased anthropogenic impact. We used NFI-data t…