0000000001329321
AUTHOR
Antti Sallinen
Challenge to define and quantify ecosystem collapse debt
Degradation and loss of ecosystems are of great global concern. It is likely that decline of ecosystems will continue and a debt of ecosystem loss exists, comprising of 1) direct and expectedly continued forcing by detrimental anthropogenic actions and 2) of indirect ongoing gradual change of defining characters set in motion by an initial perturbation. Both direct destructive actions and indirect gradual changes contribute to collapse, i.e. loss of defining characters of certain type of ecosystem. Classification and typology are central to any assessment of risk of ecosystem collapse. Following indirect gradual change, an ecosystem does not vanish, but it may lose its characters and fall b…
Hydrological disturbances and naturalness of aapa mires in Finland
Peatlands comprise one of the key elements in the boreal landscape. In Finland, almost one third of the land area is covered by different types of peatlands. Half of the Finnish peatland area has been drained, however, and in Southern half of the country, 75 % is drained (1). While drainage has increased forest growth, it has also caused manifold ecological consequences. For example, the state of the remaining undrained peatlands is affected by drainage of surrounding areas and fragmentation. The undrained peatland area in Finland consists of various sizes of peatland patches that often, at least in the southern areas, are not intact peatland ecosystems but only remnant patches of formerly …