Search results for "AIG"
showing 10 items of 918 documents
Cross-taxon congruence and relationships to stand characteristics of vascular plants, bryophytes, polyporous fungi and beetles in mature managed bore…
2018
Abstract Multi-taxon analyses of ecological assemblages are needed when the effects of forestry on biodiversity are examined. Management usually simplifies the structure of forests, which results in quantitative and qualitative declines in many microhabitats and species associated with them. In Fennoscandia, most forests are managed for industrial use of wood, but relatively little is known about the relationships between structural components and biodiversity in managed forests. Abundance, composition or species number of different species groups reacting similarly to variation in their environment would be a useful tool e.g. in estimating responses of species that are more difficult to sa…
Ecological and climatological signals in tree-ring width and density chronologies along a latitudinal boreal transect
2016
ABSTRACTShifts in the climate sensitivity of trees throughout the twentieth century might indicate climate change effects in the boreal forest ecosystem. We here evaluated such potential changes by analyzing six tree-ring width (TRW) and maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies from northern, central and southern boreal forests in Finland (60°N–69°N). Besides latitudinal effects, differing micro-sites (lakeshore and inland) were considered to evaluate the influence of ground water access on twentieth-century tree-ring formation and climate sensitivity. Overall, the boreal MXD chronologies appeared less affected by micro-site conditions compared to the TRW chronologies. Along the boreal t…
Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest
2016
The area covered by boreal forests accounts for similar to 16% of the global and 22% of the Northern Hemisphere landmass. Changes in the productivity and functioning of this circumpolar biome not o ...
Woodland key habitats in preserving polypore diversity in boreal forests: Effects of patch size, stand structure and microclimate
2016
Abstract Woodland key-habitats (WKHs) are set-asides in managed forests that are conceived to maintain specific aspects of forest biodiversity and they are widely used in Northern European countries. WKHs are often quite small (from 0.1 to a few hectares) and thus it is unclear if they can maintain biodiversity. We studied the effects of WKH size, microclimate and forest structure on species richness and composition of polypores, a group of wood-decaying fungi that has become threatened due to clear-cut forestry. The WKHs studied varied in size between 0.05 and 3.6 ha, and the control forests from 6.5 to 44.7 ha. Patch size and the volumes of logs and standing dead trees significantly affec…
Managing boreal forests for the simultaneous production of collectable goods and timber revenues
2016
Timber Production is an economically important provisioning ecosystem service in forests, but is often in conflict with the provision of other ecosystem services. In multifunctional forestry, the production of timber and non-timber ecosystem services should coexist in the same landscape. To this end, we explored the capacity of a boreal landscape to simultaneously produce collectable goods − bilberry (Vaccimium myrtillus L.), cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) and cep (Boletus edulis Bull.) − alongside timber revenues. We also identified optimal forest management plans to achieve this. Furthermore, we analyzed trade-offs between collectable good yields and timber production, as well as bet…
Wood-inhabiting fungi with tight associations with other species have declined as a response to forest management
2017
Research on mutualistic and antagonistic networks, such as plant-pollinator and host-parasite networks, has shown that species interactions can influence and be influenced by the responses of species to environmental perturbations. Here we examine whether results obtained for directly observable networks generalize to more complex networks in which species interactions cannot be observed directly. As a case study, we consider data on the occurrences of 98 wood-inhabiting fungal species in managed and natural forests. We specifically ask if and how much the positions of wood-inhabiting fungal species within the interaction networks influence their responses to forest management. For this, we…
Founder effects drive the genetic structure of passively dispersed aquatic invertebrates
2018
Populations of passively dispersed organisms in continental aquatic habitats typically show high levels of neutral genetic differentiation, despite their high dispersal capabilities. Several evolutionary factors, including founder events and local adaptation, and life cycle features such as high population growth rates and the presence of propagule banks, have been proposed to be responsible for this paradox. Here, we have modeled the colonization process in these organisms to assess the impact of migration rate, growth rate, population size, local adaptation and life-cycle features on their population genetic structure. Our simulation results show that the strongest effect on population st…
Environment and Space Rule, but Time also Matters for the Organization of Tropical Pond Metacommunities
2020
Metacommunities are dynamic systems, but the influence of time independently of environmental change in their configuration has been rarely considered. Temporary ponds are excellent ecosystem models, as they have well-defined boundaries in time and space; their communities are relatively isolated through a landscape matrix, and the progress of time leads to major changes through ecological succession and in habitat suitability related to hydroperiod dynamics. Therefore, strong temporal effects are expected to influence their metacommunity structure. We surveyed 30 temporary ponds along the dry tropical region of western Costa Rica and Nicaragua at three different moments of their hydroperio…
New insight to the role of microbes in the methane exchange in trees: evidence from metagenomic sequencing
2021
Methane (CH4) exchange in tree stems and canopies and the processes involved are among the least understood components of the global CH4 cycle. Recent studies have focused on quantifying tree stems as sources of CH4 and understanding abiotic CH4 emissions in plant canopies, with the role of microbial in situ CH4 formation receiving less attention. Moreover, despite initial reports revealing CH4 consumption, studies have not adequately evaluated the potential of microbial CH4 oxidation within trees. In this paper, we discuss the current level of understanding on these processes. Further, we demonstrate the potential of novel metagenomic tools in revealing the involvement of microbes in the C…
Micro-site conditions affect Fennoscandian forest growth
2021
Abstract The long tradition of dendroclimatological studies in Fennoscandia is fostered by the exceptional longevity and temperature sensitivity of tree growth, as well as the existence of well-preserved subfossil wood in shallow lakes and extent peat bogs. Although some of the world’s longest ring width and density-based climate reconstructions have been developed in northern Fennoscandia, it is still unclear if differences in micro-site ecology matter, and if so, whether they have been considered sufficiently in previous studies. We developed a Fennoscandia-wide network of 44 Scots pine ring width chronologies from 22 locations between 59°–70 °N and 16°–31 °E, to assess the effects of moi…