Search results for "biodiversity"

Species–area relationships in continuous vegetation: Evidence from Palaearctic grasslands

2019

Aim Species-area relationships (SARs) are fundamental scaling laws in ecology although their shape is still disputed. At larger areas, power laws best represent SARs. Yet, it remains unclear whether SARs follow other shapes at finer spatial grains in continuous vegetation. We asked which function describes SARs best at small grains and explored how sampling methodology or the environment influence SAR shape. Location Palaearctic grasslands and other non-forested habitats. Taxa Vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens. Methods We used the GrassPlot database, containing standardized vegetation-plot data from vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens spanning a wide range of grassland types throu…

Impact of environmental factors on grapevine physiology and responsiveness to elicitor-induced resistance against Plasmopara viticola

2012

'Dark Ecological Network': strategically tackling light pollution for biodiversity and people

2021

Night-time light pollution from artificial sources can disrupt biological processes and fragment habitats. This study presents a new concept foraddressing the problem: a 'dark ecological network'. Its development involves mapping a new system of connected functional zones and corridors where dark can be preserved to help birds, bats and other taxa, and gives people the chance to experience starry skies.

The conservation potential of brook-side key habitats in managed boreal forests

2011

Today, maintaining biodiversity is included in the targets of boreal forest management. A widespread approach in northern Europe is to identify and preserve woodland key habitats within managed forests. Woodland key habitats are expected to be patches that host populations of threatened and declining species, and the preservation of these patches is assumed to enable the persistence of the focal species in the landscape. In Finland, the criteria for selecting woodland key habitats are defined in the Finnish Forest Act, and the selection has been done by forest practitioners. Our objective was to determine whether the surroundings of boreal brooks and rivulets qualified as key habitats are t…

Created substrates do not fully mimic natural substrates in restoration: the occurrence of polypores on spruce logs

2014

Many protected areas have been under intensive forest management prior to protection and thus lack natural ecosystem structures and dynamics. Dead wood is a key structure in forests harboring hundreds of threatened species. We investigated the ecological success of dead wood creation as a boreal forest restoration measure. We analysed whether the polypore communities of chain-saw felled and girdled (subsequently fallen) Norway spruce ( (L.) H. Karst.) logs differ from naturally formed spruce logs of similar decay stage and size. The study was conducted in Leivonmäki National Park in central Finland 8 years after the restoration measures. The average number of polypore species was highest o…

Datapackage for national high-resolution conservation prioritisation of boreal forests

2023

This data package concerns the following work: Ninni Mikkonen, Niko Leikola, Joona Lehtomäki, Panu Halme, Atte Moilanen, National high-resolution conservation prioritisation of boreal forests, Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 541, 2023, 121079 ISSN 0378-1127 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121079 The overall objective of the work was to develop spatial prioritizations that can assist the forest conservation programme METSO (The Finnish Government 2008; 2014) to make well-informed decisions about acquisition of forests for protection. The results are also aimed to be useful for other actors interested in forest conservation or biodiversity friendly forest management. We focused th…

Long-term impacts of increased timber harvests on ecosystem services and biodiversity : A scenario study based on national forest inventory data

2020

The transition to a climate-neutral economy is expected to increase future timber demands and endanger the multifunctionality of forests. National scenario analyses are needed to determine long-term forest management impacts and support forest policy making in defining guidelines for the sustainable provision of forests’ ecosystem services and biodiversity (ESB). Using national forestry inventory data, the forest management model MASSIMO and a model to estimate harvesting costs, we simulated forest development in Switzerland under five politically relevant timber harvesting scenarios until 2106 (business as usual and four increased timber mobilisation scenarios). Model results were analysed…

Oxyarietites boletzkyi n. gen., n. sp., nouveau genre et nouvelle espèce d'ammonite dans le Sinémurien inférieur de Bourgogne (France) : un rare préc…

2012

13 pages; International audience; L'une des toutes premières ammonites à coquille presque oxycône observée dans les séries fossilifères après la crise faunique de la limite Trias/Jurassique est décrite. Elle provient du Sinémurien inférieur (chronozone à Semicostatum ou à Turneri) de Bourgogne (Mavilly-Mandelot, Côte-d'Or, France). Cette nouvelle forme, Oxyarietites boletzkyi n. gen., n. sp., possède une coquille involute, comprimée et carénée dont le type clairement suboxycône est nouveau pour le Sinémurien inférieur. En raison de son aire ventrale carénée, ce taxon se rattache probablement à la super-famille des Arietitoidea Hyatt, 1875 sensu Guex (1995) mais son attribution familiale est…

Tale(s) of a forest – re-creation of a primeval forest in three environmental narratives

2020

We analyze three environmentally conscious works that are concerned with the state of Finnish forests: the documentary film Metsän tarina/Tale of a Forest (2012), the book with the same name (2013) and the series of short documentaries Tarinoita metsästä/Tales from the Forest (2013). By combining methods from arts research and ecology, we ask how the narratives adapt material from nature photography. The film and book present mythic stories and old Finnish beliefs about forests. They also contain references to cultural memory. Additionally, the biodiversity on display reflects a conventional practice to exhibit large or charismatic species. However, the ecological message remains only impli…

Analysing gene flow in heterogeneous landscapes: why and how to use genetic graphs?

2019

International audience; In heterogeneous landscapes, when species occupy discrete habitat patches, ecological connectivity is influenced by populations’ topology. Graph-theoretic methods constitute a relevant tool to reveal this topology and better analyse gene flow. Despite growing interest in genetic graphs, a better understanding of when and how to use them is lacking.To fill this gap, we simulated gene flow between 50 populations in different landscape configurations and constructed genetic graphs using various genetic distances and pruning (link selection) methods. We then compared metrics derived from these graphs to analogous metrics describing the topology and connectivity of the di…