Search results for "dead wood"

Saproxylic beetle assemblages of three managed oak woodlands in the Eastern Mediterranean

2008

Oak woodlands belong to the natural vegetation in most Mediterranean regions but have suffered from a long history of woodland devastation and overgrazing. The remaining woodlands have been managed in different ways, and we expected this to have effects on the fauna associated with trees. We investigated three different sites in the Eastern Mediterranean with flight-interception traps to analyse the impact of woodland management on dead wood and tree structures and the relevance for saproxylic beetle assemblages. Our results show significant differences in trunk diameter, stein density and dead wood diversity between the three sites. Old oaks in semi-open woodland are characterised by diver…

Cost-Efficiency of Decaying Wood as a Surrogate for Overall Species Richness in Boreal Forests

2006

Decaying wood is one of the most important elements for species richness in boreal forests. We tested how well reserve selection based on the amount and quality of decaying wood results in a representation of four ecologically different taxa (beetles, birds, wood-inhabiting fungi, and vascular plants). We also compared the cost-efficiency of the use of dead-wood indicators with comprehensive species inventory. Our database included 32 seminatural old-forest stands located in northern Finland. Decaying wood was a relatively good indicator of saproxylic species but not overall species richness. Even though dead wood did not reflect accurately overall species richness, our results indicated th…

Traits and phylogenies modulate the environmental responses of wood-inhabiting fungal communities across spatial scales

2022

Identifying the spatial scales at which community assembly processes operate is fundamental for gaining a mechanistic understanding of the drivers shaping ecological communities. In this study, we examined whether and how traits and phylogenetic relationships structure fungal community assembly across spatial scales. We applied joint species distribution modelling to a European-scale dataset on 215 wood-inhabiting fungal species, which includes data on traits, phylogeny and environmental variables measured at the local (log-level) and regional (site-level) scales. At the local scale, wood-inhabiting fungal communities were mostly structured by deadwood decay stage, and the trait and phyloge…

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…

Research data of article: Elo et al. 2019 Species richness of polypores can be increased by supplementing dead wood resource into a boreal forest eco…

2019

Ecology, environmental requirements and conservation of corticioid fungi occupying small diameter dead wood

2016

The increasing human impact upon the biosphere of earth is causing profound changes across all spatial scales. The ability to cope with human-induced disturbance varies among organisms; specialist species are more negatively affected than generalist species. Forests are among the most heavily affected ecosystems; especially the dead wood associated organisms are in peril. The earlier research has strongly focused on large diameter dead wood and associated species. The aim of this thesis was to investigate small diameter dead wood and collect systematic information about species richness and abundance as well as habitat and substrate preferences of associated corticioid fungi. Fungal data wa…

Kääpien kannalta ennallistamalla tuotettu lahopuu ei täysin vastaa luontaista lahopuuta

2014

Species richness of polypores can be increased by supplementing dead wood resource into a boreal forest landscape

2019

1. To prevent local species extinction and to counteract population declines, we must ensure species have access to resources they require for life. This can be done through ecological restoration where previously depleted resources are reintroduced. If the restoration is conducted as a one-off action in a large area, it resembles a natural resource pulse, which should lead to increased abundance of individuals, accompanied possibly by increased species richness. Species–energy relationship and underlying theory enable predictions about how different features of resource pulses affect species richness. 2. We conducted a large-scale, controlled, randomized and replicated field experiment to …