Search results for "kasvit"
showing 10 items of 102 documents
The effect of buffer strip width and selective logging on streamside plant communities
2019
Background Riparian forests surrounding streams host high biodiversity values, but are threatened by clear-cut logging. Narrow buffer strips of about 15 m are commonly left between the stream and the clear-cut, but studies suggest that the buffer width should be at least 30 m to protect riparian plant communities. Moreover, selective logging is often allowed on the buffer strips in order to increase economic gain. We used an experiment of 43 riparian sites where buffer strip width and selective logging within the strip were manipulated and supplemented with unlogged control sites. We report the short-term changes in the community composition of vascular plants and mosses near the stream (0–…
Environmental Characteristics and Anthropogenic Impact Jointly Modify Aquatic Macrophyte Species Diversity
2018
Species richness and spatial variation in community composition (i.e. beta diversity) are key measures of biodiversity. They are largely determined by natural factors, but also increasingly affected by anthropogenic factors. Thus, there is a need for a clear understanding of the human impact on species richness and beta diversity, the underlying mechanisms, and whether human-induced changes can override natural patterns. Here, we dissect the patterns of species richness, community composition and beta diversity in relation to different environmental factors as well as human impact in one framework: aquatic macrophytes in 66 boreal lakes in Eastern Finland. The lakes had been classified as h…
Severe effects of long-term drought on calcareous grassland seed banks
2018
Climate change models project shifts in precipitation patterns at regional and global scales. Increases in dry areas and the occurrence of drought predicted in future scenarios are likely to threaten grassland ecosystems. Calcareous grassland seed banks have proven to be resistant to short-term drought, but their responses to long-term drought are unknown. Here we show that 14 years of summer drought changed calcareous grassland seed bank composition, reducing its size and richness, and that these responses do not simply reflect patterns in the above-ground vegetation. Moreover, the effect of drought was larger on seed banks than on vegetation, and above-ground responses mediated by soil de…
Optimization of photovoltaic solar power plant locations in northern Chile
2017
The optimization of photovoltaic solar power plants location in Atacama Desert, Chile, is presented in this study. The study considers three objectives: (1) Find sites with the highest solar energy potential, (2) determine sites with the least impact on the environment, and (3) locate the areas which produce small social impact. To solve this task, multi-criteria decision analyses (MCDAs) such as analytical hierarchy process and ordered weighted averaging were applied in a GIS environment. In addition, survey results of social impacts were analyzed and included into the decision-making process, including landscape values. The most suitable sites for solar energy projects were found near roa…
Spore production monitoring reveals contrasting seasonal strategies and a trade‐off between spore size and number in wood‐inhabiting fungi
2023
1. Traits related to reproduction and dispersal drive the assembly and dynamics of species communities and can explain and predict how species respond to habitat loss and fragmentation and to the changing climate. For fungi, such links remain poorly known. 2. We examine how spore production rate, a key demographic trait, is influenced by the interaction between environmental conditions and species traits. We monitored the spore production of 97 wood-inhabiting fungal species on 107 decaying logs for two years and analyzed the data with a hierarchical community model. 3. Our analysis demonstrates clear species differences in seasonal patterns, with spring and summer release dominating in per…
Climate change reshuffles northern species within their niches
2022
Climate change is a pervasive threat to biodiversity. While range shifts are a known consequence of climate warming contributing to regional community change, less is known about how species' positions shift within their climatic niches. Furthermore, whether the relative importance of different climatic variables prompting such shifts varies with changing climate remains unclear. Here we analysed four decades of data for 1,478 species of birds, mammals, butterflies, moths, plants and phytoplankton along a 1,200 km high latitudinal gradient. The relative importance of climatic drivers varied non-uniformly with progressing climate change. While species turnover among decades was limited, the …
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi influence host infection during epidemics in a wild plant pathosystem
2022
SummaryWhile pathogenic and mutualistic microbes are ubiquitous across ecosystems and often co-occur within hosts, how they interact to determine patterns of disease in genetically diverse wild populations is unknown.To test whether microbial mutualists provide protection against pathogens, and whether this varies among host genotypes, we conducted a field experiment in three naturally-occurring epidemics of a fungal pathogen, Podosphaera plantaginis, infecting a host plant, Plantago lanceolata, in the Åland Islands, Finland. In each population, we collected epidemiological data on experimental plants from six allopatric populations that had been inoculated with a mixture of mutualistic arb…
Growth form matters – Crustose lichens on dead wood are sensitive to forest management
2022
Lichens have a vital role in forest ecosystems and they are a threatened group in boreal forests. However, the conservation ecology of the total lichen community has very rarely been studied. Here we studied lichen species and communities, including macrolichens (=foliose and fruticose growth forms) and rarely studied crustose li-chens, on decaying wood in boreal spruce-dominated forests in Finland. We also studied obligate lignicoles that grow only on dead wood and are mostly crustose in growth form. Species richness and community composition were examined on decaying logs and natural or cut stumps of Picea abies at different decay stages (2-5) in 14 stands, half of which were natural or s…
Co-digestion of energy crops and industrial confectionery by-products with cow manure: batch-scale and farm-scale evaluation.
2002
The possible co-digestion of energy crops and industrial confectionery by-products with cow manure was evaluated firstly, through long-term batch experiments and secondly, in a farm-scale digester. In batch assays, digestion with mesophilically digested cow manure as inoculum resulted in specific methane yields (m3 kg−1 VSadded waste) of 0.35 for grass hay (particle size <1.0 cm); 0.26 for oats (0.5 cm) and 0.21 for clover (2.0 cm) harvested at vegetative stage and 0.14 (2.0 cm) for clover harvested at flowering stage. Specific methane yields (m3 kg−1 VSadded waste) for confectionery by-products were 0.37 for chocolate, 0.39 for black candy and 0.32 for confectionery raw material. Ou…
GIS-data related route optimization, hierarchical clustering, location optimization, and kernel density methods are useful for promoting distributed …
2019
Currently, geographic information system (GIS) models are popular for studying location-allocation-related questions concerning bioenergy plants. The aim of this study was to develop a model to investigate optimal locations for two different types of bioenergy plants, for farm and centralized biogas plants, and for wood terminals in rural areas based on minimizing transportation distances. The optimal locations of biogas plants were determined using location optimization tools in R software, and the optimal locations of wood terminals were determined using kernel density tools in ArcGIS. The present case study showed that the utilized GIS tools are useful for bioenergy-related decision-maki…