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Articles containing the keyword 'coniferous forests'

Category : Article

article id 5144, category Article
Lennart Folkeson. (1981). Impact of air-borne copper and zinc pollution on lichen and bryophyte vegetation near a brass foundry. Silva Fennica vol. 15 no. 4 article id 5144. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.a15371
Keywords: bryophytes; lichen; damage; copper; coniferous forests; Hylocomnium splendens; mosses; air pollution; environmental impact; brass foundry; Hypogymnia physodes; zinc
Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Air-borne Cu and Zn from a brass foundry at Gusum, SE Sweden, have considerably disturbed the lichen and bryophyte vegetation in the coniferous forest environment. The occurrence of lichens on Norway spruce twigs decreased rapidly with increasing Cu concentrations in Hypogymnia physodes above 90 ppm (background value 10–15). The epiphytic vegetation is reduced within 2–3 km from the foundry. Only stunted individuals occur in the close vicinity of the pollution source.

The cover of one of the quantitatively most important mosses, Hylocomnium splendens, is greatly reduced by the heavy-metal deposition. Cover values of 20–50% are not uncommon in distant sites (Cu concentration 15–35 ppm). There is a significant negative correlation between Cu concentration in the moss and its cover. The moss cannot survive much more than ca. 130 ppm Cu (and 360 ppm Zn). Live individuals are no more found within 1.5 km from the foundry.

  • Folkeson, E-mail: lf@mm.unknown (email)

Category : Article

article id 7155, category Article
Bo Högnäs. (1966). Investigations on forest types and stand development in Åland in Finland. Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 78 no. 2 article id 7155. https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7155
Keywords: Finland; volume growth; coniferous forests; vegetation analysis; forest type; Åland; Ahvenanmaa
Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info

The purpose of this study is to clarify the forest types in pure coniferous stands in Åland in Finland, to study them in a biological light and account for the production of the stands on respective sites. The flora of the forest types in Åland has been described in an earlier study, but as the plant associations have not been described it has often been difficult to determine the correct types in field work. Sample plots were chosen in coniferous forests with maximum 20% of other species. The vegetation analysis was limited to determine composition of species, projected coverage and the frequency of species. In addition, cubic volume and growth of the growing stock was calculated for the stands.

The results of the study showed that site type and fertility correspond to each other nearly without exception only on normal moraines, if only the ground vegetation is used as a criterion for the type. The general occurense of soils of different qualities makes it necessary to determine, besides forest type, other characteristics in the stands, preferably the dominant height. The total production of coniferous forests with great probability is smaller in Åland than in mainland Finland. The results can be applied also to Åboland’s archipelago, where the milieu of the coniferous forests is similar.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

  • Högnäs, E-mail: bh@mm.unknown (email)
article id 7482, category Article
Kullervo Kuusela. (1959). Management and cutting budget problems in the Himalayan conifer forestry. Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 67 no. 8 article id 7482. https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7482
Keywords: inventory; forest industry; forest resources; coniferous forests; raw material; India
Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info

An investigation was carried out in the area of Beas River in India in the conifer forests of the region to study the possible supply of raw material for forest industries. The investigation based on an agreement between the Government of Finland and the Government of India about techcnical assistance to India.

The results of the survey suggest that though the Himalayan conifer forests are scattered and they lie on high altitude and in difficult terrain, their potential value is very important to the Indian national economy. Their extraction is feasible in much larger scale than now. The present yield coming to the markets is 30-10%, or even less, of the obtainable yield under intensive management and integrated utilization of wood. The obtainable yield could support comparatively large saw milling as well as pulp and paper industries.

The problems in developing the Himalayan conifer forestry cover the field of forest management, silviculture, re-forestation, logging, relations between forestry and the local population, forest administration, sales policy and industrial planning. Estimating the actual possibilities requires reliable resource inventories. Cultivation of trees for primitive sleeper production should be abandoned, management systems modified in accordance with the principle of progressive yield. The future management should be based on the exploitation of the existing over-mature stock and on the growth of the new stands.

The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.

  • Kuusela, E-mail: kk@mm.unknown (email)
article id 7071, category Article
Alvar Palmgren. (1922). Studies on vegetation characters of coniferous forests. Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 22 no. 2 article id 7071. https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7071
Keywords: native species; vegetation; diversity; coniferous forests; Åland Islands
Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info

The paper deals with the ground vegetation of the barren coniferous forests of Åland Islands and seeks to describe its special vegetation characters with general features. The study is based on data collected during summers from 1918-1922 on Åland Islands.  Work presents the forest types of Åland Islands classified according Cajander (1909) with their typical species.

The Ålandian coniferous forests seem to have a low number of species. This is because they are mostly old and closed, and have been developing for a long time without human induced disturbances from outside. Some changes have occurred due to forest fires. There is very few traces of non-native species in the forests. If some are found, they have not been able to regenerate or distribute widely.   

  • Palmgren, E-mail: ap@mm.unknown (email)

Category : Research article

article id 7699, category Research article
Dalytė Matulevičiūtė, Jurga Motiejunaite, Domas Uogintas, Ričardas Taraškevičius, Mindaugas Dagys, Valerijus Rašomavičius. (2018). Decline of a protected coastal pine forest under impact of a colony of great cormorants and the rate of vegetation change under ornithogenic influence. Silva Fennica vol. 52 no. 2 article id 7699. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.7699
Keywords: coniferous forests; piscivorous birds; Baltic Sea; habitats
Highlights: We studied vegetation and its changes in a pine forest affected by a colony of great cormorants; Vegetation in the colony varied according to the period of bird influence and the stand elevation above sea level; Considerable vegetation changes occur in several years after bird colony establishment; Pine forest ecosystem cease to exist following a decade of bird activity.
Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

We investigated the impact of a colony of great cormorants on the vegetation of the old growth Pinus sylvestris L. forest on the Curonian Spit peninsula, Lithuania. We studied the characteristics and rates of plant cover changes under varying length and intensity of bird influence. Plant species numbers, as well as the coverage of plants with different ecological requirements, varied according to the period of bird influence, but the resulting vegetation also depended upon the stand elevation above sea level. In our study, the initial increase in plant species richness at the start of bird nesting was not obvious and was of a transient character, due to the weak invasion of non-forest species and the rapid decline of forest plants. The colony area showed obvious and rapid vegetation changes during the investigation period. According to the calculated colony expansion rates, after 6–7 years of impact from birds the tree layer decreased by about four fold; the shrub layer decreased by about two fold; the field layer decreased by about 15 fold; and the dwarf shrub and bottom layers disappeared. The coverage by oligotrophic species decreased by more than four fold, while the coverage by eutrophic species increased by more than 60 fold. After 9–10 years of ornithogenic impact, all the trees were dead, and the protected coniferous forest ecosystem, with its characteristic plant species, had ceased to exist as such.

  • Matulevičiūtė, Institute of Botany, Nature Research Centre, Žaliųjų ežerų Str. 49, LT-08406 Vilnius, Lithuania ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7550-1860 E-mail: dalyte.matuleviciute@botanika.lt (email)
  • Motiejunaite, Institute of Botany, Nature Research Centre, Žaliųjų ežerų Str. 49, LT-08406 Vilnius, Lithuania ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6949-1990 E-mail: jurga.motiejunaite@botanika.lt
  • Uogintas, Institute of Botany, Nature Research Centre, Žaliųjų ežerų Str. 49, LT-08406 Vilnius, Lithuania ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3937-1218 E-mail: domas.uogintas@botanika.lt
  • Taraškevičius, Geology and Geography Institute, Nature Research Centre, Akademijos Str. 2, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5110-6142 E-mail: taraskevicius@geo.lt
  • Dagys, Institute of Ecology, Nature Research Centre, Akademijos Str. 2, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9342-3464 E-mail: dagys@ekoi.lt
  • Rašomavičius, Institute of Botany, Nature Research Centre, Žaliųjų ežerų Str. 49, LT-08406 Vilnius, Lithuania ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1314-4356 E-mail: valerijus.rasomavicius@botanika.lt
article id 1219, category Research article
Thomas P. Sullivan, Druscilla S. Sullivan. (2014). Diversifying clearcuts with green-tree retention and woody debris structures: conservation of mammals across forest ecological zones. Silva Fennica vol. 48 no. 5 article id 1219. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.1219
Keywords: clearcutting; green-tree retention; small mammals; coniferous forests; ecological zones; Myodes gapperi; population dynamics; red-backed voles; woody debris structures
Highlights: Species diversity of small mammals increased with structural complexity left on clearcut sites; Productivity of red-backed vole populations was higher in sites with green-tree retention (GTR) and windrows of woody debris; GTR and windrows may provide additive effect for providing habitat to conserve mammals on clearcuts.
Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info
We tested the hypotheses (H) that on newly clearcut-harvested sites, (H1) abundance and species diversity of the forest-floor small mammal community, and (H2) abundance, reproduction, and recruitment of red-backed voles (Myodes gapperi Vigors), would increase with higher levels of structural retention via green-tree retention (GTR) and woody debris (dispersed and constructed into windrows). Study areas were located in three forest ecological zones in southern British Columbia, Canada. For H1, mean total abundance did generally increase with the gradient of retained habitat structure. Mean species richness and diversity were similar among treatment sites but did show an increasing gradient with structural compexity. For H2, mean abundance, reproduction, and recruitment of M. gapperi were higher in GTR and windrow sites than those without retained structures. There was a positive relationship between mean abundance of M. gapperi and total volume of woody debris across treatments. This study is the first investigation of the responses of forest-floor small mammals to an increasing gradient of retained habitat structure via GTR and woody debris on clearcuts. Our assessment of a combination of these two interventions suggested a potentially strong additive effect that could be cautiously extrapolated across three forest ecological zones. With the advent of low levels of GTR on clearcuts, woody debris structures should help provide some habitat to conserve forest mammals on harvest openings.
  • Sullivan, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of BC, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4 E-mail: tom.sullivan@ubc.ca (email)
  • Sullivan, Applied Mammal Research Institute, 11010 Mitchell Avenue, Summerland, BC, Canada V0H 1Z8 E-mail: dru.sullivan@appliedmammal.com
article id 431, category Research article
Pauline Stenberg, Miina Rautiainen, Terhikki Manninen, Pekka Voipio, Heikki Smolander. (2004). Reduced simple ratio better than NDVI for estimating LAI in Finnish pine and spruce stands. Silva Fennica vol. 38 no. 1 article id 431. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.431
Keywords: Landsat ETM ; Leaf Area Index; spectral vegetation indices; boreal coniferous forests
Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info
Estimation of leaf area index (LAI) using spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) was studied based on data from 683 plots on two Scots pine and Norway spruce dominated sites in Finland. The SVIs studied included the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), the simple ratio (SR), and the reduced simple ratio (RSR), and were calculated from Landsat ETM images of the two sites. Regular grids of size 1 km2 with gridpoints placed at 50 m intervals were established at the sites and measurements of LAI using the LAI-2000 instrument were taken at the gridpoints. SVI-LAI relationships were examined at plot scale, where the plots were defined as circular areas of radius 70 m around each gridpoint. Plotwise mean LAI was computed as a weighted average of LAI readings taken around the gridpoints belonging to the plot. Mean LAI for the plots ranged from 0.36 to 3.72 (hemisurface area). All of the studied SVIs showed fair positive correlation with LAI but RSR responded more dynamically to LAI than did SR or NDVI. Especially NDVI showed poor sensitivity to changes in LAI. RSR explained 63% of the variation in LAI when all plots were included (n = 683) and the coefficient of determination rose to 75% when data was restricted to homogeneous plots (n = 381). Maps of estimated LAI using RSR showed good agreement with maps of measured LAI for the two sites.
  • Stenberg, Department of Forest Ecology, P.O. Box 27, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland E-mail: pauline.stenberg@helsinki.fi (email)
  • Rautiainen, Department of Forest Ecology, P.O. Box 27, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland E-mail: mr@nn.fi
  • Manninen, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Meteorological research, Ozone and UV radiation research, P.O. Box 503, FIN-00101 Helsinki, Finland E-mail: tm@nn.fi
  • Voipio, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Suonenjoki Research Station, FIN-77600 Suonenjoki, Finland E-mail: pv@nn.fi
  • Smolander, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Suonenjoki Research Station, FIN-77600 Suonenjoki, Finland E-mail: hs@nn.fi

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