This master?s thesis is a remote sensing study of an area-based method used to detect forest in need of thinning by use of laser data and field samples. Only pine-dominated forest has been included in the study and height limits were set to match empirical restrictions. The study area was in the municipality of Älvsbyn (Latitude 65° 40´ N, Longitude 21° 00´ E), in northern Sweden.The Swedish authority Lantmäteriet is currently laser scanning most parts of Sweden, providing new opportunities and applications. The primary aim of the national laser scanning is to create a new elevation model, useful in consequence analysis of climate changes.

The main purpose of this report is a first step to cover the scarcely investigated subject of interspecific competition between roe deer, Capreolus capreolus, and fallow deer, Dama dama. The report focuses on the distance between individuals of roe and fallow in the study area as well as which factors that is affecting the variation in distance depending on fallow deer group size and changing population Density over time and in two areas. For additional information the history of the populations, such as harvest and distribution, is also investigated. The report came to the conclusion that interspecific competition between the species do occur. The elevated distance between individuals of the two species is clearly significant. The most important factor affecting the distance seemed to be the size of the fallow groups.

Due to the growing wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) population in Sweden there has been an increase in wild boar related traffic accidents, damage on cropland, and conflicts regarding the management of the wild boar. Knowing what makes the wild boar reproduce and survive more or less successfully in different geographic areas is an important part of managing the population. According to previous studies the wild boars rate of increase varies from county to county. The aim of this study was to test, on the county scale level, if landscape composition and diversity as well as people and hunter densities might be the reason for this variation. The first hypothesis was that a big proportion of forests and cropland would increase the rate of increase.

The vertical electronic excitation energies for the narrow-bandgap polymers LBPF, EP37 and EP62 have been calculated using Density Functional Theory (DFT). Also the vertical excitation energies for the acceptor unit of LBPF have been calculated using the Hartree-Fock (HF), DFT and Coupled Cluster (CC) methods. The calculations cover the visible and infrared wave length region and two strong transitions are obtained, one corresponding to the pi to pi* transition and one corresponding to the pi to Acceptor transition. The excitation energies obtained from DFT are below the corresponding experimental results and attempts have therefore been made to perform bench-marking calculations using a hierarchy of CC methods..

During the period called Little Ice Age (1400 ~ 1900) the climate of northern Europe was in an annual year-basis overall colder than it was before and after that period. The numbers of short, cold and rainy summers and long, bitter-cold winters where often repetitive under the approximately 500-years the period lasted. In Scandinavia, the coldest time during this period is estimated to have started around the end of the 16th century and lasted to the beginning of the 18th century. Trees growing at the tree-line are limited by temperature for their annual growth and hence showing differences of growth during changes in the climate,  a method called dendroclimatology. The variations of growth can be read in the tree-rings either by analyze the width of the ring or by look into the Density of the wood and is used to reconstruct past climates.

Bakgrund: Osteoporos är en skelettsjukdom som ökar risken för frakturer. Sjukdomen i sig ärasymtomatisk men frakturerna som uppkommer leder till morbiditet och ökad mortalitet. ISverige beräknas en tredjedel av kvinnorna i åldrarna 70-79 år ha osteoporos i höften ochförekomsten förväntas öka i och med att Sverige får en allt äldre befolkning. En strategi föratt minska risken för frakturer är att öka bentätheten. På senare år har det gjorts flera studiersom undersökt om komjölksprotein kan öka bentätheten.Syfte: Att undersöka om intag av komjölksprotein påverkar benremodelleringen och/eller gerökad bentäthet hos unga människor, vilket skulle kunna leda till ett högre peak bone mass.Sökväg: Sökningar i PubMed och Scopus efter originalartiklar utfördes under april 2011.Sökord som användes var ?Milk AND bone mass/Density?, ?Milk protein AND bonemass/Density?, ?Milk basic protein AND bone mass/Density?.Urvalskriterier: Originalartiklar på svenska/engelska som undersökt effekten av intag avmjölkprotein på bentätheten med hjälp av Dual energy X-ray absorbtiometry (DXA), samt påbenremodelleringen med hjälp av biomarkörer inkluderades.

Predation is one of many factors that form the structure of the macroinvertebrate community in lakes, wetlands and watercourses. Earlier studies lack an examination concerning how fish- and waterfowl predation affect macroinvertebrates during shorter periods in the spring. I performed an exclosure study in the shallow eutrophic Lake Tåkern which is located in the western part of Östergötland County, Sweden. The experiment was performed during a three week period (1-21 April 2012) when the water temperature was low and the Density of migrating diving ducks was high. The experimental cages used included three out of four different treatments; general predation (open cages), bird exclusion (net with mesh size 90*45mm) and no predation (net with mesh size 1*1mm).

Cannibalism can have major influence on fish population dynamics. A prerequisite for cannibalism is that the cannibal and the potential victim meet, and besides Density effects, the encounter rate between cannibals and their victims is therefore also largely dependent on habitat use and habitat heterogeneity. In this study I quantified and compared the potential for cannibalism in stream-dwelling European grayling populations in three rivers in Jämtland by means of habitat classifications. I also analyzed population dynamic consequences of varying the potential for cannibalism in terms of intensity, using a physiological structured population model. Findings based on habitat characteristics were that the potential for cannibalism is in general not favourable in these types of streams.

Piles of deadwood are often retained in forests after management to support the biodiversity ofsaproxylic organisms which depend on deadwood to survive. Any knowledge about the crucial role ofpiles as suitable habitat of saproxylic organisms compared to single distributed deadwood objects thatare around the piles would help conservation actors to motivate more forest owners to supportsaproxylic organisms during their management. Therefore to give facts to this the saproxylic fauna ofdifferent pile positions (up and low) was studied and compared to distributed deadwood samplesaround each pile. Our study was focused on saproxylic beetles. Some other parameters such asdiameter, deadwood volume, pile volume and decay stage were assessed to define any effect.

At the Skoghall pappermill, sulphatepaper pulp is produced in a continuous digester originally from 1969. To be able to maintain a high level of production there is a need for a process with few disturbances. Variations in how well the wooden chips are packed in the digester is one form of disturbance. Today there are no available measurements on how well the chips are packed. Instead this is regarded as being constant.

The urbanization of the world is increasing. How it affects bird populations have been well studied during the last decade, and comparisons between urban and non-urban habitats have been carried out. A common method for measuring habitat quality is to calculate the population Density. This method is easy to use, but have been criticized during the last couple of years. In this study, data of population densities was compared with data on reproduction success.

The aim for the study was to examine a harwarder´s (combined harvester-forwarder) productivity when harvesting forest fuel in first thinning stands that contains Lodgepole pine and calculate the economy of the harvesting work and estimate the quality of the thinning . The field study area where located near Arvån, about 15 kilometres south ?east from the city of Lycksele. The field studies were taken place in three different stands. All tree stands had the same tree age, but the tree species combination and the Density varied.

To better understand how various factors affect the establishment of forest and trees around the tree line-ecotone, this study was conducted in Troms County, Norway. The altitude of different forest and tree limits together with the surrounding vegetation type were collected during August 2011. Comparisons of the collected data were made with previously collected data from the same sites conducted 1914 and 1915. On average the forest limit has expanded with 26 meters in altitude, however, an expansion is not statistically significant for the whole area. The tree limit has significantly expanded in altitude.

Prescribed burning was commonly used for site preparation in Sweden to establish new forests until the 1960?s, when mechanical scarification was introduced. During recent decades the interest in prescribed burnings has increased again, mainly due to certifications of forestry stating that 5% of the regeneration areas should be burned on dry and mesic soils. The objective of the study was to evaluate actual influence of prescribed burning compared to other site preparation on stand stem Density, growth parameters and tree damages for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) after direct seeding and planting. The study also attempts to simulate growth until first thinning.

Tropical rain forests only cover around six percent of the world?s land area and contain around 70 % of the world´s animals and plants. Tropical rainforests have been, and still are, negatively affected by human activities. These activities lead to forest degradation which has negative impacts on production and biodiversity. Between 1970-1980 forests in Borneo, Sabah, Malaysia, was subjected to intense logging.