Biodiversity is essential for human well-being and it is defined as the genetic variation within species and the variety of species and ecosystems. Biodiversity provides several ecosystem services which are necessary for human beings but there are different threats towards the biodiversity. The biodiversity linked to the forest in Sweden are threatened, about 50 % of the red-listed species in Sweden are associated with forests. This is linked to the commercial exploitation of the boreal forest in Sweden which started 200 years ago. The forestry the last 50 years, with clear-cuts, have contributed to a fragmented forest landscape.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how elevated levels of heavy metals affect the faunal species composition, abundance and species-diversity. The bentic macroinvertebrate fauna in the highly polluted lake Tisken was compared with the bentic macroinvertebrate fauna in the unpolluted lake Varpan. Mine wastes account for most of the metal that is discharged into Tisken. The hypotheses was that the heavy metal pollutions in lake Tisken influenced the species composition, abundance and diversity of the macroinvertebrates. Twenty samples were taken in both sites.

This BSc thesis is an introductory step to the collaboration between the Swedish zoo Skansen and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). It constitutes of an inventory of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage (AO), a facility that cares for injured and abandoned wildlife species in Kenya. Through the cooperation with Skansen, the KWS will improve their management of the AO. The aim of the inventory and BSc theses is to evaluate the management of black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), lion (Panthera leo) and patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) regarding their biological needs. The general enclosures, routines and feeding at the AO are also evaluated since they have a great influence on the management of captive animals.

The introduced lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) occupies more than 650 000 hectares in Sweden. There are some differences between lodgepole pine and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests which could affect bird assemblages, for example differences in canopy density and ground vegetation. Birds were surveyed in 14 localities in northern Sweden, each characterized by one middle-aged stand of lodgepole pine next to a stand of Scots pine. The two paired stands in each locality were planted by the forestry company SCA at the same time and in similar environment to evaluate the potential of lodgepole pine in Sweden. In those 14 localities, one to three point count stations were established in both the lodgepole pine and the Scots pine stand, depending on the size of the area.

Hazel (Corylus avellana L.) is a common feature of meadows and pastures where it can grow in large populations and become very old. Is it possible to use the size of hazel stools for age determination and is it possible to use the size distribution of a population to provide information about how the land has been used? Hazel populations on ground where the lake-water level had been lowered, has been studied to validate an already developed growth model of hazel clones. Different hazel populations, on wooded meadows affected by mowing or grazing or overgrown meadows, were studied to evaluate the method utilizing hazel as land use indicator. The growth model was used to compare the size distributions of hazel populations with historical periods, which has been important for changes in agriculture or demography.

This project investigated how elevation and vegetation type influences variation in plant litter phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity among and within common plant species for two different vegetation types, heath and meadow, in a subarctic ecosystem in the Abisko region of northern Sweden. As nutrient availability generally decreases with increasing elevation as a result of decreasing temperature, I hypothesised that phenolic content would increase with elevation and be higher on the heath than the meadow. To test this, the total phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity was estimated in leaf litter from 13 species in both heath and meadow vegetation across an elevational gradient ranging from 500 to 1000 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) in the study region. The results showed that elevation and vegetation type both had a strong impact on both variables. Total phenolic concentrations decreased with elevation for the meadow, and were greater for the heath than the meadow.

This study shows how to plan a pond with an ecosystem which although it will have turtles living in it will not need to be cared. I will also demonstrate how this pond would be designed to work in the natural landscape on Mallorca. The background to the study is that I am interested to investigate how plants that we in Sweden are using as indoor plants are growing in their natural landscape and how to build a land-scape with them. The study highlights different cleaning-systems that can be used to clean a pond in a natural way. A comparison will be made between the conditions of an exterminated turtle-species which will live in this environment and a species that is easier to care for.

The hybrid larch (Larix x eurolepis Henry) is a fast growing tree species and was introduced in Sweden for about 50 years ago. The high growth and expected resistance to diseases are probably the main reasons of introducing the tree species into the Swedish forests. The purpose of this thesis was to document the production of hybrid larch planted in the Snogeholm landscape laboratory and to compare the production in the pure hybrid larch stand with the mixture together with pedunculate oak (Quercus robur). The data collection in Snogeholm since the establishment has been carried out by the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU). The fieldwork for the thesis was carried out in 3 stands, containing hybrid larch, pedunculate oak and a mixture of hybrid larch and pedunculate oak, in order to be able to compare the total stand production of the areas. The results show that the total production of hybrid larch in the mixed stand only is 35 % compared with the total production of hybrid larch in the pure stand. Therefore, the hypothesis that the total production of hybrid larch is equal to the planted mixture with pedunculate oak was rejected. The other hypothesis that the total production of a 2 hectare large stand containing a mixture of hybrid larch and pedunculate oak would be greater than the total production of two pure stands of 1 hectare containing hybrid larch and oak each was also rejected. In the studied case the total production was 45 % greater if hybrid larch and pedunculate oak was planted in pure stands. The results from the case-study only indicate that the total production of hybrid larch and oak under the investigated conditions can be higher when planting the two species in pure stands compared with a mixture of the two species.

Many tropical rain forests has been lost or degraded as a result of human activities and environmental factors. Since the level of biodiversity is high in the tropics, maintaining these areas is of great importance. Forests like these are often assumed to benefit from forest restoration and rehabilitation. The INIKEA project area in Eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, aims to improve biodiversity and/or species richness in the degraded forest through enrichment planting with indigenous species. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate how different treatments (liberation, gap-cluster planting and line planting) affect the biodiversity of natural regeneration in different forest types in the Rain forest Restoration Experiment, located in the INIKEA project area.

In the tropics, logging and wild fire can result in degraded secondary forests with lower biodiversity than in the natural forest. One way to limit forest degradation is to rehabilitate the present large areas of secondary forests. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the ecology of tropical tree species and further studies would be advantageous for future rehabilitation efforts of degraded rainforest. The objective of this study was to investigate how mother trees in secondary forest and different site factors affect the abundance and spatial distribution of natural regeneration of non-pioneer tree species in a tropical rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia. The study took place in the INIKEA Forest Rehabilitation Project area, which suffered from wild fire in 1983 and has been selectively logged over both before and after the fire. Natural regeneration and site variables were inventoried in plots, while mother trees were inventoried in the whole survey area.

Contemporary plant design can be examined by how it relates to two extremes - Nature and Art. This idea is explained by Noel Kingsbury in the book The Dynamic Landscape where he places designers and their projects on a gradient (Kingsbury, 2004). Nature, one of the extremes can be represented by a dynamic, species-rich plant design with native species and with nature as the ideal. The other extreme - Art implies a more static view on plant design. Here, the designs consist of colourful flowers, exotic species and cultivars with double flowers.

This is a study of the insect community associated to the wood-decaying fungus Inonotus radiatus found on Alnus glutinosa trees growing in riparian forests at the northern and southern shores of boreal lakes in the province Uppland. Little is known about this particular bracket fungus and its inhabitants. Insects were reared out at the laboratory from samples of fruiting bodies of the fungus taken at five lakes. During the fieldwork in 2009, data about several environmental variables was also taken. After the rearing period, these variables and their effects over the insects were analyzed.

This project investigated how elevation and vegetation type influences variation in plant litter phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity among and within common plant species for two different vegetation types, heath and meadow, in a subarctic ecosystem in the Abisko region of northern Sweden. As nutrient availability generally decreases with increasing elevation as a result of decreasing temperature, I hypothesised that phenolic content would increase with elevation and be higher on the heath than the meadow. To test this, the total phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity was estimated in leaf litter from 13 species in both heath and meadow vegetation across an elevational gradient ranging from 500 to 1000 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) in the study region. The results showed that elevation and vegetation type both had a strong impact on both variables. Total phenolic concentrations decreased with elevation for the meadow, and were greater for the heath than the meadow.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of performing inter-species embryo transfer under actual field conditions in the natural habitat of South American camelids. In this study embryos from llamas were transferred to alpaca recipients. In a parallel study alpaca embryos were transferred to llama recipients. All animals used were free of uterine and ovarian abnormalities detectable by rectal palpation and /or ultrasound examination. Embryos were harvested twice after single ovulation in 10 mated female llamas and non-surgically transferred to synchronized alpaca recipients.

Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) is a common broadleaved species throughout Europe, however often of minor interest to the forest sector. There is currently a lack of research on sycamore maple, and some of its characteristics have throughout history contributed to a negative reputation in both literature and the forest society. Since broadleaved species in general are of great importance to the forest sector in Europe and presumably of enhanced significance in the future, deepened research is needed and particularly Swedish. With a desire to hopefully increase the interest for sycamore maple, was the objective of the study to examine the current status of the sycamore stands in southern Sweden. The study was carried out both as a survey with inventory field work and as a literature study. Parts of the latter mentioned is also presented in the introduction. The study shows that the majority of the sycamore stands in Sweden are growing well, producing fairly high qualities and volumes.