Natura 2000 is part of the European Union: s framework to protect and preserve biological diversity. Natura 2000- areas are by the goverment appointed to areas of national interest for preserving nature. Also wind power stations are appointed as of national interest and the reason for this is the goverments goal to get energy from reneweble energysources. This essay describes when both these intrests conflict eachother when it comes to building wind power stations within Natura 2000- areas. The main focus of this essay is a casestudy of two cases from two different counties, Dalarna- and Norrbotten county, where applications have been made to build wind power stations within existing Natura 2000- ares, both cases have reached the court dealing with enviromental issues.

In coastal wetlands carbon/organic matter can be stored for long periods of time thanks to, among other things, the presence of water which slows down the decomposition. Because of this, restauration and management of such Habitats have the potential to decrease the emission of greenhouse gasses and help mitigate climate. Internationally these environments are called ?blue carbon? ecosystems. In Sweden, alder (Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incanata) covered wetlands along the coast is a nature type that potentially could function as a ?blue carbon? habitat.

Open ecosystems, such as grasslands and pastures, have naturally been shaped by disturbances like fire and grazing. These processes play a crucial role in creating Habitats with high biological diversity, particularly favourable for a wide range of herbaceous plant species. In recent years, many of these disturbances have ceased, leading to encroachment, fragmentation and habitat loss. The aim of this study was to examine and compare the effects of fire, herbivory and a combination of fire and herbivory on the emergence of herbaceous plants. The study was conducted at the Ecopark at Nordens Ark.

In the 1970´s the North American lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) was introduced to Sweden in large scale. The lodgepole pine affects its new environment different from Scots pine (P. sylvestris), leading to a change in biological diversity. Forestry today affects the ground beetle fauna (Carabidae). Habitat specialists associated with older forests are first affected. When the canopy closes again after a clear-cutting species that prefer open Habitats reduces and those who prefer mature/closed forests increase. In this study we compare differences in diversity and community structure of ground beetles in stands of lodgepole pine and Scots pine.

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.

Present essay aims to introduce the reader to central topics regarding Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. As a result of a donation, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, received a collection of Vireya from a local amateur grower, Kurt Myllenberg. Since the subgenus Vireya is uncommon in Scandinavian horticulture, the study tries to establish conditions for successful growing. The subgenus Vireya differ from the other Rhododendron species through mainly three characteristics: the presence of two tails, attached to each end of the seed; the ovary-style junction is tapering and the pedicels arises directly from a dome-like base and form an umbel and not a raceme. The subgenus is distributed mostly in the islands of Indonesia and New Guinea, but also from Malaysia to Nepal and in Australia. Since Vireya species mainly grows as epiphytes in the tree canopies, they need high drainage and not too much water.

For a few decades, the wild boars are established over large areas in southern and centralSweden. Where they cause problems in terms of damage to crops in the agriculturelandscape, where rooting, browsing and trampling, but also damage to the crop when wildboars chosen daily rest in the cultivated fields. Along with the growing number of wildboars the rate of car accident with wild boars has also increased.Here I examined the daily rests of wild boar (Sus scrofa) sows in southern Sweden, todetermine the factors which the wild boars sows choose for daily rest. By determining whatfactors are important in this selection of daily rests, we may be able to make managementmeasures to reduce the damage wild boars make in the agriculture landscape by attractingthem to places where they do less economic damage and accidents on roads.In this study I have examined 123 daily rest positions from 14 different individual wildboar sows fitted with GPS collared in Southern Sweden, Skåne County in Christinehof,Högestad Kronovalls estate. Data was collared over the years 2004-2006 during the periodfrom June 1 to September 30.

The forests in the unique archipelago of the Baltic Sea is housing many and high values. For the resident population, which has a central role in sustaining a living archipelago, the forest can contribute to the outcome. The forest also contributes to turn the archipelago into one of Sweden?s most attractive recreational areas. Furthermore, these forests exhibit very high environmental values, and they are an element in the traditional cultural landscape.

This report investigates what attitude private forest owners in the County of Stockholm, Sweden have towards biodiversity landconservation. Private landowners were asked to answer a questionnaire containing questions about there property and there attitude towards biodiversity. The results show that private landowners attitude towards biodiversity is affected by, amongst other things, the size of their property; a larger property have a more negative owner than a smaller property. A landowner that lives on his property has a more negative attitude towards biodiversity than a landowner that?s not living on his property.

Biodiversity can be described as the total variation of life forms, where diversity ranges from gene level up to the ecosystem level. The diversity can be calculated in a number of ways, and this study use one of these methods. In this study empirical food webs have been used and analyzed, where eleven characters are defined and used as parameters to calculate the Euclidean distances between food webs that describe the variation that may exist within classes of terrestrial, marine and freshwater Habitats. The class who stood out and showed the greatest diversity at the ecosystem level was the marine food webs, which showed a high value of the average euclidean distance. The other networks were not as distinctive and the average of the euclidean distance in these classes was comparatively low..

There are several thousands shallow bays along the Swedish east coast. Most of them are disturbed by different human activities, and undisturbed bays can be considered as quite unique. In the sheltered shallow bays water warms up more rapidly than adjacent water favoring the growth of vegetation, which in turns is beneficial to spring spawning fish species like perch and pike. It is nowadays more common that coastal Habitats are inventoried to facilitate future preservation and planning. The aim of this study was to investigate the shallow bay Utanåfladen (59° 53`31.38 N 19°00`44.90 E) in the north Stockholm archipelago and evaluate its habitat value.

Timber floating operations in Scandinavia during the 19th and 20th centuries has contributed to severe negative impacts on riverine ecosystems. Increase in water velocity and lack of stream bed heterogeneity as a result of stream channelization lead to increased bed load transport. Since availability and recruitment of new suitable spawning substrate in Scandinavian watercourses is sparse, spawning Habitats for salmonids has become a scarce commodity. Lately, increasingly more attention has been given to the recreation and improvement of brown trout (Salmo trutta) spawning Habitats in restoration projects. While much of the research on spawning habitat has been focused on evaluation of the influence that the constructed spawning grounds have on fish populations, few studies have been conducted to evaluate the persistence of these constructions over time. I evaluate erosion of constructed spawning beds as an effect of sediment transport attributable to water discharge.

The purpose of the thesis is to describe how environmental compensation is carried through when it comes to exploitation of Natura 2000. The thesis also relates to the three theories of planning synoptic, advocacy and transactive. Three cases of environmental compensation have been studied from three different countries where an exploitation of the Natura 2000 is done. Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands have all been working with environmental impact assessments as a demand to be able to carry through their projects. The projects concern the development of a railway track, an industry and a port which all have been approved by the EU-commission to carry on because of socioeconomic reasons.

The great bustard (Otis tarda) became extinct in Sweden during the mid-19th century. Globally, populations have suffered dramatic declines during the past two centuries. Recently, local populations have stabilized or increased after hunting bans and conservation efforts. Despite positive trends the species is still classified by IUCN as vulnerable (VU), mainly due to withdrawals in the distribution. The limited distribution emphasizes the need for finding ?new? areas suitable for a translocation or reintroduction.

The plants in the genus Elatine are characteristic for oligo and mesotrophic lakes. This study focuses on Elatine hexandra one of the four species in Sweden. It is stated as vulnerable by the National Environment Agency and a conservation plan with guidelines to preserve the plant in Sweden is under preparation. There have been a few previous studies investigating this plant in other countries but this is the first one for Sweden. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution, growth and reproduction of E.