Fungi are everywhere around us and recently, there has been an increased interest in their role and importance in the forest. The fungi have several strategies to acquire energy and nutrition; one example is a mutual symbiosis with trees and plants - another being dissolving organic materials. Attempts have been made to better understand the circulation of nutrition in coniferous forests, and how fungi cooperate. Trees and plants have adapted with mycorrhizae and are now interdependent which is important to consider in forestry. A great number of fungi depend on dead wood and old trees to set fruiting bodies and spread further. These fungi also create environments for other species, such as birds and insects. The vegetation of a forest is determined by a series of factors; tree species, how old the forest is, soil type, as well as the ability of the fungal spores to spread and establish. Furthermore, in determining vegetation, the fungi?s ability to compete in the soil matters. These factors are nearly unexplored. Researching fungi knowledge and interest, a survey was distributed to five groups of people. The groups included forest owners, high school teachers, high school students, senior citizens, and a fifth group - ?o he ? - consisting of people of mixed ages and backgrounds.

The European bison is a species which is no longer present in the wild fauna of Sweden. Reintroduction has been proposed in several different forums. Reintroduction is an attempt to reestablish a viable population of a species in an area to which it is native. To make such an operation successful in the long run it is essential to know the attitudes of the stakeholders involved. This study has sensed the attitudes towards reintroduction of European bison to Sweden.

This study was carried out at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Dept. of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden. The aim of the study was to determine how plant species richness and diversity influence the nitrogen pools and nitrogen fluxes in the soil. Plant and soil samples from a biodiversity experiment in grasslands were used. Thirty plots with 12 grassland plant species (legumes, grasses, and non-legume herbs), combined from 1-12 species were investigated.

This study is made on assignment by the local board of forestry in Skåne, Blekinge and Halland. The change of the forest law 1994 brought a new type of management plan. A more active planning was introduced in order to equate the environment goal with the production goal. The purpose with this study is to give a better picture of how planning for nature conservation in production forest is made and to develop support for selection of silviculture methods for stands with combined goals. With combined goals means production forestry with a reinforced consideration to both nature and culture, called PF-classified stands. This was done by: ? Describing silviculture models from the literature that are possible to use for stands with combined goals. ? Describing silviculture models that is used in practice in stands with combined goals. ? Describing how the classification of stands with combined goals is used. Which means, were in the terrain, with which frequency and in which type of forest PF-classification is used. ? Comparing differences and similarities of theoretical and practical used models. The study was done partly as a literature study and partly as an interview study of forest planners.

The wood-living beetle Ceruchus chrysomelinus is a rare species connected to natural forests. In Sweden, it is red-listed as endangered (EN) and an action plan for its preservation has been done by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. In this work I have therefore investigated how a translocation of the species succeeded after 17 years. I aimed to study the species dispersal biology, its substrate preferences and the supply of suitable wood on this site. The study was performed during 2012 in Pansaruddens nature reserve close to Uppsala in Sweden, which is a spruce dominated forest.

Cultural relict plant species from the Nordic countries have been collected by the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen) for the purpose of conservation. To ensure high seed vitality in store, regular germination tests need to be conducted. It is important to get a correct viability status, but the knowledge of seed dormancy in the cultural relict plants is often poor. The objective of this study was to investigate how seed dormancy is affected by cold stratification. The study includes 31 accessions from 28 species with the purpose of establishing germination protocols.

This report concerns the for Sweden foreign tree species hybrid larch, hybrid aspen and poplar, and focuses on the area Kalmar and Mönsterås municipalities. The report shows that there are not only advantages with these species. The larch, the most common of the alien tree species has the greatest problems due to that its timber is difficult to sell in the area but also the Larch´s poor pulp quality and is more likely to be damaged by wildlife than the spruce is. Hybrid Aspen is much easier to sell and is used like regular aspen for match wood and textile pulp. Its disadvantage is the high cost for plants and to prevent damage from wildlife.

The purpose of this work was that with the help of a literature review have a single document with information on how the various species: brown bear (Ursus arctos), lynx (Lynx lynx) and the wolf (Canis lupus) living in the wild. The aim was also to show which stereotypic behaviours these different species have in zoos and the enrichments that is already being used and to make suggestions and recommendations on enrichment based on animal behaviour ecology. In zoos, some species thrive well while others have propositions to propagating problems, poor health and stereotypic behaviors. The brown bear, lynx and wolf, live both in the wild and in zoos in Sweden. As these animals have different ways of living in the wild, it is important to accommodate to each species, the way they are kept in zoos in accordance with their behavioural ecology.Brown bears are omnivorous and solitary living species with large energy needs so that they spend most of their day to actively feeding but also rest.

The final thesis ?Hardy palms for scandinavian climate? describes the family Arecaceae both from a general point of view, and with individual descriptions of seven different species that are known for their coldtolerance. The descriptions of each species is brief and the intention has been to give an introduction to some specific species known for their hardiness. Seperate chapters discuss topics as hardiness, pests and other problems and a short instruction for growing palms on open land in scandinavian climate. Finally a short discussion about continued research on this topic and some conclusions ends this final thesis.

The global biodiversity loss is mainly due to human activities such as an intensification of forestry. Boreal forest ecosystems in Fennoscandia are characterized by disturbances such as forest fires, storms and floods. However, industrial forestry practices suppress forest fires and change the landscape, leading to a loss of habitats and associated species. Particularly lichen species with slow adaptation abilities and a strong substrate specificity face an extinction debt in boreal forests since their substrates are long-lived but no longer created. In this study the species-substrate relationship of two red-listed forest-fire dependent lichen species Carbon-icola anthracophila and C.

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.

Our society has faced monumental changes and therefore our working life has changed as well. We are now in the twentieth first century and still our labor market is gender-segregated. Today networking is an important part of working life and one cannot emphasize enough the importance of having good connections in your network. Networking is now seen as an important tool when it comes to your career. In the past networking has been the men?s arena and it has almost been seen as a male institution.

The loss of such great wetlands, which has arose in Sweden the last decades, has created a situation that threats both the function and the biological diversity within the wetlands. Many ecological niches can be found in the wetlands and it is one of the habitats where most different species exist. In the 17th Century people started to ditch damp environments, such as bogs, to create a productive cultivated ground. Further ditches were made when the forestry gave large economical profits. The wetlands were impoverished from both groundwater and nourishment, and this led to a great loss of species.In a corporation with WWF and Skogsstyrelsen in Arvika, the University of Karlstad has participated in the Laskerudproject, a hydrological restoration-project in a forest landscape.

By examine plastic craniums from eight different hominids I wanted to find morfological characteristics that agreed with those of modern humans. The species that were selected had a plastic casting of its cranium in the laboratory at Gotland University. My focus was on species from the family Australopithecius and Homo and only working with their craniums. And this because the cranium and the theeth shows the most visible morfological characteristics between the different hominids. I also wanted,in a small part of the essay, to write about the differences in now living primates and humans skulls.Except from analysing the plastic castings I also studied surveys written by other scientist on the same subject.

Natural monuments are natural objects with special protection due to their high natural value or cultural significance. The natural value is determined by the occurrence of signal species found on and near the natural monument. The law surrounding natural monuments has evolved a lot since the first ones were declared, and today the title natural monument can be replaced with the title tree with high conservation value. The title has come later and can sometimes overlap natural monument. Some natural monuments lack the qualities required to be classified as a natural monument or a tree with high conservation value, but have a cultural importance.