Abstract.The question in this analysis is which gender moai, the big statues on Rapa Nui, represent. My hypothesis is that they have developed from visual symbols to metaphores in mythologies from an polynesian context. That these statues were symbols for human origin and creation of ancestors ideological power, and gods in consideration male gender. In the long isolation, in both time and space, the mytologies in Rapa Nui was changed, and the pictures got a new meaning. These changes depended on clearing of wood and big trees and the following difficult situation in farming.

This essay takes its start in the problematic situation concerning source material in the study of the Norse religion before the Christianization of Scandinavia. There is a lack of written sources from the time when the religion was still practiced. There are plenty of archeological sources economic situation than their religious beliefs. The Icelandic stories written in the 13th and 14th centuries give us a broad pictureof the Norse mythology, but the writers were Christians which makes their reliability questionable.The focus of this essay is therefore on two texts written during the time when the Norse religion was still in practice. The first source is the travel notes written in 922 by the Muslim scholar Ahmad ibn Fadlan who met a group of the Rus? people.

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.

A boom in horticulture characterized the 18th century in Sweden and Skåne. Parks and gardens were gradually built out to become, at the end of the 18th century, large and comfortable facilities which responded to European parks. During the late 1700s the new fashion came to Sweden. In Sweden it was named ?the English style? which directly refers to the English expression ?Romantic style?.

A high amount of dead wood is one of the most important prerequisites for high biodiversity on forest land in Sweden. Dead wood is most abundant in young forests, thinned forests, woodland key habitats and protected forest land. In old-growth forests most of the dead wood consists of logs and snags, whilst in managed forests a huge proportion of dead wood is made up of logging residues like stumps and FWD, fine woody debris (< 10 cm diameter). All these different types of dead wood may serve as substrates for epixylic bryophytes and lichens. However, few studies have been conducted on the relative importance of these different fractions of dead wood for the occurrence of bryophytes and lichens, especially when considering dead wood on thinned forest land.

The white-backed woodpecker is a forest bird being critically endangered in Sweden. The species is dependent on older forests rich in deciduous trees and dead wood. The main problem for the survival of this species is present shortage of habitat. Conservation work on this umbrella species is at present focused on finding remaining or emerging habitat networks. Large areas are scrutinized in search for suitable habitats to be protected or managed for the species sake.

This thesis constitutes a long term (100 year) ecological landscape management plan for the estate Götebo 1:5. The estate is situated close to Gothenburg and is owned by Skogssällskapet. The planning has been made by dividing the estate into different areas (zones). In each zone one of the goals nature conservation, recreation or economical yield has been prioritized. Nature conservation is one of the main goals for the forest management plan.

Earlier attempts at mechanising pre-commercial thinning have been met with varying degrees of success. Most attempts have been based on techniques where residual stems are straddled. Early treatment is essential to limit damage on residual trees. One part of the present study is an evaluation of mechanised pre-commercial thinning using the new Vimek 404R. Vimek 404R is a fairly small machine that permits selective removal of stems, making it potentially suitable also for areas overdue for pre-commercial thinning. The study established the level of performance for the machine, as well as the improvement needed to make it an economically viable option.

The most predominant method for forest harvesting in Sweden is the cut-to-length method based on two-machines, a harvester that fells trees and cut them in a predefined length, and a forwarder which transports logs to a landing area for further transport to a processing facility. New machine solutions have to be much gentler to the ground than today?s machines. To be able to develop a forestry machine that preserves the terrain requires a proper understanding of the interaction between tire and soil.The goal of the project is to contribute to the existing knowledge of forest machine tire-soil interaction and to develop a tire-soil model that enables dynamic simulations of forest machines operating in rough terrain. The modeling has especially been focused on the interaction between tires and soft ground.A comparison of theoretical data of different WES-based terrain interaction models and a comparison test data from a full scale field test is presented.

The activities of beavers in forested landscapes affect both ecological and economical values. The creation of the dynamic wetland mosaic associated to beaver activities can even improve the quality of water and have been documented as an important landscape engineer affecting the environment for many species. The local office of Sveaskog in Skinnskatteberg is responsible for the management of large areas of the forests in the County of Västmanland. In this area one of several company?s goals are to create ten new wetlands in their own forests as a part of cooperation with the Swedish bird society and Swedish wetland association.

Pine twisting rust (Melampsora pinitorqua) is a parasitic rust fungus found all across Sweden causing damage resulting in lower quality and reduced tree growth in pine stands. In Sweden, the fungus is dependent on two alternate hosts; European aspen (Populus tremula) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Pine twisting rust has five different spore stages, two of them (uredinio- and teliospores) on the leaves of aspen. Injures on aspen caused by pine twisting rust is not extensive. On the other hand, when it infects the annual shoots of Scots pine it often results in a bent steam or even a top shoot breakage.

The aim with this report is to investigate what influence the way playgrounds are used throw the case study in Vänersborg, and also to find methods for municipalities to collect information about how playgrounds are used. The methods were observations, interviews with parents and children, a questionary with questions about what playgrounds they used, how often and why they used them and what the children used to do there. There was also a demographic investigation and documentary research. The most popular playground, Skräcklan, gets visitors from all parts of the municipality. It is located in a park with a view over the lake Vänern, there is a parking place and a café and it has furthermore a large area and many play equipments. Many of the families make shorter trips and picnics to this place. In exception of this playground, the families almost always go to the playground in their neighborhood and their part of the town.

Many wood living insects are considered threatened by modern forestry due to the reduction in amount of dead wood. During the last decade various methods have been used to enhance the quantity of dead wood in managed forests. However little is known how and if these methods are aiding saproxylic insects. The threatened tenebrionid beetle, Upis ceramboides, is already extinct in southern Sweden. It develops in white rotted dead birch (Betula spp) and requires sun-exposed sites.

As birch is one of the most common trees in Sweden, and probably one of the easiest for someone who lives here to identify, it is interesting to note that most people do not know how variable the genus is and how widely it is distributed across the northern hemisphere. One can find birch growing at both high and low elevations, demanding different soil conditions and preferring varying amounts of sunlight. Many people may also be surprised to hear that the colour of the bark can vary from bight white to almost black, and different shades of pink, orange and red can also be displayed. This, together with the astonishing beauty of the genus, the important role as a pioneer in many ecological systems and the difficulty in sorting out the taxonomy of the genus, constitutes the background of this thesis. The thesis is written at the Department of Landscape Development in Alnarp, Sweden with Kenneth Lorentzon, researcher at the Swedish University of Agriculture as a supervisor. The aim of this thesis is to highlight which species and cultivars within the genus Betula could be appropriate for horticultural use in Sweden.

Since the 1950s, the development of modern rotation forestry in boreal Fennoscandia has resulted in a severe reduction of older forests, and a high degree of fragmentation among the small patches that remains of old forest. In Sweden, when performing conservation value assessments in order to identify and preserve the remaining forest habitats, the government authorities use to a significant extent a set of indicator species that indicate habitats of high biological conservation value. One species considered to indicate high conservation values in pine-heath forests is the red-listed ectomycorrhizal (EM) macrofungi Sarcodon scabrosus (Fr.) P. Karst. In the present study, the validity of using S.