All over the world the urbanisation increases at the expense of green areas. Many plants and animals are endangered today because their habitats gets smaller or disappear. The green areas that are left in city centres and suburbs are often small and surrounded by roads and buildings. Despite this, several studies have shown that these small green areas may house large biological diversity.This project aims to study the biological diversity in small green patches in residential areas. The study has been carried out in Råsunda in Solna municipality (Stockholm county) during the period May?July 2006.Three equivalent areas (5000?10 000 m2) with quite many old oaks were chosen for the study and inventoried for birds and saproxylic insects.

Many of Europe?s day-living butterflies have shown decreasing populations during the last decades and many species are threatened. Many butterflies are dependent on managed semi-natural grasslands because of their richness in nectar sources and host plants for the butterfly larva. Swedish pastures are mostly managed through grazing. The number of cattle in Sweden have been decreasing while the number of sheep in the country increased by 30%.

It has been observed by both onion producers and a plant protection advisor on Öland (an island off the east coast of Sweden) that basal rot is the largest contributory factor to reduced onion quality and yield. Basal rot is mainly caused by species of Fusarium fungi. The aim of this study was to: a) investigate which species of Fusarium that can be found in onion produced on Öland, b) describe the symptoms caused by the different Fusarium fungi found and c) explore, through interviews with the onion producers on Öland, the mechanisms that may be involved in the observed increase in basal rot.Onion bulbs (Allium cepa) were sampled on two occasions. In total 181 onions from 11 different fields were analysed. In addition, eight onion producers were interviewed.

The stretch from the riparian zone of a major river, through the mouth and upstream in tributaries forms a range of differing habitats. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of these different habitats on the riparian frog community in primary rain forest in Borneo; i.e. examine whether any gradients could be demonstrated in terms of species composition, diversity and density of frogs, as well as which environmental characteristics that seem to be of most importance in forming habitats of high conservational value. A major river, Segama, and three of its tributaries were investigated. The surveys were carried out at night by searching for frogs visually and acoustically along the streams, from the shore of the Segama river and 400 metres upstream in the tributaries.

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 wild boar (Sus scrofa) is since its recent establishment and increasing density a controversial species in Sweden. But the attitudes towards the wild boar are poorly documented so far. To improve this knowledge, a questionnaire was sent out to chosen people (n=400) connected to the management and/or land use activities. The study got 162 replies (reply frequency 40,5%) and the results show varying attitude trends among organizations and individuals, with some aspects coherent within groups and some not. Farmers and their organization showed the most negative attitudes towards wild boars, which was expected due to the practical and economic problems they suffer from this species. People involved with forestry were more positive to wild boars, probably because the species does not affect forest growth etc severely, and may even promote plant establishment by the rooting.

Trees in urban environment are exposed to extreme conditions, foremost the ones that grow in the hard packed soil along our streets. They are also exposed to damaging insects and fungal diseases both local and new ones spreading from South Europe. The global warming with warmer temperatures provides a longer growing season, making it easier for insects and fungus to establish a habitat. Based on these facts new tree species need to be available for future urban plantings.To determine what these trees would be an interview study began. Six people were selected who have experience in the field of urban environment planting.

The aim of this paper was to study incoming complaints to The County Administrative Board in Västra Götaland during 2011 and examine if it was possible to see a connection between warranted and unwarranted complaints and informer, animal species and type of inadequate. In Västra Götaland, a complaint is classified as warranted if the inspection leads to a reprimand, whether it regards what was reported or not. Data were collected during three weeks through The County Administrative Board´s record system Platina and a total of 456 complaints were studied. The parameter ?complainant? was categorized into four groups according to The County Administrative Boards own division; public with the subgroups anonymous and non-anonymous, animal health staff and others.

Summary The leaf beetles, Lilioceris lilii and L. merdigera have existed in Asia, Europe and in North Africa for a long time, but have become much more abundant the last twenty-five years. Even North America has been affected during the last years. The purpose of this investigation of Lilioceris species in Sweden, is to give advice to gardeners, which type of control measures is the most effective in order to restrict their damage to lilies. Lilioceris species overwinter normally as pupae in the soil under the host or close by. Literature and contact with advisors have described the life cycle and spreading of Lilioceris. Under favourable conditions these leaf beetles have two generations/year in the south of Sweden. Both the adults and the larva eat the foliage, and by strong attacks even flowers can be eaten and only the stem is remaining. My own observations include different treatments of both lily foliage and of the leaf beetle.

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.

Organisms relevant for nature conservation dont follow administrative borders. Because of this there is a need for a landscape perspective within conservation and planning, and a need for the species of interest to have legal protection. Network analysis adapted for ecological purposes has grown to become a powerful tool for studying and communicating the relationships between species dispersion and access to habitat. In this study the following question is posed: How is the Osmoderma eremita and the Pernis apivorus dispersal possibilities in the small scale cultivated landscape of Borås affected by exploitation in respect to a) dispersal ability, b) habitat quality, c) position of habitat patches in a network? The analysis were based on municipal and regional nature conservation data, which in due to confidentiality is not accounted for in the report by maps, coordinates, etc.

The fork lifter chipper truck is a concept which has been developed for harvest and transport of bio fuel. The system consists of one fork lifter chipper truck and 1, 2 or 3 transport lorries, usually two, which serves the fork lifter chipper truck. The system is driven by the fork lifter chipper truck that produces chipped material into a container on the truck. When the container has been filled the truck drives to the landing site where it?s offloaded.

In the 1970?s it was predicted that in the beginning of the 21st century there would be a timber shortage in Sweden and a large scale introduction of the exotic tree species lodgepole pine started. An introduction of a foreign tree species means a risk of a negative influence on the forests ecosystem. Today, the stands that were established in the 70?s are middle-aged and the effect on the forest floor vegetation can be studied.

During thousands of years, reindeer have adapted to living under harsh conditions with large seasonal variations in climate and forage availability. This adaptation implies that body functions and nourishment needs are strongly bound to the season. In the summer the reindeer has to maximize food intake to build up fat and protein reserves for the winter. More than 200 different plant species are included in the reindeer diet, but since reindeer have an unique ability to use the nourishment in lichen, different lichen species make up a large portion of their winter diet in many areas. Fundamental for reindeer husbandry is access to natural grazing during most of the year.

There are several ways of conducting software testing where some may include users and others may include personnel whose work task is to execute test on systems. Although most developers and project managers understand the point of testing the system, it is not always being done and the most common reason is that there is no time for it. However, this is a false assumption as it may instead cause some bugs in the system that would not have been there in the first place if tests had been there to prevent bugs in the code.My purpose for this thesis was to find suggestions for changes in the development process in an ongoing project used by Acino and Svenska Försäkringsfabriken in order to increase the quality of the system used. In this thesis, I have approached the purpose by pursuing a case study of the two companies through observation and interviews. By doing this I acquired the relevant information to make suggestions for change.