Multilayered woodland types are an important part of the urban forest. The knowledge how to establish and maintain such plantations are not as deep as other knowledge fields concerning forestry. Therefore this study has looked upon how to achieve multilayered structures in young nature-like woodland plantations. As a theoretical base for the study three different major knowledge culture have been studied that concerns the subject, ecology, forestry and landscape management/design. This three theoretical framework concludes that many natural processes strive in the opposite direction of multilayered structures in their youth.

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 this essay suggested pathogenesis of secondary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) is reviewed. HOA, characterized by; periostitis, periosteal proliferation of tubular bones and arthritis can develop due to many different underlying diseases. The syndrome is most commonly seen with intra-thoracic malignancy or chronic pulmonary infections. HOA has previously mainly been described in humans and various domesticated species. More recently, through wildlife disease monitoring, cases have also been found among wild animals.

A lot of habitats have declined or disappeared as the old cultural landscape changed to the modern agricultural landscape of today. Places such as power line corridors, racing tracks, gravel pits and military training sites have become refuges for many species associated with the old cultural landscape. These sites have been exposed to ecological disturbances that create the same type of habitats that were found in the old cultural landscape.The military training sites in Sweden has an impressive diversity of species. Disturbances from the military exercises have created habitats that are important for a wide range of species.The purpose of this thesis is to study some of the ecological disturbances occurring in the military training sites of the Swedish Armed Forces and examine how they affect different types of habitats. The thesis explains through litterateur and field studies the reason to the rich biodiversity often found at military training sites.

Turbot (Psetta maxima) and flounder (Platichthys flesus) are two species of flatfish both having their nursery areas around the shores of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The common brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) is a known predator on newly settled plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) in the North Sea area and is also found in the Baltic Sea. Experiments were carried out to see if the brown shrimp is predating on juvenile turbot and flounder, and if so on which sizes, and if the brown shrimp prefers any of the flatfish species, and also to see if there is a difference between day and night in density of the shrimp, i.e. when the fish might be subjected to predation. The results showed that predation decreased with size for both turbot and flounder.

The fragmentation and reduction of deciduous forests in Sweden is threatening many species. Particularity worrying is the loss of broad-leaf trees, since a diversity of species is often associated to them. Today many deciduous trees are situated along the border between forested and open areas, and these small fragments can be important for biodiversity.The aim of this study is to analyze if wildlife management can affect the variation of deciduous trees and bushes in the landscape. In brochures and literature Svenska Jägareförbundet (the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management) recommend hunters and landowners to promote deciduous trees ? often broad-leaf trees ? as wildlife management measures, while the Swedish forestry laws can be sensed as unclear regarding the treatment of these trees.Five properties in Södermanland, Sweden, were chosen as study areas and inventoried in respect of trees and bushes in September 2013.

With a changing climate, we can expect higher temperatures and more precipitation in Sweden.As the temperature increases, new weed species are expected to migrate in from more southerlylatitudes, resulting in requests for new techniques for weed control. In addition, we might see agreater number of weed species and higher biomass production due to increased concentrationof CO2 in the atmosphere.Increased understanding of the biology of specific weed species will become more importantin future weed control. This will help to control the weeds more efficiently. Higher prices onpesticides and a public demand for reduced use of pesticides make growers more inclined to usemechanical weed control on a larger scale and to a greater extent prevent weed establishmentbefore sowing. A well-planned crop rotation is the most important preventive measure, whichmight also include delayed sowing, and dark harrowing and sowing.Research takes place on many levels within the weed area and several alternative methodsare being developed.

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.

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.

Deciduous forests are, according to the National Environmental Quality Objectives, a priority area. Deciduous forests are rich in species and the occurrence of dead wood is an important factor for biodiversity. In order to identify valuable deciduous forests for bio-diversity, conservation needs good analyses and planning tools. Habitat models combined with geographic information systems can be used to study the spatial structure of suitable habitat. The Lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor) has been proposed as an indicator species for deciduous forests, since this species is highly specialized on insect larvae in dead wood and requires large areas of deciduous-rich environments. Many riparian forest with high species richness and high nature conservation values are found along the Ume river in Umeå municipality.

Med dagens växande besättningar är det svårare att upptäcka brunst hos mjölkkor genom visuell observation. Detta leder till ekonomiska förluster, minskat genetiskt framsteg, högre inkalvningsålder och längre kalvningsintervall. För att underlätta brunstregistrering i besättningarna finns olika automatiska registreringar som kan upptäcka fysiologiska eller beteendemässiga förändringar som framträder hos kon vid brunst. Denna litteraturstudie sammanställer tre olika principer för brunstdetektering; visuell brunstdetektering, stegräknare och bestigningsdetektor, som kan vara antingen elektronisk eller manuell. Resultatet visar att stegräknare är den metod som upptäcker flest brunstperioder medan visuell observation ger minst felaktigt detekterade brunstperioder.

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.