Swedish farmers have the possibility to be subsidized by EU rural development programme for grazing animals on pastures to promote the biodiversity of flora and fauna. The environmental remedy sometimes does not allow supplementary feed and at the same time the Swedish Animal Welfare Act and the Swedish Agricultural Board?s regulations for animal welfare and protection states that animals, in this case horses, shall be fed with food of good quality and adapted for the species. The regulations also state that they should have an individual feeding regime that enables them to maintain a normal body condition. The aim with this master thesis has been to investigate if it is possible to keep Gotland ponies on extensive pastures, during late spring and summer and still maintain animal welfare. The horses were assessed every fourth week using a welfare assessment protocol developed in line with the Welfare Quality® project (submitted, Viksten et al) where physical, behavioural and resourcebased parameters were observed. Twelve one-year old stallions of the breed Gotland ponies purchased from different breeders were used in the study.

The open air museum of Disagården is situated in the Old Uppsala parish, Uppsala municipality, are projected to portray a double row village, before the land enclosure, on the Uppsala plain during the 1860s and 1870s. Disagården operates under the County Museum of Uppland and serves as an exhibit of Uppland's farming culture during the late 19th century. However, an open-air museum is a complex institution where many interests are linked together. Disagården aims to simultaneously portray an historical environment while offering broad public appeal. The Disagården open air museum was inaugurated in 1931 and consists of relocated buildings that together form three farm complexes "Gränbygården", "Skuttungegården" and "Bärbygården". The thesis explores how the close surroundings of a typical farm in Uppland looked during the 1860s and 1870s. This historical depiction has then been applied to Disagården in a development suggestion creating a foundation from which Disagården can structure the close cultivation of the different farms. The basis of the development program has primarily been compiled through archival and literary studies but also through on-site visits and interviews. How did the concept of open air museums start and what were the ideas behind the concept? Which external influences affected the situating of cultivations and buildings? Which crops and species were present on the farms in Uppland during the specified time period? What was the relation of the different structures to each other? Which organizations had influences on the farmer's household of the Uppland plain? The thesis attempts to clarify the answers to these questions. The influences affecting on the farmer's household in Uppland were probably numerous.

Transformation of inorganic mercury (Hg) to methyl mercury (MeHg) is a biotic process that is proposed to be conducted primarily by sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). The formation of MeHg is of great interest because it is the mercury species that biomagnifies to the greatest extent in the aquatic food webs; about 90 % of all Hg in fish is MeHg. Our understanding of factors involved in the production of MeHg is very important for making a reliable risk assessment. The purposes of this study were to investigate the different factors that control the solubility of Hg and the production of MeHg in a contaminated lake sediment. The lake Ala-Lombolo, Kiruna municipality, is well-known to be contaminated by mercury from different sources. Sediment cores were sampled at three different locations (N, SW and SE) in the lake and divided in three different layers; 0-5, 5-10 and 10-15 cm.

A recommendation for stand treatment of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) is, in a scientific point of view, lacking when it comes to harvesting for biomass energy. Within the next decades it is expected that 280 000 hectares of lodgepole pine will have reached thinning age on the domains of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA). Due to this the interest has grown rapidly for studying the possibilities of harvesting biofuel assortments already in the first thinning. In this study the distribution of the biomass within lodgepole pine trees has been studied and taken into account for estimating the proportions of harvested assortments when using different methods of thinning. The methods studied were conventional biofuel-harvesting (with delimbed branches gathered separately from the round wood) and thinning with cutting of round wood and long tops (incl.

Hylocomium splendens (Glittering wood-moss) is a common species in the Nordic countries and can be found in many different types of boreal forests. It usually forms dense moss carpets on the forest floor. The shoots grow in segments and new segments form annually on the previous years growth. The size of the segments is probably regulated in a high extent by local micro environmental conditions. Previous experiments suggest increased growth of H.

The biodiversity of the Swedish forest has degenerated since the beginning of the 19th century when fire suppression and large scale logging first occurred. Together with a changed land use, these actions today have had a negative influence on many forest dwelling species, due to gradual reduction of natural processes, successions and different structures from the forest ecosystem. The Swedish Forest Act, together with different environment certifications, have today encouraged private persons and forest companies, among them Holmen Skog, to work actively to improve nature conservation. The aim of this study was to, by field inventories of already existing nature values, literature studies, recommendations from scientific reports and ecological gap analysis as a basis, make a management plan, for a non-production area, to conserve or improve the prerequisites for biodiversity. ?Storskogsberget? is located in the coastal area of Västerbotten County, 35 km from the city of Umeå.

Enaforsholms mountain garden is situated in the western parts of the Swedish province Jämtland. This means a maritime climate. After a donation made by wholesaler A. W. Bergsten the country estate became KSLA property in 1937.

Running water-pathways have played an important roll in Sweden and frequently been manipulated. One profound change was made during the period of logging when streams were cleared from obstacles as big boulders, sharp bends and side-streams. Dams and different constructions gave control of the stream water and the streams became channel-like with a homogen structure. This interference gave problems for many fish populations and resulted in a shortage of feeding habitat, over-wintering habitat, spawning habitat, unnatural flow regimes, sedimentation, unnatural temperature fluctuations. Many of these historical changes of the watersheds are now subjects for restoration, ie., bring back the streams to what we believed it was before the change. However, what once existed in terms of complexity is now gone and difficult toreplace.

In 1994 a new Forestry Act was accepted in Sweden. One of the aims of the law is to raise consideration forpreservation of biodiversity. Since the new law got accepted and some time has passed, there now lie someinterest in examining whether the law has been effective towards its purpose. Methods suitable for analysishave been examined during this study. The content of this pilot study is based around five parameters whichcan be used to validate the effects of the new law.

Sammanfattning Ensilerat vallfoder är ett av de absolut viktigaste fodermedlen för att förmå korna att producera en stor mängd högkvalitativ mjölk. En hake är dock att ensilaget ska vara av god kvalitet och med bästa möjliga näringsvärde, samtidigt som man även vill ha volymmängder. För att få detta gäller det att skörda vid rätt tidpunkt, vilket kan vara svårt att veta när det infaller. Till detta finns ett hjälpmedel som kallas skördetidsprognos. Detta går ut på att man klipper prover i vallen upp till tre gånger innan första skörden för att analysera gräset och därigenom kunna avgöra när bästa tiden är för att skörda för att få den mest optimala kombinationen av mängd och näringsvärde. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur bra hjälpmedel jordbrukare i norra Sverige tycker att skördetidsprognosen är för att få en ökad kvalitet på ensilaget, samt att jämföra variationen i näringsvärde och mängd biomassa inom och mellan olika fält.

Dagens dominerande föryngringsmetod i Sverige är plantering som utgör 75 procent, därefter kommer naturlig föryngring som utgör 18 procent. Anledningen till att plantering är den dominerande föryngringsmetoden är att ofta används förädlat material vid tillverkning av plantor vilket ökar tillväxten och överlevnaden samt minskar omloppstiden. Föryngringsperioden är kortare hos plantering jämfört med naturlig föryngring. Röjning är en beståndsvårdande utglesning som ska gynna stammar med bra egenskaper. Faktorer som kan påverkas med röjning är trädslagsblandning, tillväxt och kvalitet.

Clearcutting systems have been the dominating silvicultural approach during the last decades in the Nordic countries. While economically rational, it is also leading to a trivialisation of the flora and fauna, and may result in negative reactions of people in urban settings. As a consequence of this, and a more diversified view on which goods and services forests should deliver, there is an increasing interest in broadening the range of silvicultural methods that are used. The term continuous cover forestry (CCF) represents a suite of methods that have gained increasing interest in the Nordic countries. In CCF a considerable amount of the trees are left after harvest to favour values that require a continuity of tree-covered areas. There are thus hopes that this method will meet the needs for maintaining biodiversity and satisfy social and cultural values.

Growth models are very useful tools for forestry to predict growth and yield. With growth models and optimising tools you can manage forest stands in a way that maximize benefit and income. There are three major types of growth models. Stand models; stage structured models and single-tree models. The most advanced models give the most accurate forecasts.

This degree project studied surface waters on Kåbo Golf Course in Uppsala, Sweden, with the aim of determining the status of the water and how it is affected by the activities of the golf club, and to obtain suggestions of measures to create better conditions for the water environment on and around the golf course. The project forms part of the environmental protection work of Kåbo Golf Club, which is working towards achieving environmental certification from the Swedish Golf Association (SGF). The study is based on literature studies and quantitative and qualitative field studies of water on the golf course, with the focus on environmental factors identified as being important for the golf industry and on strategic environmental goals developed by SGF. The number of open water bodies in the Swedish landscape has substantially declined during the past 200 years, so it is important to save those that remain. This study showed that the surface water at Kåbo Golf Course is an important element in the surroundings since the area contains few wetlands, which can be a habitat for large numbers of species. The stream and ponds on Kåbo Golf Course also have the important function of serving as water hazards in the game and adding difficulty and variety to the course. Since Kåbo Golf Club wants its surface waters to look aesthetically appealing, extensive algal growth and drying up of ponds during parts of the year are regarded as problems.

Two field experiments were conducted in central Sweden in order to: 1) Determine a relationship between the number of approaching pine weevils (Hylobius sp.) and the number of attacks by pine weevils, in relation to the size of seedlings of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). 2) Determine if application of methyljasmonate (MJ) on seedlings of Scots pine will result in higher resistance towards attacks by pine weevils and/or have any effect on the number of approaching pine weevils. The field experiments were designed with two separate parts in close vicinity on the same clear cuttings: a) pitfall traps placed in patches of scarified soil that caught approaching pine weevils at 2.5 cm from the bait, which consisted of different sized seedlings of Scots pine some of which were subjected to application of MJ and b) the same type of seedlings planted out in patches of scarified soil. The first field experiment was conducted on a 1-year old clear cutting outside Uppsala in east central Sweden and the trapping part of the experiment consisted of 8 blocks with 6 treatments: 1) control, 2) small over-wintered seedling, 3) medium sized seedling, 4) medium sized seedling treated with 0.5 ml 100 mmol MJ 4 days prior to start of experiment, 5) large seedling, 6) vial with 9.5 ml of ?-pinene. The trapping experiment lasted for 6 weeks in the early summer.