This report is a result of a first survey of Halland?s gravel pits as an assignment from the County Administrative Board of Halland. The focus has been on Apalus bimaculatus, since the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency are creating a restoration program as it is red listed as Near Threatened. The purpose was also to get an overview of the pits since the County Administrative Board wants to continue this project. Apalus bimaculatus is easy to overlook since it is a short-lived beetle and it lives early in the spring.

Research suggests that society's vulnerability to natural disasters along coasts could increase as a result of climate change, which is likely to lead to elevated sea levels and possibly an increase in the occurance of meteorological phenomena such as storms and tropical cyclones. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, both of which received considerable media attention, empirical data has indicated that coastal vegetation might be able to protect and reduce damages to coastal communities during tsunami events and tropical cyclones.The aim of the essay has been to study the function of coastal ecosystems as protection against tsunami waves and storms from a risk management perspective, meaning that I have, through an overview of scientific articles, compiled current research on how coastal ecosystems can attenuate storm surges and tsunami waves, and analysed how this knowledge can be put into practice in coastal communities from a risk management perspective, i.e. if coastal ecosystems are a viable risk reduction measure, are practically applicable, and if so, how they could be applied.There is empirical evidence suggesting that coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves, can reduce the strength of a tsunami wave, but full scientific consensus on this issue has not yet been reached. With regard to protection against storm surges, there is extensive scientific evidence that coastal vegetation can mitigate damages and reduce the height of a storm surge, although the wave has to traverse several kilometres inland through thick vegetation for the protection to be effective. A synthesis in the form of a figure regarding the many physical factors that influence wave development through coastal ecosystems has been created in an attempt to simplify and explain the phenomenon.The conservation and restoration of coastal ecosystems can be justified from a risk management perspective, but planting new forest belts for the purpose of disaster mitigation is quite unrealistic and can rarely be sustainable, since, for protection to be effective, the forest belt must extend several kilometres inland from the coast, and would thus likely prove difficult to implement along coastal societies..

Forest management contributes to the changes in forest structure by turning heterogenous forests of varied age into homogenous forests of similar age and thus affect bird species depending on different structures or habitats which are lost during forestry. In this report, a study was made to investigate how the amount of decidious trees, dead wood and variation in tree diameter affect bird diversity. The purpose of this study was to be able to give forest management guidelines to increase bird diversity. This study was conducted by investigating 65 transects in forests of different structure south of Linköping, Sweden. Along the 65 transects, birds were inventoried as well as the vegetation.

Carbon sequestration through restoration of degraded pastoral soils is an advocated way of mitigating global warming, and simultaneously alleviating poverty. An often proposed rehabilitation strategy is fencing of pastures, a method that was introduced to the farmers of Chepareria by the Vi-Agroforestry organization in 1987. The landscape of Chepareria changed from eroded, over-grazed grasslands, to a mixture of open-grazed commons, pastoral enclosures and cultivations. The aim of this study was to investigate (1) if the soil organic carbon (SOC) is higher inside the enclosures than on the open-grazed commons, (2) if SOC is affected by duration of fencing and (3) what effect cultivation of pastures has on the SOC. Estimations of vegetation cover and deep profile (100cm) soil sampling was performed on six clusters containing; (1) open-grazing (OG) (2) 1-5 years of fencing (FENCED(1)), (3) 7-10 years of fencing (FENCED(2)), (4) 15-23 years of fencing (FENCED(3)), (5) maize from OG (A(OG)), (6) maize from fenced pasture (A(FENCED)).

Predation is a strong dective force on invertebrate prey. Asellus aquaticus differs in pigmentation reed and submerged vegetation habitats in lakes. Light pigmented individuals al vegetation dominated by Chara sp. while dark pigmented individuals dominate in the reeds. These differences have been hypothesized to result from background matching.

I nordöstra Lund planeras forskningsbyn Science Village Scandinavia (SVS). Stora avstånd mellan viktiga noder i området ses tillsammans med hårda vindar som utmaningar vid arbetet med att göra SVS attraktivt och besöksvärt under den långa exploateringstiden. På uppdrag av SVS AB och Lunds kommun presenterar detta examensarbete ett förslag för en förplantering av naturlik skogsvegetation på platsen. Ett koncept, där smala vegetationsridåer planteras längs de framtida rörelsestråken i SVS, föreslås i examensarbetet som en strategi för att klimatskydda platsen och samtidigt möjliggöra ett bevarande av vegetation som urban grönska i forskningsbyn. I enlighet med projektets stora hållbarhetsambitioner uttrycker konceptet även målet att presentera möjligheter för att använda avlägsnat växtmaterial som en resurs. Hur kan ett långsiktigt dynamiskt vegetationsbyggande, enligt det ekologiska tillvägagångssättet, förena värden såsom vindskydd, rekreationsvärden och ett ekonomiskt resursuttag, både tidigt och på lång sikt? En kunskapssammanställning görs kring vegetation som vindskydd samt hur ett långsiktigt dynamiskt vegetationsbyggande förhåller sig till smalare ridåplanteringar, ett upplevelsemässigt perspektiv, ett tidsperspektiv samt ett växtmateriellt resursuttag.

During the last two hundred years many wetlands and streams in Sweden have been lowered to provide land for agriculture and forestry. Some of the coastal wetlands and streams probably served as spawning sites for certain species of fish in the Baltic Sea, but the present situation is not well known. As standardized methods to monitor fish in running waters are carried out during late summer or autumn, there is a need for methods to sample spring-spawning fish in these streams.The aim of this study was to survey the lower kilometer stretch of Hammerstaån in Stockholm, to investigate the extent to which the stream is used by spring-spawning fish. Furthermore, the study aims to evaluate a new type of survey fishing gill net called strömöversiktsnät (SÖN). This was done by comparing the catch of fish by SÖN with that of fyke nets.

Denna uppsats syfte har varit attstudera jordarter och morfologiförsöka bestämma om skreden i dagsläget kan betecknas som recenta eller stabiliserade. Detta bla. genom att studera vegetation; ålder och utbredning av denna.beskriva vad människorna i området gjort efteråt..

During the last two hundred years many wetlands and streams in Sweden have been lowered to provide land for agriculture and forestry. Some of the coastal wetlands and streams probably served as spawning sites for certain species of fish in the Baltic Sea, but the present situation is not well known. As standardized methods to monitor fish in running waters are carried out during late summer or autumn, there is a need for methods to sample spring-spawning fish in these streams.The aim of this study was to survey the lower kilometer stretch of Hammerstaån in Stockholm, to investigate the extent to which the stream is used by spring-spawning fish. Furthermore, the study aims to evaluate a new type of survey fishing gill net calledströmöversiktsnät (SÖN). This was done by comparing the catch of fish by SÖN with that of fyke nets.

Use of lighting is crucial to make public urban places available during dark hours. Landscape architects participate in planning of lighting, but during our education there is very little taught on the subject. Through this study we approach the subject of lighting by looking into lighting methods for urban plant materials during winter. In this thesis we look into ways to emphasize the visible characters and experiences of urban plants during winter season using light. Target audience are landscape architect students and landscape architects without knowledge of lighting. The part of the thesis that describe basic conditions for, and visual characters of plants can be useful to lighting designers without knowledge in this subject. Working methods used were the following: ? Pre-study about light and lighting techniques through literature and dialogues. ? Compiling important visual winter plant characters through photography and literature. ? Outdoor light experiments with plants.

Several studies have analysed the relationship between Normalised DifferenceVegetation Index (NDVI) and radiative surface temperature. A main goal for moststudies have been to find the best method for carrying out land cover classificationsand to study land cover changes, based on a combination between the twoparameters. Since atmospheric components have a significant influence on bothparameters, most applications were based on multi-temporal data. The quality of theindividual values in such a combination is improved, but the biophysical justificationis uncertain. This study presents a different method, based on only the combination ofvalues that have been registered the same day and about the same time of the day.125 daily images of NDVI and 250 images of radiometric temperature were used inorder to analyse the relationship between (1) NDVI and radiative temperature and (2)NDVI and relative temperature difference between early morning and mid-day.Results between NDVI and radiative temperature show a significant negativecorrelation on areas where a distinct growing season develops, and a strong positivcorrelation where vegetation is abscent throghout the season.

Ronneby torg är beläget centralt i Ronneby stadskärna i sydöstra Blekinge. På denna plats går det att identifiera tre problem som utgör brist på människor (social hållbarhet), rumslighet (mötesplats) och vegetation (ekologisk hållbarhet). Tidigare har torgets södra del innefattat en stadspark vid namn ?Gröna Torget? medan hela torget idag utgörs av en hårdgjord yta med inslag av träd i dess kanter. Det finns ett behov från Ronneby kommun att utveckla torget som en mötesplats, då kommunen utlyst en förslagstävling av just denna anledning.

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.

Nature-like plantations are areas that, by today?s maintenance procedure usually gains low prioritiy and are forgotten. Most nature-like plantations are currently disadvantaged and have in many cases grown up and formed dense,impenetrable and brushwoody green volumes. These green volumes is rarely used, but usually only fills out gap surfaces. With proper care nature-like plantations can become health promoting environments in the increasinglyhardened urban environments.How vegetation systems work and how trees and shrubs interact is dependent on many factors.

I am in this essay to find out how to successfully combine new development with preservation of natural values, mainly large scale vegetation and ground formations.This is done by studies of three developments. The first development, Engeltofta backe, lies 7 km northeast of Gävle. The expectations of natural preservation were not fullfilled when this area, after the explotation, did not have any vegetation of value left. The second example, Östra Kvarnskogen in the community of Sollentuna, shows, as far as one can tell at the moment, a sucsessful combination of new development and preserved nature. The third example is a development in the community of Kullön. In this area the ambition of combining preservation and development was fullfilled. After studying vital documentation in each planning process, I made interviews with different actors in each of the three processes. I thereafter compared the different documents and answers from the interviewed persons to find out if there were any significant similarities or differences which could be of importence when natural values is to be preserved in new developments. My conclusion of this study is that it is of great importence to define key expressions often used in the process, such as natural values and preservation.