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 reduction of coarse, dead wood is considered to be the biggest threat to flora and faunain boreal forests. Extensive harvest of logging residues would increase this reduction evenmore. However, the role of dead wood created at final felling for boreal, epixylic species isstill largely unclear. It is therefore of interest to examine whether epixylic species inhabit thedead wood in young, boreal stands, especially species considered to be confined to forests inlate successional stages.The aim of this study was to investigate whether forest-interior species in fact can inhabitearly-successional forests arisen after logging. The study was conducted in young standsbordering dead wood rich Woodland key habitats.

Since 1993 the Swedish Forestry Administration conducts a nation-wide inventory of wood-land key habitats covering all forest land in Sweden. The inventory aims at mapping and describing habitats where redlisted species occur or can be expected to occur. According to the inventory stand history is crucial to the presence of red-listed species. However, the current knowledge of stand history in Woodland key habitats is very limited. The purpose of this work is to describe stand history in Woodland key habitats, i.e. fire history, human activities - mainly cuttings - and structural changes.

Uppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen i Kulturvård, Landskapsvårdens hantverk, 15 hp [2015].

The urbanization of the world is increasing. How it affects bird populations have been well studied during the last decade, and comparisons between urban and non-urban habitats have been carried out. A common method for measuring habitat quality is to calculate the population density. This method is easy to use, but have been criticized during the last couple of years. In this study, data of population densities was compared with data on reproduction success.

My work has resulted in an interactive search engine for plants that can be found at www.plantit.se. In the work process I have searched for which search criteria is most important when doing searches on woodland plants. I have done this by an analysis of existing databases and with an survey where leading plant expertise answered questions about woodland plants. I analyzed three search pages that are on the internet today Havenet.dk, Backyardgardener.com and Den virtuella floran. I concluded that there are several flaws but also many positive aspects that I have used when developing the interface of my page. The survey resulted in the basis for my search criteria the answers listed the most important factors when planting woodland plants. From this information I developed a system with five values on every criteria.

The thick-shelled river mussel (Unio crassus) is a red listed species classified as Endangered (EN) and is also considered within the Habitats Directive. The distribution in Sweden is fragmented and it is mostly occurring in the south eastern parts. We investigated the presence of Unio crassus in a section of the stream Storån, Östergötland County, from Falerum to the inflow into Lake Åkervristen. The environmental parameters investigated were water depth, bottom substrate, shading, water velocity and the slope over the water surface. In this thesis I have focused mainly on water depth and shading, comparing sites with and without mussels.

The urbanization of the world is increasing. How it affects bird populations have been well studied during the last decade, and comparisons between urban and non-urban habitats have been carried out. A common method for measuring habitat quality is to calculate the population density. This method is easy to use, but have been criticized during the last couple of years. In this study, data of population densities was compared with data on reproduction success.

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.

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.

The wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) has expanded across Europe and Sweden in the last decades. It is a generalist species which utilizes a variety of habitats, and its presence has been shown to have both positive and negative effects for people and the landscape they are in. The abundance and increase of wild boar has previously been shown to differ between counties in Sweden, but there have been few explanations as to why. In this study, I investigated correlations between the per capita rate of change (r) among wild boar populations in Sweden and a variety of different habitats on the county level. I also investigated if fragmentation per se or in certain habitats could be associated with the wild boar?s per capita rate of change. My results show that fragmentation/diversity per se was not correlated with wild boar r.

Habitat mapping was conducted in the main stem of River Vindelälven in the autumn of 2009 along the salmon distribution area. The aim was to estimate the quantity of potential reproduction areas, including spawning and juvenile rearing habitats. The mapping included 61 km of various stream sections along the river length of 269 km. The total area of stream habitats was estimated to 647 ha of which 396 ha (61%) were considered as either potential or optimal juvenile nursery habitats. The area of these two habitat classes were used to estimate the smolt production in the river by using electro fishing densities of juveniles (0+ per 100 m2).

Around the world, forests are generally being fragmented and as plant populations decline in both sizeand number of individuals, the genetic variation will also decrease whitch in the end leads to totalextinction of the plant. In this paper, I wanted to investigate what specific species of trees and shrubsyou usually find in the edge and core habitats in some of the forests in the Baltic Sea region. I alsowanted to identify the edge effects and their sources and finally compare the results between thedifferent regions.The data sources used are derived from the ongoining research project Landscape structures, patterns ofbiodiversity and conservation strategies in the Baltic Sea region by Kari Lehtilä, Patrik Dinnétz ochTiina Vinter who have made a record of all herbaceous plant species in four randomly chosen forestregions situated around the Baltic Sea: Estonia, Skåne, Södermanland and Germany. I made statisticalanalyses, using the computer program R, concerning the distribution of species in the edge habitats ofthe forests as well as in the core habitats. I performed generalized linear models and then variationanalyses with the factors light and biomass in order to investigate wether edge effects might appear dueto these factors.

Biodiversity is under threat in Sweden and many species are on the brink of extinction. This is mainly due to the large-scale drainage projects during the 19th and 20th century and the increasingly intensive land use in agriculture and forestry. The intensive land use with sharply defined boundaries between the production units has in many cases led to either overgrazing or overgrowing. As a result many species have been pushed back to "leftover" habitats like shooting ranges, power line corridors, roadsides, dumps, embankments and other similar areas. Therefore the question has been raised, wether or not it is needed to re-introduce large herbivores into the wild in order to maintain the biodiversity that is related to the extensive land use.This study has been conducted as a literature review and will focus on the European bison?s (Bison bonasus) impact on other species and biodiversity; conditions for reintroducing large herbivores in Sweden are also discussed.Free roaming populations of large herbivores have a positive impact on plants, insects and many other groups of organisms.

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.