Natural variability of forests as a reference for restoring and managing biological diversity in boreal Fennoscandia

By T. Kuuluvainen. 2002

397 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In Fennoscandia, use of the natural forest as a reference for restoration and management of forest biodiversity has been widely accepted. However, limited understanding of the structure and dynamics of the natural forest has hampered the applications of the natural variability approach. This is especially the case in areas, where the natural forests have almost totally vanished. This review was motivated by the idea that despite these diffi culties the essential features of the natural forest can be reconstructed based on biological archives, historical documents, research done in adjacent natural areas, and modeling. First, a conceptual framework for analyzing the relationship between forest structure, dynamics and biodiversity is presented. Second, the current understanding of the structure and dynamics of natural forests at different spatiotemporal scales in boreal Fennoscandia is reviewed. Third, the implications of this knowledge, and gaps in knowledge, on research and on practical restoration and management methods aimed at forest biodiversity conservation are discussed. In conclusion, naturally dynamic forest landscapes are complex, multiscaled hierarchical systems. Current forest management methods create disturbance and successional dynamics that are strongly scale-limited when compared with the natural forest. To restore some of the essential characteristics of the natural forest’s multiscale heterogeneity, diversifi cation of silvicultural and harvesting treatments, as guided by natural disturbance dynamics, is needed to produce more variation in disturbance severity, quality, extent, and repeatability.

Subfields: Ecology, Insect Science, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/96f463626b806b6a4ae103e925ec03420cbcbdd6

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. J. Pennanen
2. B. Jonsson
3. E. Hyvärinen
4. Riku Kalmari
5. J. Kouki
6. P. Martikainen
7. Yves Bergeron
8. J. Siitonen

In Insect Science

1. T. Kuuluvainen
2. J. Kouki
3. B. Jonsson
4. J. Siitonen
5. Maarit Similä
6. T. Aakala
7. P. Martikainen
8. Martin Schroeder

In Plant Science

1. J. Kouki
2. J. Siitonen
3. J. Pennanen
4. Martin Schroeder
5. T. Kuuluvainen
6. Riku Kalmari
7. Maarit Similä
8. B. Jonsson

Citations in the corpus

• Ips typographus population development after a severe storm in a nature reserve in southern Sweden (2011, background): “Accommodating natural disturbance dynamics and restoring their natural legacies are therefore key objectives in the management of many protected areas (Kuuluvainen 2002; Komonen and Kouki 2008).”
• Specialised woodpeckers and naturalness in hemiboreal forests - Deriving quantitative targets for conservation planning (2008, background): “…intensive management for sustained-yield wood production has resulted in decreased amounts of key components of forest ecosystems such as dead wood, large trees and multi-layered stands, as well as in the alteration of natural processes (Esseen et al., 1997; Hunter, 1999; Kuuluvainen, 2002).”
• Principles of ecological restoration of boreal forested ecosystems: Finland as an example (2002, methodology): “…of forest structure based on historical materials (Lähde et al. 1991, Östlund et al. 1997, Axelsson and Östlund 2000), 3) research done in ecologically similar but more natural forests (Kuuluvainen et al. 1998, Kuuluvainen 2002), and 4) modeling (Pennanen 2002, Pennanen and Kuuluvainen 2002).”
• Forest Naturalness in Northern Europe : Perspectives on Processes, Structures and Species Diversity (2011, background): “Throughout Europe, modern forest management has resulted in drastic changes in forest ecosystems (Esseen et al. 1997, Kuuluvainen 2002).”
• Forest age distribution under mixed-severity fire regimes : a simulation-based analysis for middle boreal Fennoscandia (2002, methodology): “FIN-LANDIS has been described in detail and tested elsewhere (Pennanen and Kuuluvainen 2002).”
• Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience (2006, background): “…potential of traditional management on forest diversity, ecologists and managers are increasingly emphasizing that biodiversity should be maintained to sustain desirable system states as environmental conditions change over time (Peterson et al. 1998; Kuuluvainen 2002; Bengtsson et al. 2003).”
• Natural forest dynamics in boreal Fennoscandia: a review and classification (2011, background): “Although some effort has already been made to synthesize information on natural forest dynamics in Fennoscandia (Kuuluvainen 1994, 2002b, Esseen et al. 1997, Engelmark 1999, Engelmark and Hytteborn 1999), no systematic review of the existing scientific literature has hitherto been carried out.”
• Landscape context affects the success of habitat restoration: large‐scale colonization patterns of saproxylic and fire‐associated species in boreal forests (2012, background): “Ecological changes include the loss of structural elements – such as old trees (Andersson & Östlund, 2004) and decaying wood (Siitonen, 2001) – but also the disappearance of the disturbances that are typical in natural forests (Kouki et al., 2001; Bergeron et al., 2002; Kuuluvainen, 2002).”
• Saproxylic beetle diversity in a managed boreal forest: importance of stand characteristics and forestry conservation measures (2007, background): “In this sense NF-clear cuts are more similar to clearings created by natural disturbances, such as insect and disease outbreaks, and windstorms, than traditional clear-cuts (Angelstam, 1997; Kuuluvainen, 2002).”