<p>This case study is based on a previous documented method of manufacturing artificial nest containing pre-colored hen eggs. This method is going to be used to find, if the wild boar population, which is growing in number, is a threat to the capercaillie population.  In comparison to the wild boar population, the capercaillie population is diminishing in different parts of Sweden.  In order to find out if they are affect by each other, the case study was carried out during the months of April to May 2009. 100 artificial nests were placed out on various locations on the Södertuna estate just in the outskirts of Gnesta. The unique aspect of this study is that a fenced environment to keep out wild animals is used to conduct this study, which has been previously known to be free from wild boar, but the area outside has sittings of wild boar. So to fully understand how this affects the capercaillie population, 50 of the nests were placed outside the fence area, while the other 50 nests were placed inside the fenced area. The sites were visited on two separate occasions, and were noted of the changes inside and outside the fenced compounds. The result of these visits show that many of the nests inside the fenced environment has been consume by birds. It was not possible to prove that nests have been predated by wild boar, even the wild boar populations could be found outside of the fenced area. The statistical analysis has been carried out to determine the perdition rate on the nests and which of the two main groups the culprits belonged to. The significant difference came to a P <0.05. The predations on the artificial nests inside the fence were greater than the nest placed outside the fence. The total came to a 20 %, i.e. 20 of the 100 nests which were predated on, in total. 32%, i.e. 16 of the nests were attacked that were placed inside the fence and 8 %, i.e. 4 were attacked inside the fence. To observe closer at the species that targeted the nests inside the fence were crows/eurasian jay 18 % (9), badgers/fox 14 % (7) and wild boar 0 %. Outside the fence, the results were divided into division on crows/eurasian jay 2 % (1), badgers/fox 6 % (3) and wild boar 0 %. This study shows the wild boar population does not the pose a threat to the swindling population of the capercaillies population. But this case study demonstrates that there are other species that create a threat to the simulated nests, which is of an utter most importance to research into this particular subject into the future on reproduced artificial nests to investigate the perdition rates of capercaillies.</p>

No description available.

<p>Abstract</p><p>This study takes up a local issue in the village of Lekhyttan, where Johan Molin is concerned about the freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) situation. He is a landowner and wonders what the situation is for the mussels and what he himself possibly can do, to hopefully improve their situation.</p><p>This paper looks at the different aspects on why the mussels are distributed as they are in the stream and trying to understand why new recruitment is poor in the Lekhyttan Stream.</p><p>Dividing the area into two zones, east (that has a population of mussels) and west (which has none), makes it easier to analyse which type of habitat they prefer. Why the mussels can be found in one zone and not in the other can be due to several different factors.</p><p>The factors investigated were: 1) bottom structure, 2) trout (Salmo trutta) - spawning area and mature trout habitat as the trout play an important role in the mussels lifecycle,</p><p>3) surrounding vegetation, 4) predation from signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) and 5) water quality checked with a pH and iron test – from the inflows of ditches and pipes.</p><p>There was a significant difference between the two zones in the bottom sediment structure: the west zone had a high percentage of stone, whilst the east zone consisted of finer materials and had far more suitable habitat areas for the trout (both in spawning as well as for larger trout). Tests from the inflowing water in the west zone had water with low and high pH levels, as well as high iron contents. These inflows need to be fixed with a pond and reed filtration bed, as well as a recommendation on cutting back the number of crayfish that can be a potential threat to juvenile mussels. Following these recommendations will hopefully improve the situation locally for the Lekhyttan freshwater pearl mussel and maybe even lead to new recruitment.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>GPS telemetry is a method with good accuracy to determine animal movements in the terrain. It is necessary to determine locations of free-ranging animals in order to understand movement patterns and habitat use, and to understand the consequences of human impacts like highways. This study aims to describe moose movement patterns and to evaluate the effect of highway traffic intensity on moose movements across a highway.</p><p>Moose in Southwestern Sweden have different movement rates throughout the year. Increased movement rate for females was observed during spring and summer. The breeding season (15 September -15 October) is the most important season for bulls. Our result shows that bulls significantly increase their movement rate during the rut, compared to other times during the fall. Movement rate increased twice compared with female movement rate during this period. No difference was observed during the rutting period for females (15 September- 15 October) compared with no rutting period during fall. During winter time, both sexes retain low movements, mainly caused by energy saving actions. A distinct crepuscular rhythm was exhibited during the summer and fall season, movements were more intense during dawn and dusk hours. No distinct crepuscular rhythm was noticed during winter and spring seasons.</p><p>The traffic intensity at highway E6 in Southwestern Sweden increases during the morning hours and reaches its maximum during midday. Moose in southwestern Sweden crossed highway E6 more often at night time than day time. Thus highway crossings by moose occurred at times of peak moose movements, and traffic volume had lower importance.</p>

<p>Idag sker det en ständig förändring av landskapet, vilket har lett till en minskning av ängs- och hagmarker. Trenden under 1950 talet bidrog till att många ängs- och hagmarker planterades igen med skog och ett homogent skogslandskap växte fram. Konsekvenserna av detta är att många dagfjärilsarter både i Sverige och Europa har minskat i utbredning och antal. I den här studien undersöktes förekomsten av dagfjärilar, speciellt rödlistade arter, i västra Värmland. Tjugosex lokaler valdes ut för att undersöka om förekomsten av rödlistade fjärilsarter begränsades av deras spridningsmöjligheter. Vissa av dessa lokaler är isolerade och förväntningarna var att antalet rödlistade arter skulle vara relaterade med graden av isolering. Antalet rödlistade arter och antalet totalt var lägst i isolerade områden, vilket tyder på att det kan finnas spridningshinder mellan lokalerna. Studien visade också att antalet fjärilsarter var positivt korrelerad med både områdets areal och diversitet med avseende på växter.</p> / <p>The large-scale changes of the 20th century have reduced a great number of species to small and fragmented residual population, often occurring in habitats that are no longer grazed or mowed. Without targeted efforts, these species will disappear from the landscape in the long run. This study examines the occurrence of butterflies, with special on red list species,in a forest landscape in western Värmland. Twenty-six localities were selected to investigate if the distribution was limited by their ability to disperse. Some localities were isolated and the prediction was that the number of red listed species should be related to the degree of isolation. The number of red listed butterfly species and the total number of species was smaller in isolated areas, indicating that the dispersal of butterflies is reduced. The study also showed that the number of species was positively correlated with the size of areas and with diversity of plants.</p>

<p>I mitt arbete har jag genom observationer och intervjuer undersökt om skolskogen och den vanliga skogen är bra komplement när det handlar om utomhuspedagik. De flesta av förskolorna i kommunen har en skolskog att tillgå och har man inte det växer skogen nästan inpå knutarna. De pedagoger som blivit intervjuade anser att det är viktigt att lära barnen tidigtvad man får och inte får göra i naturen och att skolskogen då är ett bättre alternativ. En skolskog skiljer sig från en vanlig skog genom att det finns färdiga vindskydd, eldstäder och hinderbanor. Genom avtal med markägaren har förskolan eller skolan fått tillstånd att tänja lite på allemansrättens gränser Dessutom är det bra för både barn och pedagoger att spendera mycket tid ute i naturen därför att den friska luften gör att det blir färre sjukdomar. I läroplanen står det att förskolan skall lägga stor vikt på natur och miljö, samt att vi ska värna om barnens hälsa. Den litteratur jag använt mig av i arbetet handlar om hur viktigt det är att arbeta med utomhuspedagogik i förskolan och att skolskogen och skogen är mycket bra att vistas i. Litteraturen tar även upp hur viktigt det är att pedagogen har bra kunskap om naturen för att vistelsen ska bli så bra och lärorik som möjligt för barnen.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>This work is about children’s motor activity. You can often hear in media about sedentary children, and that one of the factors which contributed to this is computers and things like that. The main goal with this work is to find out how preschool teachers take care of children’s joy of movement and how they work to promote children’s progress of motor activity. To get answers to my questions I have used qualitative interviews. I’ve been interviewing four preschool teachers from two different preschools to find out how they work with motor activity. The result of the interviews shows that the teachers had god knowledge about the subject and the answers become pretty similar for all of them. They all considered that children’s motor activity make sense for their development and that it is important to find stimulating environments, for example out in the open an in the forest. They also pointed out that it is important to give children time to play on their own.</p><p>Keyword: free playing, preschool, motor activity, out in the open</p>

<p>This paper presents why and how teachers use newspaper articles in the classroom when they educate their pupils in chemistry, biology and nature science. All the teachers have worked over 20 years and are, when interviewed, at a Swedish gymnasium in Dalarna. I also have, in a small study, interviewed some of their pupils to get their view about teachers using news paper articles during lessons.</p><p>The teacher’s use of newspaper articles in the classroom can be divided in different ways. They can use the articles to illustrate up to date links to everyday life. Some teachers’ uses articles by letting the pupils read the articles and answer questions about them. Or the newspaper articles can function as background material when the pupils do a project work covering a number of lessons. The major part of the teachers thinks that the main reason why they use articles from newspapers is to get up to date information concerning the course that are covered.</p><p>The results show that the teachers in Dalarna use their newspaper articles in the same way as shown in international studies. For example they used the newspaper articles to start a lesson or a new topic. Or they used the article to have an example on the subject they teach. But a number of differences can also be observed between this study and other international ones, for example the main reason why the articles are presented to the pupils and how the articles are used over time.</p>

<p>By conducting qualitative interviews five pedagogues and eight children in the ages three to five have answered questions regarding environmental work in preschool.</p><p>The purpose of this report was to examine how environmental work is pursued at two preschools and what children at these preschools think about environmental work. Recycling of garbage and small cultivation projects together with the children is what the pedagogues consider being the most common environmental work at their particular preschools. In the professional role of the pedagogue if can be clearly seen what special interests he or she has.</p><p>Most of the children associate the forest with some kind of snack and animals. Half of the interviewed children also think about animals when they visit the forest. Half of the interviewed children also have an understanding of where peels from fruits should be tossed, but no one knows the meaning of the word environment. The children mainly think about actual occurrences, which is only natural in their development.</p><p>Keywords: preschool, environmental work, pedagogues, actual occurrences</p>

<p>Global warming is one of the most debated environmental issues right now, and it could be argued that it is important to study how the phenomenon is treated in schools. The main purpose of this study is to put students’ knowledge about global warming in relation with the control documents for chemistry, biology and physics studies. Interviews have been conducted with six students in the 9th grade. The conclusion of the survey indicates that the students generally have a satisfying knowledge about the phenomenon and that they know how they should behave from an environmental perspective.</p>