Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

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Sun-exposed broad leaved deciduous trees have a great species diversity of epiphytic lichens. In Europe, these trees have decreased dramatically in number as wooded pastures have become overgrown with trees and bushes, and broad leaved deciduous stands have been replaced by planted coniferous trees. These are the main reasons for many lichens depending on deciduous trees being red-listed. Epiphytic lichens in overgrown areas could benefit from conservation thinning, but few studies have been performed on how this type of cutting affects the lichens. In a previous study, the presence of red-listed epiphytic lichens in a broad leaved deciduous forest was examined. After the study, thinning of trees and bushes was made. Here we study the effects of this thinning on Lobaria pulmonaria. We tested possible factors that may affect the growth of L. pulmonaria, and if there were any differences in incidence and vitality of the lichen between managed and unmanaged stands. Since Dutch elm disease and ash dieback are well spread in the area, we wanted to see if they also affected the growth of L. pulmonaria. There were no differences in incidence and growth between managed and unmanaged stands. The results were unexpected since other studies show that, for instance, increased sun exposure often has a great effect on the growth of lichens. Many elms and ashes were dead or dying and had a significant negative effect on the change of number of lobes and the lobe surface. The diseases of the trees can thus be assumed to be the greatest cause of why the lichens in the managed stand did not benefit from thinning.

No / Characterising the future risk to biodiversity across multiple environmental drivers is fraught with uncertainty and is a major conservation challenge. Scenario planning - to identify robust decisions across a range of plausible futures - can aid biodiversity conservation when tactical decisions need to be made in the present-day, yet consequences are realised over many decades. Management responses to the impact of tree disease are an excellent candidate for scenario planning, because actions to reduce an imminent biodiversity threat need to be effective in the long-term by accounting for concomitant factors such as a changing climate. Lichen epiphytes were used to exemplify a guild sensitive to woodland change, such as a tree disease impact. Bioclimatic models for 382 British epiphytes were combined with species-specific tree association values, to explore scenarios of tree disease (ash dieback), climate change, and range-filling under a lower SO2 pollution regime, for northern Britain focussed on Scotland. Results indicated: 1. Exposure of lichen diversity to projected climate change is spatially structured and expected to be greater in continental northeast Scotland, compared to oceanic western Scotland. 2. Impact of tree disease showed analogous geographic trends, evidencing a critical interaction between the climatic and local ecological setting. On average, the loss of ash could have an effect on epiphyte assemblages comparable in magnitude to that of climate change under a 2080s high emissions scenario. 3. In general, tree disease impacts can be mitigated by increasing the diversity of substitute tree species within a stand, to generate complementarity among epiphyte communities. However, the effectiveness of alternate management scenarios varied locally between sites and temporally with the progression of climate change. Given this variability, scenario analysis is recommended to effectively manage for resilience, by scoping how local factors (e.g. managed woodland composition) can reduce epiphyte assemblage turnover beyond that uniquely associated with larger-scale environmental impacts. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nitrogen availability and transformation in acidified and N saturated soils of Czech (The Bohemian Forest, Ore Mountains) and Ukraine (Pop Ivan massif) mountain forest ecosystems were investigated. The study was primarily focused on the role of microbial immobilization in soil N retention. The study was based on field measurements (ion exchange resins), analyses of selected soil biochemical and microbial characteristics, and on laboratory experiments (15N labelling).