Uneven regional distribution of protected areas in Finland: Consequences for boreal forest bird populations

Virkkala, Raimo; Rajasärkkä, Ari

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2006.08.006

Cited by 52 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Only a small proportion of the forest area (5% at most) is protected in these countries, with set-asides often located in low productive sites in the northern and middle boreal zones (Fridman, 2000;Virkkala & Rajasärkkä, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree retention as a conservation measure in clear-cut forests of northern Europe: a review of ecological consequences

Gustafsson

Kouki

Sverdrup‐Thygeson

2010

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research

206

123

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Since the mid-1990s, it has been common practice to leave trees for biodiversity purposes when clear-cutting in Finland, Norway and Sweden, and regulations for such tree retention are today included in national legislation and certification standards. Peer-reviewed research publications on tree retention from studies performed in the three countries were analyzed and about 50 relevant biodiversity studies were found, with the first published in 1994. Most studies were directed towards beetles and dead wood, especially high stumps. General conclusions were that retention trees (1) provide some of the substrate types required by early-successional species, (2) alleviate the most serious consequences of clear-cutting on biota, and (3) cannot maintain characteristics of intact mature forests. Larger volumes and more trees tend to maintain diversity better. There is a particular lack of studies on dispersal, landscape effects and long-term dynamics. There is a need to study further the relationship between the biota and the amount of trees, as well as their spatial arrangement. Retention trees should preferably be evaluated in relation to other components in multiscaled conservation, including woodland key habitats and larger protected areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree retention as a conservation measure in clear-cut forests of northern Europe: a review of ecological consequences

Gustafsson

Kouki

Sverdrup‐Thygeson

2010

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research

206

123

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“…However, population densities of northern species preferring old-growth forests remained the same, so the patterns are not always unambiguous: different species and species groups are affected in a different manner by several factors, including climate change and land use. For northern species preferring oldgrowth forests, the large northern protected area network -over 40% of forests are protected in northernmost Finland (Virkkala et al 2000, Virkkala andRajasärkkä 2007) -may have mitigated the negative effects of climate warming. This might be because climate factors may affect old-growth forests more slowly than they do mires or Arctic mountain heaths.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). Most of the protected land is in northern Finland (Virkkala et al 2000, Virkkala andRajasärkkä 2007). Forests cover 56% of the land in the reserves studied, with the rest being open mires and mountain areas.…”

Section: Protected Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Land birds in protected areas were counted by means of the Finnish line transect census method (Järvinen and Väisänen 1976), which is suitable for counting birds over large areas (Väisänen et al 1998, Virkkala andRajasärkkä 2007). The line transect method applies a one-visit census in which birds are counted during breeding season along a transect with an average length of 5-6 km.…”

Section: Bird Censusesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In spite of the protection programs and many other protected areas (e.g., national parks, wilderness areas, and strict nature reserves) the proportion of protected areas is fairly low in the southern part of Finland, where land use intensity is the highest. In contrast, the protected area network is much larger and more representative in the northern part of Finland (Virkkala et al 2000, Virkkala andRajasärkkä 2007). About 80% of the protected land is in northern Finland, in the northern boreal zone (Virkkala et al 2000).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Preserving species populations in the boreal zone in a changing climate: contrasting trends of bird species groups in a protected area network

Virkkala¹,

Rajasärkkä²

2012

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Citation: Virkkala R, Rajasärkkä A (2012) Preserving species populations in the boreal zone in a changing climate: contrasting trends of bird species groups in a protected area network. Nature Conservation 3: 1-20. doi: 10.3897/ natureconservation.3.3635Abstract A protected area network should ensure the maintenance of biodiversity. Because of climate change, species ranges are expected to move polewards, causing further demand for the protected area network to be efficient in preserving biota. We compared population changes of different bird species groups according to their habitat preferences in boreal protected areas in Finland on the basis of large-scale censuses carried out in 1981-1999 and in 2000-2009. Population densities of common forest habitat generalists remained the same between the two periods, while densities of species of conservation concern showed contrasting trends: species preferring old-growth forests increased, but those living on mires and wetlands, and species of Arctic mountains decreased. These trends are most probably connected with climate change, but successional changes in protected areas and regional habitat alteration should also be taken into account. Of species preferring old-growth forests, a larger proportion are southern than among species of mires and wetlands, or of Arctic mountains, most or all of which, respectively, had a northerly distribution. In general, northern species have decreased and southern increased with the exception of northern species of old-growth forests which had not declined. On the other hand, bird species of mires and wetlands decreased also in the northernmost protected areas although mires had not been drained in the region in contrast with southern and central Finland thus indicating that regional-scale direct habitat loss did not cause the decline of these species in the north. It is suggested that climate change effects on species in natural boreal and Arctic habitats most probably are habitat-specific with large differences in response times and susceptibility.

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Developing fine‐grained nationwide predictions of valuable forests using biodiversity indicator bird species

Virkkala

Leikola

Kujala

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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The use of indicator species in forest conservation and management planning can facilitate enhanced preservation of biodiversity from the negative effects of forestry and other uses of land. However, this requires detailed and spatially comprehensive knowledge of the habitat preferences and distributions of selected focal indicator species. Unfortunately, due to limited resources for field surveys, only a small proportion of the occurrences of focal species is usually known. This shortcoming can be circumvented by using modeling techniques to predict the spatial distribution of suitable sites for the target species. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) and other remote sensing (RS) techniques have the potential to provide useful environmental data covering systematically large areas for these purposes. Here, we focused on six bird of prey and woodpecker species known to be good indicators of boreal forest biodiversity values. We used known nest sites of the six indicator species based on nestling ringing records. Thus, the most suitable nesting sites of these species provide important information for biodiversity‐friendly forest management and conservation planning. We developed fine‐grained, that is, 96 × 96 m grid cell resolution, predictive maps across the whole of Finland of the suitable nesting habitats based on ALS and other RS data and spatial information on the distribution of important forest stands for the six studied biodiversity indicator bird species based on nesting‐habitat suitability modeling, that is, the MaxEnt model. Habitat preferences of the study species, as determined by MaxEnt, were in line with the previous knowledge of species‐habitat relations. The proportion of suitable habitats of these species in protected areas (PAs) was considerable, but our analysis also revealed many potentially high‐quality forest stands outside PAs. However, many of these sites are increasingly threatened by logging because of increased pressures for using forests for bioeconomy and forest industry based on National Forest Strategy. Predicting habitat suitability based on information on the nest sites of indicator species provides a new tool for systematic conservation planning over large areas in boreal forests in Europe, and a corresponding approach would also be feasible and recommendable elsewhere where similar data are available.

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Uneven regional distribution of protected areas in Finland: Consequences for boreal forest bird populations

Cited by 52 publications

References 35 publications

Tree retention as a conservation measure in clear-cut forests of northern Europe: a review of ecological consequences

Tree retention as a conservation measure in clear-cut forests of northern Europe: a review of ecological consequences

Preserving species populations in the boreal zone in a changing climate: contrasting trends of bird species groups in a protected area network

Developing fine‐grained nationwide predictions of valuable forests using biodiversity indicator bird species

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