Mikusinski, Grzegorz
- School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Harvesting naturally dynamic forests causes losses of habitat quality and functional connectivity. Focusing on Sweden as a case study of high-yield rotation forestry, we provide analyses supporting spatial prioritisation of protection, management and restoration of representative functional forest habitat networks. Habitat suitability index modelling of focal bird species was used to analyse how forest naturalness, habitat patch size and functional connectivity affect representative forest habitat networks in Sweden's five ecoregions. Habitat modelling for the least demanding bird species showed that of the mountain ecoregion 57-77% was functional, but in the other three boreal ecoregions only 8-9% were functional. For nemoral forests, the proportions of functional habitat networks were < 3%. More demanding species have even less functional habitat. We highlight the importance of the mountain ecoregion for forest biodiversity conservation, and the urgent need for landscape planning of protection, conservation management and nature restoration in Sweden.
Keywords
Focal species; Green infrastructure; Habitat loss thresholds; High conservation value forests; Nature restoration; Spatial planning
Published in
AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2026
Publisher: SPRINGER
SLU Authors
Svensson, Johan
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Dawson, Lucas
- School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Environmental Sciences
Forest Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-026-02353-7
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/146477