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Abstract

Dead wood is a key resource for biodiversity, on which thousands of forest organisms are dependent. Because of current forest management, there has been a large-scale change in dead wood amounts and qualities, and consequently, many wood-dependent species are threatened. The general aim of this thesis is to increase our understanding of habitat requirements and occurrence patterns of wood-dependent lichens in managed, boreal forest landscapes. We surveyed dead wood and wood-dependent lichens in three study landscapes of managed boreal forest in southern Sweden. The observed occurrence patterns of dead wood in the studied landscapes are to a large extent attributable to management practices, with clear-felling as the main driver of dead wood input. Harvesting forest biomass for bio-fuel production will cause wood-dependent lichens species to decline. Coarse woody debris is important for wood-dependent lichens, but stumps, snags and logs host different species assemblages. Snags are rare in managed forest landscapes and increasing the landscape-scale amount of them would benefit wood-dependent lichens. The previously neglected dead wood type of dead branches on living trees make up a large portion of all dead wood available to wood-dependent species in managed boreal forests. Fine woody debris, including both branches on the ground and dead branches attached to living trees, was, however, found to have a low relative importance for wood-dependent lichens. We modeled species abundance in relation to characteristics of dead wood objects and forest stands, and estimated the landscape-scale abundance of wood-dependent lichens. Young managed forests

Keywords

biodiversity; bio-fuel harvest; coarse woody debris; fine woody debris; habitat requirements; lignicolous; mycobiont; photobiont; saproxylic

Published in

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2013, number: 2013:84
Publisher: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science
Ecology

Publication identifier

  • ISBN: 978-91-576-7906-2
  • eISBN: 978-91-576-7906-9

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/51860