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Filyushkina A, Widenfalk LA, Nordström EM, Laudon H, Ranius T. Expert assessment of landscape-level conservation strategies in boreal forests for biodiversity, recreation and water quality. J Nat Conserv 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Abstract
Primary forests, defined here as forests where the signs of human impacts, if any, are strongly blurred due to decades without forest management, are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear. Despite these losses, we know little about where these forests occur. Here, we present a comprehensive geodatabase and map of Europe's known primary forests. Our geodatabase harmonizes 48 different, mostly field-based datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. When available, we provide information on each patch (name, location, naturalness, extent and dominant tree species) and the surrounding landscape (biogeographical regions, protection status, potential natural vegetation, current forest extent). Using Landsat satellite-image time series (1985-2018) we checked each patch for possible disturbance events since primary forests were identified, resulting in 94% of patches free of significant disturbances in the last 30 years. Although knowledge gaps remain, ours is the most comprehensive dataset on primary forests in Europe, and will be useful for ecological studies, and conservation planning to safeguard these unique forests.
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Hill R, Llewellyn T, Downes E, Oddy J, MacIntosh C, Kallow S, Panis B, Dickie JB, Gaya E. Seed Banks as Incidental Fungi Banks: Fungal Endophyte Diversity in Stored Seeds of Banana Wild Relatives. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:643731. [PMID: 33841366 PMCID: PMC8024981 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.643731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Seed banks were first established to conserve crop genetic diversity, but seed banking has more recently been extended to wild plants, particularly crop wild relatives (CWRs) (e.g., by the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB), Royal Botanic Gardens Kew). CWRs have been recognised as potential reservoirs of beneficial traits for our domesticated crops, and with mounting evidence of the importance of the microbiome to organismal health, it follows that the microbial communities of wild relatives could also be a valuable resource for crop resilience to environmental and pathogenic threats. Endophytic fungi reside asymptomatically inside all plant tissues and have been found to confer advantages to their plant host. Preserving the natural microbial diversity of plants could therefore represent an important secondary conservation role of seed banks. At the same time, species that are reported as endophytes may also be latent pathogens. We explored the potential of the MSB as an incidental fungal endophyte bank by assessing diversity of fungi inside stored seeds. Using banana CWRs in the genus Musa as a case-study, we sequenced an extended ITS-LSU fragment in order to delimit operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and used a similarity and phylogenetics approach for classification. Fungi were successfully detected inside just under one third of the seeds, with a few genera accounting for most of the OTUs-primarily Lasiodiplodia, Fusarium, and Aspergillus-while a large variety of rare OTUs from across the Ascomycota were isolated only once. Fusarium species were notably abundant-of significance in light of Fusarium wilt, a disease threatening global banana crops-and so were targeted for additional sequencing with the marker EF1α in order to delimit species and place them in a phylogeny of the genus. Endophyte community composition, diversity and abundance was significantly different across habitats, and we explored the relationship between community differences and seed germination/viability. Our results show that there is a previously neglected invisible fungal dimension to seed banking that could well have implications for the seed collection and storage procedures, and that collections such as the MSB are indeed a novel source of potentially useful fungal strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rowena Hill
- Department of Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Theo Llewellyn
- Department of Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
- Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Elizabeth Downes
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, London, United Kingdom
| | - Joseph Oddy
- Department of Plant Science, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, United Kingdom
| | - Catriona MacIntosh
- Department of Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
- School of Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Kallow
- Collections Department, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Millennium Seed Bank, Ardingly, United Kingdom
- Division of Crop Biotechnics, Department of Biosystems, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Bart Panis
- Bioversity International, Montpellier, France
| | - John B. Dickie
- Collections Department, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Millennium Seed Bank, Ardingly, United Kingdom
| | - Ester Gaya
- Department of Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
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Svensson J, Andersson J, Sandström P, Mikusiński G, Jonsson BG. Landscape trajectory of natural boreal forest loss as an impediment to green infrastructure. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2019; 33:152-163. [PMID: 29882221 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2017] [Revised: 04/03/2018] [Accepted: 05/25/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Loss of natural forests by forest clearcutting has been identified as a critical conservation challenge worldwide. This study addressed forest fragmentation and loss in the context of the establishment of a functional green infrastructure as a spatiotemporally connected landscape-scale network of habitats enhancing biodiversity, favorable conservation status, and ecosystem services. Through retrospective analysis of satellite images, we assessed a 50- to 60-year spatiotemporal clearcutting impact trajectory on natural and near-natural boreal forests across a sizable and representative region from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Scandinavian Mountain Range in northern Fennoscandia. This period broadly covers the whole forest clearcutting period; thus, our approach and results can be applied to comprehensive impact assessment of industrial forest management. The entire study region covers close to 46,000 km2 of forest-dominated landscape in a late phase of transition from a natural or near-natural to a land-use modified state. We found a substantial loss of intact forest, in particular of large, contiguous areas, a spatial polarization of remaining forest on regional scale where the inland has been more severely affected than the mountain and coastal zones, and a pronounced impact on interior forest core areas. Salient results were a decrease in area of the largest intact forest patch from 225,853 to 68,714 ha in the mountain zone and from 257,715 to 38,668 ha in the foothills zone, a decrease from 75% to 38% intact forest in the inland zones, a decrease in largest patch core area (assessed by considering 100-m patch edge disturbance) from 6114 to 351 ha in the coastal zone, and a geographic imbalance in protected forest with an evident predominance in the mountain zone. These results demonstrate profound disturbance of configuration of the natural forest landscape and disrupted connectivity, which challenges the establishment of functional green infrastructure. Our approach supports the identification of forests for expanded protection and conservation-oriented forest landscape restoration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johan Svensson
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden
| | - Jon Andersson
- Sweco Environment AB, Umestan Företagspark Hus 12, Box 110, 901 03 Umeå, Sweden
| | - Per Sandström
- Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden
| | - Grzegorz Mikusiński
- Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 730 91 Riddarhyttan, Sweden
- School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 43, 739 21 Skinnskatteberg, Sweden
| | - Bengt Gunnar Jonsson
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden
- Department of Natural Sciences, Mid Sweden University, 851 70 Sundsvall, Sweden
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Mair L, Jönsson M, Räty M, Bärring L, Strandberg G, Lämås T, Snäll T. Land use changes could modify future negative effects of climate change on old-growth forest indicator species. DIVERS DISTRIB 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12771] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Louise Mair
- Swedish Species Information Centre; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Uppsala Sweden
| | - Mari Jönsson
- Swedish Species Information Centre; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Uppsala Sweden
| | - Minna Räty
- Swedish Species Information Centre; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Uppsala Sweden
| | - Lars Bärring
- Rossby Centre; Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI); Norrköping Sweden
| | - Gustav Strandberg
- Rossby Centre; Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI); Norrköping Sweden
| | - Tomas Lämås
- Department of Forest Resource Management; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Umeå Sweden
| | - Tord Snäll
- Swedish Species Information Centre; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Uppsala Sweden
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Potential niche expansion of the American mink invading a remote island free of native-predatory mammals. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0194745. [PMID: 29617392 PMCID: PMC5884534 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2017] [Accepted: 03/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The success of an invasive species depends in part on its niche and the new niche opportunities that such species may find in the invaded habitat. Niche opportunities can be understood as the potential provided by a community to an invasive species to expand its niche by changes in habitat use, behavior, or diet, that favors population growth, reflected in the species occupying more habitat. This may occur under a favorable combination of access to resources that can be further favored by a lack of competitors and a release from natural enemies. The American mink (Neovison vison) is a crepuscular/nocturnal and semi-aquatic mustelid native to North America that generally concentrates activities at <100 m from the water. It has recently established an invasive population on Navarino Island in southern Chile. Here, the mink is now the top terrestrial predator free of predators or competitors. We hypothesized that this lack of potential predators and competitors, together with a more diurnal and terrestrial prey, have resulted in the mink expanding its spatial and temporal niche on Navarino Island as compared to that in its native habitats, expressed in occupancy of sites away from water and diurnal activity. We evaluated this by using 93 randomly-chosen camera-trap stations, occupancy models and mink daily activity patterns. Models showed a dynamic occupancy with the area occupied by mink being highest during summers and lowest in spring with seasonal changes in occupancy related to distance to water sources. Mink occupied and were active at sites up to 880 m from water sources during summers. Occupancy decreased at shorter distances from water during spring, but mink were still active at up to 300 m from water. Mink were active daylong during summers, and nocturnal and crepuscular during winter and spring. These results show that compared to the native and other invaded habitats, on Navarino Island mink use more terrestrial habitats and are more diurnal during summers, suggesting a niche expansion under new niche opportunities that may enhance the negative impacts of this predator on a myriad of small native vertebrates.
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Mair L, Harrison PJ, Räty M, Bärring L, Strandberg G, Snäll T. Forest management could counteract distribution retractions forced by climate change. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2017; 27:1485-1497. [PMID: 28370800 DOI: 10.1002/eap.1541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2017] [Accepted: 02/24/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Climate change is expected to drive the distribution retraction of northern species. However, particularly in regions with a history of intensive exploitation, changes in habitat management could facilitate distribution expansions counter to expectations under climate change. Here, we test the potential for future forest management to facilitate the southward expansion of an old-forest species from the boreal region into the boreo-nemoral region, contrary to expectations under climate change. We used an ensemble of species distribution models based on citizen science data to project the response of Phellinus ferrugineofuscus, a red-listed old-growth indicator, wood-decaying fungus, to six forest management and climate change scenarios. We projected change in habitat suitability across the boreal and boreo-nemoral regions of Sweden for the period 2020-2100. Scenarios varied in the proportion of forest set aside from production, the level of timber extraction, and the magnitude of climate change. Habitat suitabilities for the study species were projected to show larger relative increases over time in the boreo-nemoral region compared to the boreal region, under all scenarios. By 2100, mean suitabilities in set-aside forest in the boreo-nemoral region were similar to the suitabilities projected for set-aside forest in the boreal region in 2020, suggesting that occurrence in the boreo-nemoral region could be increased. However, across all scenarios, consistently higher projected suitabilities in set-aside forest in the boreal region indicated that the boreal region remained the species stronghold. Furthermore, negative effects of climate change were evident in the boreal region, and projections suggested that climatic changes may eventually counteract the positive effects of forest management in the boreo-nemoral region. Our results suggest that the current rarity of this old-growth indicator species in the boreo-nemoral region may be due to the history of intensive forestry. Forest management therefore has the potential to compensate for the negative effects of climate change. However, increased occurrence at the southern range edge would depend on the dispersal and colonization ability of the species. An increase in the amount of set-aside forest across both the boreal and boreo-nemoral regions is therefore likely to be required to prevent the decline of old-forest species under climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louise Mair
- Swedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7007, SE-75007, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Philip J Harrison
- Swedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7007, SE-75007, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Minna Räty
- Swedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7007, SE-75007, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Lars Bärring
- Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), SE-60176, Norrköping, Sweden
| | - Gustav Strandberg
- Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), SE-60176, Norrköping, Sweden
| | - Tord Snäll
- Swedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7007, SE-75007, Uppsala, Sweden
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Ruete A, Snäll T, Jonsson BG, Jönsson M. Contrasting long-term effects of transient anthropogenic edges and forest fragment size on generalist and specialist deadwood-dwelling fungi. J Appl Ecol 2016. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Ruete
- Ecology Department; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); SE-750 07 Uppsala Sweden
| | - Tord Snäll
- Swedish Species Information Centre; SLU; SE-750 07 Uppsala Sweden
| | - Bengt Gunnar Jonsson
- Department of Natural Sciences; Mid Sweden University; Sundsvall SE-851 70 Sweden
| | - Mari Jönsson
- Swedish Species Information Centre; SLU; SE-750 07 Uppsala Sweden
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