On the decline of ground lichen forests in the Swedish boreal landscape: Implications for reindeer husbandry and sustainable forest management |
| |
Authors: | Per Sandström Neil Cory Johan Svensson Henrik Hedenås Leif Jougda Nanna Borchert |
| |
Institution: | .Department of Forest Resource Management, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden ;.Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden ;.Swedish Forest Agency, Volgsjövägen 27, 912 34 Vilhelmina, Sweden ;.The Sami Parliament, Box 582, 831 27 Östersund, Sweden |
| |
Abstract: | Lichens are a bottleneck resource for circumpolar populations of reindeer, and as such, for reindeer husbandry as an indigenous Sami land-use tradition in northern Sweden. This study uses ground lichen data and forest information collected within the Swedish National Forest Inventory since 1953, on the scale of northern Sweden. We found a 71 % decline in the area of lichen-abundant forests over the last 60 years. A decline was observed in all regions and age classes and especially coincided with a decrease of >60 year old, open pine forests, which was the primary explanatory factor in our model. The effects of reindeer numbers were inconclusive in explaining the decrease in lichen-abundant forest. The role that forestry has played in causing this decline can be debated, but forestry can have a significant role in reversing the trend and improving ground lichen conditions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0759-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
| |
Keywords: | Large-ungulate grazing Long-term monitoring Reindeer lichen Traditional land-use Swedish National Forest Inventory |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|