Title: Landskapsekologisk undersökning av ädellövskogen i östra Vätterbranterna
Abstract:The “Eastern slopes of Lake Vattern” is an area situated in the municipality of Jonkoping in southern Sweden. The area has a high level of biodiversity of which much is bound to mixed broad-leaved dec...The “Eastern slopes of Lake Vattern” is an area situated in the municipality of Jonkoping in southern Sweden. The area has a high level of biodiversity of which much is bound to mixed broad-leaved deciduous trees and forests and contains species that are unique for this area in Sweden. The area is a candidate to become a biosphere reserve under the Unesco Man and Biosphere program. One ambition in the biosphere candidate area is to develop methods for nature conservation using a landscape perspective. The aim of this landscape ecological study is to provide a background on which decisions on nature conservation strategies can be made for the potential biosphere area. Analyses have been made using GIS and landscape indices. Patches with broad-leaved deciduous forest or presence of broad-leaved deciduous trees were categorized based on data from inventories and remote sensing. Analyses showed that mixed broad-leaved deciduous forest is a rare forest type in the biosphere candidate area. Connectivity indices showed that the forest patches has a high level of fragmentation. Calculations from Euclidian nearest neighbor index showed a distance that is very problematic for many species to disperse over (more than 1.5 kilometers) for the inventoried forest-patches, a When including areas with presence of broad-leaved deciduous trees and data from remote sensing the distances were shorter (ranging from 200 to 300 meters). The distance of 200 meter is one that even insect species with very low dispersal capacity has a chance to successfully disperse over. The distance of 200 meters was hence chosen as radius for connectivity index calculations. The results showed low percentages (around 0.30 to 0.70 %) for all categories calculated. The fractal dimension calculations indicated relatively simple shapes of the patches and were very similar for all categories calculated (forest and presence of trees). This implies that edge effect is generally not very notable in the patches.
The conclusions of this study are that mixed broad-leaved deciduous forest is a rare forest type that is fragmented in the study area which can make some rare species with low dispersal capacities vulnerable. More knowledge on the rare species, their dispersal abilities and population structure is however necessary for this study to be useful for the practical nature conservation in the Eastern slopes of Vattern biosphere candidate area.Read More
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 11
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