Do conservation measures in forest work? A comparison of three area-based conservation tools for wood-living species in boreal forests
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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3057597Utgivelsesdato
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Sammendrag
Loss of natural forests and decline in forest biodiversity has led to several policy initiatives in recent
years. Despite this, the importance of smaller set-asides vs forest reserves for conservation measures is
poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the importance of three different area-based conservation mea-
sures commonly used in north-European forests; retention patches, woodland key habitats and forest
nature reserves. We did this for two contrasting ecological systems; fungi in late-decay spruce logs and
beetles in early-decay aspen snags.
Eight replicated sites for each of the three conservation measures were investigated in a total of four
boreal forest landscapes in south-Norway. Fungi were surveyed on existent late-decay spruce logs in
two landscapes, and beetles trapped on experimentally added aspen dead-wood units in three land-
scapes. Richness and species composition were analyzed separately for specialist and generalist species.
We found larger differences in species composition between conservation measures for old-growth
fungi specialists than generalists, although species richness patterns were less clear. The main contrast
was found between nature reserves and retention patches. On the other hand, specialist beetles associ-
ated with early-decay aspen showed no difference between set-asides. The assemblage of aspen gener-
alist beetles tended to be richest in the woodland key habitats and showed clear differences between
the conservation measures. There was considerable variation in response to conservation measures
between landscapes, related to quality of the set-asides.
Species specialized to an ephemeral, early-decay system were able to utilize such substrates in all of
the conservation measures, while the smaller and more modified set-asides could not cater for the spe-
cialists dependent on stable, late-decay systems. Species with broader habitat demands in general
responded to all conservation measures. We conclude that retention patches, woodland key habitats
and forest reserves fill complementary functions for wood-living species in boreal forest and should all
be part of future forest conservation strategies