Grasslands of Northern Europe and the Baltic States

This chapter deals with the grasslands of Northern Europe (Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), with a focus on natural and semi-natural grasslands of the lowlands, thus treating arctic-alpine and strongly intensified types only marginally. At present, grasslands cover ca. 7% of the study region, half of which are natural grasslands (mostly arctic-alpine, to a smaller extent also azonal and extra-zonal) and the other half secondary grasslands created by human land use (livestock grazing or haymaking). Both grassland categories have high importance for biodiversity in many taxa. However, particularly the secondary grasslands are profoundly negatively affected by area loss (conversion to other land uses) and quality loss (mainly due to intensification and to abandonment). Conservation measures typically try to mimic traditional low-intensity land uses that are agronomically not profitable anymore.Peer reviewe

Veg og natur : [Håndbok 177]

Statens vegvesen har i sine Strategiske mål (1992) understreket betydningen av å ta hensyn til viktige naturområder og kulturhistoriske verdier og vegens omgivelser. Stortingsmeldingen nr. 46 (1988-89) om "Miljø og utvikling" slår fast at miljøvernhensyn skal integreres i planleggingen og virksomheten i alle sektorer og på alle nivåer. Vegdirektoratet og Direktoratet for naturforvaltning har med bakgrunn i dette utarbeidet en "aktsomhetshåndbok" for å øke den generelle kunnskap om naturverdier og naturområder samt naturvennlige løsninger i vegplanleggingen. Naturområder med særlig stor verdi for natur- og kulturmiljø, landskap og friluftsliv beskrives spesielt: - store sammenhengende naturområder, - strandsoner, - by- og tettstedsnære friluftslivsområder, - grønnstrukturen. Håndboken skal bidra til at vegplanleggere og saksbehandlere i miljøforvaltningen bedre skal kunne ta hensyn til naturverdier og naturområder i vegplanleggingen, og søke annen kunnskap til rett tid i prosessen

Interactions between pH and nutrients on benthic algae in streams and consequences for ecological status assessment and species richness patterns

Eutrophication and acidification are among the major stressors on freshwater ecosystems in northern Europe and North America, but possible consequences of interactions between pH and nutrients on ecological status assessment and species richness patterns have not previously been assessed. Using data from 52 river sites throughout Norway, we investigated the combined effects of pH and nutrients on benthic algae assemblages, specifically 1) taxa-specific couplings between nutrient and acidity traits, 2) the degree of consistency between different biotic indices, separately for nutrients and acid conditions, 3) the impact of pH on nutrient indices and phosphorus on indices of acid conditions, and 4) the impact of pH and phosphorus supply on diatom and non-diatom taxon richness. We found that 1) acid-tolerant taxa are generally associated with nutrient-poor conditions, with only a few exceptions; this is probably more a consequence of habitat availability than reflecting true ecological niches; 2) correlation coefficients between nutrient indices and TP, as well as acid conditions indices and pH were barely affected when the confounding factor was removed; 3) the association of acid-tolerant taxa with nutrient-poor conditions means that the lowest possible nutrient index at a site, as indicated by benthic algae, is lower at acid than at circumneutral sites. Although this may be an artifact of the datasets from which taxa-specific indicator values were derived, it could lead to a drift in nutrient indices with recovery from acidification; 4) the response of non-diatom taxon richness follows a complex pattern with a synergistic interaction between nutrient supply and pH. In contrast, diatom richness follows a simple additive pattern; this suggests structural differences between diatoms and non-diatom benthic algae in their response to nutrient supply and pH; diatom taxon richness tended to increase with nutrient supply, while non-diatom richness decreased. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved