Forest disturbance by an ecosystem engineer : beaver in boreal forest landscapes

Natural disturbances are important for forest ecosystem dynamics and maintenance of biodiversity. In the boreal forest, large-scale disturbances such as wildfires and windstorms have been emphasized, while disturbance agents acting at smaller scales have received less attention. Especially in Europe beavers have long been neglected as forest disturbance agents because they were extirpated from most of their range centuries ago. However, now they are returning to many parts of their former distribution range. As a disturbance agent, beaver plays two roles: of an ecosystem engineer and of a herbivore. The engineering impact is realized through dam construction resulting in a transformation of an originally terrestrial ecosystem into an aquatic one. As herbivores, beavers affect stand structure and tree species composition by preferring deciduous trees over coniferous ones. After abandonment, a beaver pond gradually turns into a terrestrial habitat again. At well-drained sites, forest will return in due course, first dominated by deciduous trees. At poorly drained sites, moistness of beaver patches may result in fen development. We conclude that beaver has an important impact on ecosystem processes and biodiversity in boreal forest ecosystems because it creates and maintains a spatio-temporal mosaic of successional habitats and associated species communities that would otherwise not exist in the landscape.Peer reviewe

Alle kouluikäisen lapsen päihdeongelmainen perhe sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon asiakkaana

SAVONIA- AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU Terveysala, Kuopio OPINNÄYTETYÖ Tiivistelmä Koulutusohjelma: Hoitotyön koulutusohjelma Suuntautumisvaihtoehto: Hoitotyön suuntautumisvaihtoehto Työn tekijä(t): Maiju Kuuluvainen, Sini Tikkanen Työn nimi: Alle kouluikäisen lapsen päihdeongelmainen perhe sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon asiakkaana Päiväys: 18.11.2009 Sivumäärä / liitteet: 40/2 Ohjaajat: Pirkko Jokinen, yliopettaja Työyksikkö / projekti: Kuopion sosiaali- ja terveyskeskus Tiivistelmä: Päihteiden käyttö on maassamme kasvava ongelma, mikä luo haasteita myös sairaanhoitajan työhön. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tuottaa tietoa, jonka avulla voitaisiin kehittää päihdeongelmaisen perheen hoitotyötä sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollossa. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata alle kouluikäisen päihdeongelmaista perhettä sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon asiakkaana työntekijöiden näkökulmasta. Tutkimus oli lähestymistavaltaan kvalitatiivinen eli laadullinen. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin teemahaastatteluilla vuoden 2009 aikana. Aineisto koostui neljästä sosiaali- ja terveysalan ammattilaisen haastattelusta. Aineisto analysoitiin sisällön analyysillä. Tutkimustulosten mukaan nykyinen päihdehoitotyö on pirstaloitunut moneen paikkaan. Työntekijät kuvasivat resurssipulan vaikuttavan hoidon laatuun ja saatavuuteen. Työntekijät tukivat perheiden päihdekuntoutumista verkostoyhteistyön ja hoitosuhteen keinoin. Tärkeimmiksi tavoitteiksi työntekijät kokivat päihdeperheen hoidossa arjessa selviytymisen, päihteettömyyden ja lasten hyvinvoinnin turvaamisen. Tulosten mukaan päihdeongelman tunnistamiseen oli olemassa monia keinoja. Hoitajat kokivat, että varhainen puuttuminen päihdeongelmaan paransi hoitotuloksia. Hoitoon ohjauduttiin yksiköstä riippuen oma-aloitteisesti tai lähetteellä. Päihdeperheitä tuettiin pääasiassa avohuollon tukitoimenpiteillä. Yhteistyö eri toimijoiden välillä vaihteli. Työntekijät kokivat, että juuri yhteistyössä oli eniten puutteita. Haastateltavien kokemukset päihdeongelmaisen vanhemman kohtaamisesta olivat myönteisiä, työn tuomiin haasteisiin oli osattu varautua. Jatkotutkimuksen aihe voisi olla päihdeongelmaisten perheiden kokemusten kartoittaminen saamastaan tuesta. Avainsanat: (1-5) päihdeongelma, päihdeperhe, yhteistyö Julkinen _X_ Salainen ___SAVONIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES School of health Professions, Kuopio THESIS Abstract Degree Programme: Degree Programme in Nursing Option: Registered Nurse Aurhors: Maiju Kuuluvainen, Sini Tikkanen Title of Thesis: A family with a substance abuse problem of pre-school children under school age as a client in social and health care Date: 18th November 2009 Pages/ appendices: 40/2 Supervisor: Pirkko Jokinen, senior teacher Contact persons: Kuopio's social and health center Abstract: Substance abuse is a growing problem in Finland, which also creates challenges in health care. The aim of this study was to provide information that enables to develope substance abusing families’ nursing in social and healthcare. The purpose of this study was to describe substance abusing families with children under school age, in social and healthcare from a social workers' point of view. The research method used was qualitative research. The data was collected by interviews during 2009. The material consisted of four social and health care professionals’ interviews. The data was analyzed using content analysis. According to the results current substance abuse care is too fragmented in several locations. Employees described that the resource constraints affect the quality and availability of treatment. Employees supported substance abusing families’ rehabilitation through co-operation with other authorities and by creating a therapeutic relationship. Employees felt that top priority of the treatment of substance abusing families is everyday survival, intoxicance and supporting the welfare of the children. According to the results there where number of ways to identify substance abuse. Nurses felt that early intervention to substance abuse improved the outcomes of the treatment. Families could seek help spontaneously or by a referral. Substance abuse families were supported mainly with non-institutional support measures. The employees felt that the biggest problem was lack of co-operation. The interviewees’ experiences of substance abusing parents were positive, the employees were prepared for the challenges of the work. Follow-up research could focus on how substance abusing families have experienced the help aimed at them. Keywords: (1-5) Substance abuse, substance abusing family, co-operation Public_X_ Secure __

Representative boreal forest habitats in northern Europe, and a revised model for ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation

The natural range of variation of ecosystems provides reference conditions for sustainable management and biodiversity conservation. We review how the understanding of natural reference conditions of boreal forests in northern Europe has changed from earlier perceptions of even-aged dynamics driven by stand-replacing disturbances towards current understanding highlighting the role of non-stand-replacing disturbances and the resultant complex forest dynamics and structures. We show how earlier views and conceptual models of forest disturbance dynamics, including the influential ASIO model, provide estimates of reference conditions that are outside the natural range of variation. Based on a research synthesis, we present a revised forest reference model incorporating the observed complexity of ecosystem dynamics and the prevalence of old forests. Finally, we outline a management model and demonstrate its use in forest ecosystem management and show how regional conservation area needs can be estimated. We conclude that attaining favourable conservation status in northern Europe's boreal forests requires increasing emphasis on ecosystem management and conservation for old forest characteristics.Peer reviewe

Young and old forest in the boreal : critical stages of ecosystem dynamics and management under global change

Abstract The circumboreal forest encompasses diverse landscape structures, dynamics and forest age distributions determined by their physical setting, and historical and current disturbance regimes. However, due to intensifying forest utilisation, and in certain areas due to increasing natural disturbances, boreal forest age-class structures have changed rapidly, so that the proportion of old forest has substantially declined, while that of young post-harvest and post-natural-disturbance forest proportions have increased. In the future, with a warming climate in certain boreal regions, this trend may further be enhanced due to an increase in natural disturbances and large-scale use of forest biomass to replace fossil-based fuels and products. The major drivers of change of forest age class distributions and structures include the use of clearcut short-rotation harvesting, more frequent and severe natural disturbances due to climate warming in certain regions. The decline in old forest area, and increase in managed young forest lacking natural post-disturbance structural legacies, represent a major transformation in the ecological conditions of the boreal forest beyond historical limits of variability. This may introduce a threat to biodiversity, ecosystem resilience and long-term adaptive capacity of the forest ecosystem. To safeguard boreal forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and to maintain the multiple services provided to societies by this forest biome, it is pivotal to maintain an adequate share and the ecological qualities of young post-disturbance stages, along with mature forest stages with old-growth characteristics. This requires management for natural post-disturbance legacy structures, and innovative use of diverse uneven-aged and continuous cover management approaches to maintain critical late-successional forest structures in landscapes

Mediated Immediacy During Virtual Dinners Between Strangers

During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual communication channels have been used to ensure physical distance between people. However, moving everyday social interactions into virtual platforms also affects the communication of relational distance – that is, immediacy – between people. The study goal is to understand the content, functions, and situational meanings of immediacy at virtual dinners between strangers. We observed, recorded, and analyzed four virtual dinners and interviewed all participants afterward. The participants lived in Finland at the time of the study. The results revealed that in addition to self-presentational and other-oriented communication, the participants engaged in communication that aimed at creating common ground for interaction. Based on the results, it can be concluded that mediated immediacy is communication that, in addition to being relational (distance between interlocutors), is also situational (finding common ground)

The development of cortical processing of speech differs between children with cochlear implants and normal hearing and changes with parental singing

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate speech processing development in children with normal hearing (NH) and cochlear implants (CI) groups using a multifeature event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. Singing is associated to enhanced attention and speech perception. Therefore, its connection to ERPs was investigated in the CI group. Methods: The paradigm included five change types in a pseudoword: two easy- (duration, gap) and three difficult-to-detect (vowel, pitch, intensity) with CIs. The positive mismatch responses (pMMR), mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a and late differentiating negativity (LDN) responses of preschoolers (below 6 years 9 months) and schoolchildren (above 6 years 9 months) with NH or CIs at two time points (T1, T2) were investigated with Linear Mixed Modeling (LMM). For the CI group, the association of singing at home and ERP development was modeled with LMM. Results: Overall, responses elicited by the easy- and difficult to detect changes differed between the CI and NH groups. Compared to the NH group, the CI group had smaller MMNs to vowel duration changes and gaps, larger P3a responses to gaps, and larger pMMRs and smaller LDNs to vowel identity changes. Preschoolers had smaller P3a responses and larger LDNs to gaps, and larger pMMRs to vowel identity changes than schoolchildren. In addition, the pMMRs to gaps increased from T1 to T2 in preschoolers. More parental singing in the CI group was associated with increasing pMMR and less parental singing with decreasing P3a amplitudes from T1 to T2. Conclusion: The multifeature paradigm is suitable for assessing cortical speech processing development in children. In children with CIs, cortical discrimination is often reflected in pMMR and P3a responses, and in MMN and LDN responses in children with NH. Moreover, the cortical speech discrimination of children with CIs develops late, and over time and age, their Frontiers in Neuroscience 01 frontiersin.org Torppa et al. 10.3389/fnins.2022.976767 speech sound change processing changes as does the processing of children with NH. Importantly, multisensory activities such as parental singing can lead to improvement in the discrimination and attention shifting toward speech changes in children with CIs. These novel results should be taken into account in future research and rehabilitation.Peer reviewe