The effect of buffer strip width and selective logging on streamside plant communities

Abstract Background Riparian forests surrounding streams host high biodiversity values, but are threatened by clear-cut logging. Narrow buffer strips of about 15 m are commonly left between the stream and the clear-cut, but studies suggest that the buffer width should be at least 30 m to protect riparian plant communities. Moreover, selective logging is often allowed on the buffer strips in order to increase economic gain. We used an experiment of 43 riparian sites where buffer strip width and selective logging within the strip were manipulated and supplemented with unlogged control sites. We report the short-term changes in the community composition of vascular plants and mosses near the stream (0–15 m distance). Results 15-meter buffers are not enough to protect the vascular plant communities from changes caused by a clear-cut irrespective of the selective logging on the buffer strip. For moss communities 15-m buffers were not enough if they were selectively logged. Relative to the control sites, we observed no significant changes in community composition of vascular plants or mosses in the sites with 30-m buffer strips, whether selectively logged or not. Conclusions We conclude that buffer strips of 15 m are not sufficient to protect streamside plant communities even in the short term, but that buffers of 30 m should be left on both sides of the stream. Selective logging appears not to have effects on buffers that are at least 30 m wide. Thus, it may be more reasonable to increase buffer width and to allow selective logging on the wider buffer in order to compensate for the economic losses than to leave all trees on a narrow and ecologically insufficient buffer

Home-range use patterns and movements of the Siberian flying squirrel in urban forests: Effects of habitat composition and connectivity

Peer reviewe

Yard vegetation is associated with gut microbiota composition

Gut microbes play an essential role in the development and functioning of the human immune system. A disturbed gut microbiota composition is often associated with a number of health disorders including immune-mediated diseases. Differences in host characteristics such as ethnicity, living habit and diet have been used to explain differences in the gut microbiota composition in inter-continental comparison studies. As our previous studies imply that daily skin contact with organic gardening materials modify gut microflora, here we investigated the association between living environment and gut microbiota in a homogenous western population along an urban-rural gradient. We obtained stool samples from 48 native elderly Finns in province Hame in August and November 2015 and identified the bacterial phylotypes using 16S rRNA Illumina MiSeq sequencing. We assumed that yard vegetation and land cover classes surrounding homes explain the stool bacterial community in generalized linear mixed models. Diverse yard vegetation was associated with a reduced abundance of Clostridium sensu stricto and an increased abundance of Faecalibacterium and Prevotellaceae. The abundance of Bacteroides was positively and strongly associated with the built environment. Exclusion of animal owners did not alter the main associations. These results suggest that diverse vegetation around homes is associated with health-related changes in gut microbiota composition. Manipulation of the garden diversity, possibly jointly with urban planning, is a promising candidate for future intervention studies that aim to maintain gut homeostasis. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Temporal variation in indoor transfer of dirt-associated environmental bacteria in agricultural and urban areas

An agricultural environment and exposure to diverse environmental microbiota has been suggested to confer protection against immune-mediated disorders. As an agricultural environment may have a protective role, it is crucial to determine whether the limiting factors in the transfer of environmental microbiota indoors are the same in the agricultural and urban environments. We explored how sampling month, garden diversity and animal ownership affected the indoor-transfer of environmental microbial community. We collected litter from standardized doormats used for 2 weeks in June and August 2015 and February 2016 and identified bacterial phylotypes using 16S rRNA Illumina MiSeq sequencing. In February, the diversity and richness of the whole bacterial community and the relative abundance of environment-associated taxa were reduced, whereas human-associated taxa and genera containing opportunistic pathogens were enriched in the doormats. In summer, the relative abundances of several taxa associated previously with beneficial health effects were higher, particularly in agricultural areas. Surprisingly, the importance of vegetation on doormat microbiota was more observable in February, which may have resulted from snow cover that prevented contact with microbes in soil. Animal ownership increased the prevalence of genera Bacteroides and Acinetobacter in rural doormats. These findings underline the roles of season, living environment and lifestyle in the temporal variations in the environmental microbial community carried indoors. As reduced contact with diverse microbiota is a potential reason for immune system dysfunction, the results may have important implications in the etiology of immune-mediated, non-communicable diseases.Peer reviewe

Landscape homogenization due to agricultural intensification disrupts the relationship between reproductive success and main prey abundance in an avian predator

Selecting high-quality habitat and the optimal time to reproduce can increase individual fitness and is a strong evolutionary factor shaping animal populations. However, few studies have investigated the interplay between land cover heterogeneity, limitation in food resources, individual quality and spatial variation in fitness parameters. Here, we explore how individuals of different quality respond to possible mismatches between a cue for prey availability (land cover heterogeneity) and the actual fluctuating prey abundance.Peer reviewe

The Orivesi granite batholith, Southern Central Finland - characteristics and emplacement

The Orivesi granite batholith is situated in an E-W trending belt of granite intrusions along the southern margin of the Central Finland Granitoid Complex (CFGC). It consists of the dominant Orivesi granite and of two minor components: a coarse-grained quartz-rich porphyritic granite (the Särkijärvi granite) and an aplite granite. No associated mafic components are found. The Orivesi granite is light red to red, coarse-grained and porphyritic with a magmatic foliation. The porphyritic texture is formed by potassium feldspar phenocrysts, which are in general euhedral, but oval (and mantled) megacrysts occur. The granite is extracted as dimensional stone ("Cardinal Red"/"Crystal Rose") from the southwestern part of the batholith. Additional potential sites for dimension stone are identified in same part of the batholith. The Orivesi granite batholith has intruded along regional shear zones in the southern part of the CFGC. The intrusion was diapiric at least during the final emplacement, and produced the magmatic structures in the batholith. Regional deformation has affected the batholith only as semi-brittle movements along aplites and narrow shear bands. The magmatic foliation is concentric in relation to the margins of the batholith. The ductile structures in the host rocks are parallel to the long axis of the batholith and do not continue into its marginal parts. The Orivesi granite is intrusive against both the surrounding granodiorites and the mica schists and can be regarded as post-tectonic in relation to the ductile deformation in the host rocks. A NNW-SSE trending fault zone cuts the Orivesi granite batholith into two halves. The western half has been uplifted in relation to the eastern half producing different structural features in the batholith halves at the present level of erosion. A section representing a lower crustal level, the western half, consists of sparsely fractured Orivesi granite with well developed, steep, penetrative and concentric foliation. The upper parts of the batholith in the eastern half, on the contrary, are characterized by intrusions of late magmatic melts in the Orivesi granite: the Särkijärvi granite and the aplite sheets and dykes. The foliation in the Orivesi granite is poorly developed in the eastern half and the late fracturing on outcrop scale is dense. In consequence the quarries and potential sites of dimension stone are in the western half, where the Orivesi granite is as dimension stone material more homogeneous and sound