Amerikanmajava Castor canadensis Suomessa ja Euroopassa: pohdintoja vaikutuksista ja mahdollisesta hävittämisestä

Kun amerikanmajava eli kanadanmajava istutettiin Suomeen, tavoitteena oli alkuperäisen, sukupuuttoon metsästetyn lajin palautusistutus. Amerikanmajavan ja alkuperäisen euroopanmajavan ekologiset lokerot ovat päällekkäiset. Sitä kumpi lajeista on vahvempi kilpailija, ei vielä varmasti tiedetä. Varovaisuusperiaatteen mukaisesti tulee amerikanmajavan uhka euroopanmajavalle ottaa vakavasti.Peer reviewe

Effects of urban infrastructure on aquatic invertebrate diversity

Wetlands are one of the world's most important, economically valuable, and diverse ecosystems. A major proportion of wetland biodiversity is composed of aquatic invertebrates, which are essential for secondary production in aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Urban areas have intensified the challenges wetlands encounter by increasing the area of impermeable surfaces and the levels of nutrient and pollutant overflows. We investigated how urban infrastructure affects the aquatic invertebrate fauna of urban wetlands in metropolitan Helsinki, southern Finland. We measured riparian canopy cover, emergent vegetation coverage, and various land cover and road variables. Recreation area, forests, and open natural areas were the most important landscape features positively influencing aquatic invertebrate family richness, whereas buildings and roads had a negative effect on family richness and abundances of many taxa. Recreation area and the various forest types also positively affected the alpha-diversity indices of wetlands. On the other hand, fish assemblage did not affect either family richness or abundances of the studied taxa. Furthermore, trees growing on the shoreline negatively affected the diversity of aquatic invertebrate families. Invertebrate family diversity was greatest at well-connected wetlands, as these areas added to the regional species pool by over 33%. Our results show that connectivity and green areas near wetlands increase aquatic invertebrate family diversity, and our results could be utilized in urban planning. Graphical abstractPeer reviewe

Beavers promote calicioid diversity in boreal forest landscapes

Beavers are ecosystem engineers that modify and maintain a range of special habitat types in boreal forests. They also produce large quantities of deadwood that provide substrate for many lignicolous organisms such as calicioid fungi (Ascomycota). We studied how calicioid diversity differed between boreal riparian forests with and without beaver activity. The results show that calicioid diversity were significantly higher at beaver sites compared to the other two forest site types studied. The large quantity and diverse forms of deadwood produced by beavers clearly promotes calicioid diversity in the boreal landscape. The specific lighting and humidity conditions within beaver wetlands could be the reason why they promote the success of certain calicioid species.Peer reviewe

Margins matter : the importance of field margins as avian brood-rearing habitat in an intensive agricultural landscape

Agricultural intensification has significantly impacted habitat structures in agricultural landscapes and is one of the main drivers of biodiversity decline, especially in farmland birds. Birds are considered to reflect well the trends in other biodiversity elements and are therefore often used as indicator species. We studied common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) brood habitat use in a small-grain-dominated farmland in southern Finland. The broods significantly preferred field margins compared to their availability. The importance of field margins was underlined, as 68% of pheasant brood observations in grain fields were within a 25-m-wide zone from the field edge, despite the availability being only 40% of the field area. Our results support the idea that field margins and their proximity act as possible biodiversity reservoirs even in intensive farming systems. Increasing the amount of field margins can be an effective management method when aiming to improve success of common pheasant broods while simultaneously benefitting farmland biodiversity. Identifying key habitats and landscape features that allow the co-existence of biodiversity and effective food production is crucial when aiming to halt the ongoing biodiversity collapse.Peer reviewe

Beaver in the drainage basin : an ecosystem engineer restores wetlands in the boreal landscapes

Wetland and deadwood loss have had a profound effect on boreal aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and their biodiversity. Deadwood-dependent species are one of the most endangered organism groups in the world, while amphibians on the other hand excellently represent the ecological state of wetlands. The boreal region contains a large proportion of the world s wetlands, which have undergone two major alterations during the last 500 years: first the extirpation of beavers and secondly draining during the 20th century. Beavers are well-known ecosystem engineers of the Northern Hemisphere. They modify their surroundings by damming water systems. Damming raises flood waters into the surrounding riparian forest and changes environmental conditions both on land and in water. Ecosystem processes are altered when beavers turn a lotic water system into a lentic one, but the alteration is also evident when beavers modify initially lentic water systems. Organic matter and nutrients are transferred into a wetland from beaver-felled trees and vegetation killed by flooding. The amount of dissolved organic carbon increases during the first three impoundment years, which enhances the growth of aquatic vegetation and the abundance of phyto- and zooplankton, thereby also increasing invertebrate abundances. Luxuriant vegetation and ample plankton and invertebrate populations facilitate frogs, which become abundant in beaver wetlands. The moor frog in particular favours beaver-created wetlands. Flooding and beavers kill trees, producing high amounts of deadwood. The riparian forests of beaver wetlands include much higher deadwood levels than wetlands without beavers. Increased deadwood creates substrate resources for deadwood-dependent species. Snags are a typical deadwood type in beaver wetlands. Calicioids are deadwood-dependent species particularly specialised in inhabiting standing deadwood. The comeback of beavers has aided the restoration of wetlands and deadwood. Beaver wetlands can be seen as carbon and biodiversity hot spots that increase the heterogeneity and hydraulic connectivity of the boreal landscape.Kosteikkojen ja lahopuun katoaminen ovat vaikuttaneet voimakkaasti boreaalisen alueen vesi- ja maaekosysteemeihin. Lahopuusta riippuvaiset lajit ovat yksi maailman uhanalaisimmista, kun taas sammakkoeläimiä voidaan hyödyntää kosteikkojen ekologisen tilan selvittämisessä. Huomattava osa maailman kosteikoista sijaitsee boreaalisella alueella. Viimeisen 500 vuoden aikana boreaalisen alueen kosteikkoihin on kohdistunut kaksi pääasiallista uhkaa: majavien hävitys sukupuuton partaalle sekä 1900-luvun laajamittaiset ojitukset. Majavat ovat pohjoisen pallonpuoliskon tunnettuja ekosysteemi-insinöörejä. Ne muokkaavat ympäristöään patoamalla vesistöjä. Pato nostattaa tulvan ympäröivään rantametsään ja muuttaa olosuhteita niin maalla kuin vedessä. Ekosysteemiprosessit muuttuvat erityisesti silloin, kun majava muuttaa virtaavan vesistön seisovaksi, mutta ympäristössä tapahtuvat muutokset ovat selkeitä myös alun perin seisovassa vesistössä. Orgaaninen aines ja ravinteet siirtyvät vesistöön majavan kaatamista puista sekä tulvan tappamasta kasvillisuudesta. Orgaanisen hiilen määrä kasvaa huomattavasti erityisesti ensimmäisinä tulvavuosina, mikä lisää vesikasvillisuuden, planktonin ja näiden kahden kautta myös vesiselkärangattomien määriä. Rehevä kasvillisuus ja runsaat plankton- ja selkärangatonmäärät hyödyttävät sammakoita. Sammakot, ja erityisesti viitasammakko, viihtyvät majavakosteikoilla. Lahopuuta syntyy runsaasti majavakosteikoilla tulvan ja majavan toimesta. Majavakosteikkojen ympäröimässä rantametsikössä on huomattavasti enemmän lahopuuta kuin muunlaisten vesistöjen rantametsissä. Runsastuneet lahopuumäärät tarjoavat elinympäristön lahopuusta riippuvaisille lajeille. Eniten majavakosteikoilla on pystyyn kuollutta lahopuuta, jolla ovat erikoistuneet kasvamaan nokinuppiset. Majavien elpyminen sukupuuton partaalta on auttanut kosteikko- ja lahopuumäärien kasvua. Majavakosteikot voidaan nähdä boreaalisen alueen hiilen ja monimuotoisuuden hot spotteina. Ne lisäävät boreaalisen maiseman heterogeenisuutta ja vesistöjen jatkumoa

Do alien predators pose a particular risk to duck nests in Northern Europe? Results from an artificial nest experiment

Several alien predator species have spread widely in Europe during the last five decades and pose a potential enhanced risk to native nesting ducks and their eggs. Because predation is an important factor limiting Northern Hemisphere duck nest survival, we ask the question, do alien species increase the nest loss risk to ground nesting ducks? We created 418 artificial duck nests in low densities around inland waters in Finland and Denmark during 2017-2019 and monitored them for seven days after construction using wildlife cameras to record whether alien species visit and prey on the nests more often than native species. We sampled various duck breeding habitats from eutrophic agricultural lakes and wetlands to oligotrophic lakes and urban environments. The results differed between habitats and the two countries, which likely reflect the local population densities of the predator species. The raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), an alien species, was the most common mammalian nest visitor in all habitats and its occurrence reduced nest survival. Only in wetland habitats was the native red fox (Vulpes vulpes) an equally common nest visitor, where another alien species, the American mink (Neovison vison), also occurred among nest visitors. Although cautious about concluding too much from visitations to artificial nests, these results imply that duck breeding habitats in Northern Europe already support abundant and effective alien nest predators, whose relative frequency of visitation to artificial nests suggest that they potentially add to the nest predation risk to ducks over native predators.Peer reviewe

The ecosystem services provided by beavers

Session abstract B1.

Ecosystem services provided by beavers Castor spp.

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