Dataset Information

On the decline of ground lichen forests in the Swedish boreal landscape: Implications for reindeer husbandry and sustainable forest management.

ABSTRACT: Lichens are a bottleneck resource for circumpolar populations of reindeer, and as such, for reindeer husbandry as an indigenous Sami land-use tradition in northern Sweden. This study uses ground lichen data and forest information collected within the Swedish National Forest Inventory since 1953, on the scale of northern Sweden. We found a 71 % decline in the area of lichen-abundant forests over the last 60 years. A decline was observed in all regions and age classes and especially coincided with a decrease of >60 year old, open pine forests, which was the primary explanatory factor in our model. The effects of reindeer numbers were inconclusive in explaining the decrease in lichen-abundant forest. The role that forestry has played in causing this decline can be debated, but forestry can have a significant role in reversing the trend and improving ground lichen conditions.

SUBMITTER: Sandstrom P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4824705 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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On the decline of ground lichen forests in the Swedish boreal landscape: Implications for reindeer husbandry and sustainable forest management.

Sandström Per P Cory Neil N Svensson Johan J Hedenås Henrik H Jougda Leif L Borchert Nanna N

Ambio 20160111 4

Lichens are a bottleneck resource for circumpolar populations of reindeer, and as such, for reindeer husbandry as an indigenous Sami land-use tradition in northern Sweden. This study uses ground lichen data and forest information collected within the Swedish National Forest Inventory since 1953, on the scale of northern Sweden. We found a 71 % decline in the area of lichen-abundant forests over the last 60 years. A decline was observed in all regions and age classes and especially coincided with ...[more]

PMID: 26754169

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Project description:Thin, hair-like lichens (Alectoria, Bryoria, Usnea) form conspicuous epiphyte communities across the boreal biome. These poikilohydric organisms provide important ecosystem functions and are useful indicators of global change. We analyse how environmental drivers influence changes in occurrence and length of these lichens on Norway spruce (Picea abies) over 10 years in managed forests in Sweden using data from >6000 trees. Alectoria and Usnea showed strong declines in southern-central regions, whereas Bryoria declined in northern regions. Overall, relative loss rates across the country ranged from 1.7% per year in Alectoria to 0.5% in Bryoria. These losses contrasted with increased length of Bryoria and Usnea in some regions. Occurrence trajectories (extinction, colonization, presence, absence) on remeasured trees correlated best with temperature, rain, nitrogen deposition, and stand age in multinomial logistic regression models. Our analysis strongly suggests that industrial forestry, in combination with nitrogen, is the main driver of lichen declines. Logging of forests with long continuity of tree cover, short rotation cycles, substrate limitation and low light in dense forests are harmful for lichens. Nitrogen deposition has decreased but is apparently still sufficiently high to prevent recovery. Warming correlated with occurrence trajectories of Alectoria and Bryoria, likely by altering hydration regimes and increasing respiration during autumn/winter. The large-scale lichen decline on an important host has cascading effects on biodiversity and function of boreal forest canopies. Forest management must apply a broad spectrum of methods, including uneven-aged continuous cover forestry and retention of large patches, to secure the ecosystem functions of these important canopy components under future climates. Our findings highlight interactions among drivers of lichen decline (forestry, nitrogen, climate), functional traits (dispersal, lichen colour, sensitivity to nitrogen, water storage), and population processes (extinction/colonization).

Project description:Lichens dominate a significant part of the Earth's land surface, and are valuable bioindicators of various environmental changes. In the northern hemisphere, the largest lichen biomass is in the woodlands and heathlands of the boreal zone and in tundra. Despite the global coverage of lichens, there has been only limited research on their spectral properties in the context of remote sensing of the environment. In this paper, we report spectral properties of 12 common boreal lichen species. Measurements of reflectance spectra were made in laboratory conditions with a standard spectrometer (350-2500 nm) and a novel mobile hyperspectral camera (400-1000 nm) which was used in a multiangular setting. Our results show that interspecific differences in reflectance spectra were the most pronounced in the ultraviolet and visible spectral range, and that dry samples always had higher reflectance than fresh (moist) samples in the shortwave infrared region. All study species had higher reflectance in the backward scattering direction compared to nadir or forward scattering directions. Our results also reveal, for the first time, that there is large intraspecific variation in reflectance of lichen species. This emphasizes the importance of measuring several replicates of each species when analyzing lichen spectra. In addition, we used the data in a spectral clustering analysis to study the spectral similarity between samples and species, and how these similarities could be linked to different physical traits or phylogenetic closeness of the species. Overall, our results suggest that spectra of some lichen species with large ground coverage can be used for species identification from high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery. On the other hand, for lichen species growing as small assemblages, mobile hyperspectral cameras may offer a solution for in-situ species identification. The spectral library collected in this study is available in the SPECCHIO Spectral Information System.

Dataset Information

On the decline of ground lichen forests in the Swedish boreal landscape: Implications for reindeer husbandry and sustainable forest management.

Publications

On the decline of ground lichen forests in the Swedish boreal landscape: Implications for reindeer husbandry and sustainable forest management.

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