North Fennoscandian mountain forests: History, composition, disturbance dynamics and the unpredictable future

Published Date
1 February 2017, Vol.385:140–149, doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2016.11.031

Author 

• Timo Kuuluvainen ^a,,
• Annika Hofgaard ^b
• Tuomas Aakala ^a
• Bengt Gunnar Jonsson ^c

• aDept. of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
• bDept. of Terrestrial Ecology, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway
• cDept. of Natural Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Sweden

Received 2 May 2016. Revised 18 November 2016. Accepted 21 November 2016. Available online 2 December 2016. 

Highlights

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  North Fennoscandian mountain forests are relatively little affected by human utilization.
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  They are very important for biodiversity conservation and for their sociocultural values.
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  Fine scale processes are essential features of mountain forests and their dynamics.
• •
  Rapid change in climate is predicted to profoundly affect forest ecology and dynamics.
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  Some of the changes are gradual but also drastic disturbances will become more likely.

Abstract

North Fennoscandian mountain forests are distributed along the Scandes Mountains between Sweden and Norway, and the low-mountain regions of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, and the adjacent northwestern Russia. Regionally, these forests are differentiated into spruce, pine or birch dominance due to climatic differences. Variation in tree species dominance within these regions is generally caused by a combination of historical and prevailing disturbance regimes, including both chronic and episodic disturbances, their magnitude and frequency, as well as differences in edaphic conditions and topography. Because of their remoteness, slow growth and restrictions of use, these mountain forests are generally less affected by human utilization than more productive and easily utilizable forests at lower elevations and/or latitudes. As a consequence, these northern forests of Europe are often referred to as “Europe’s last wilderness”, even if human influence of varying intensity has been ubiquitous through historical time. Because of their naturalness, the North Fennoscandian mountain forests are of paramount importance for biodiversity conservation, monitoring of ecosystem change and for their sociocultural values. As such, they also provide unique reference areas for basic and applied research, and for developing methods of forest conservation, restoration and ecosystem-based management for the entire Fennoscandia. However, the current rapid change in climate is predicted to profoundly affect the ecology and dynamics of these forests in the future.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

• Biodiversity
• Boreal forest
• Climate change
• Cultural heritage
• Natural disturbance
• Northern Europe

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  Corresponding author.
  
  

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