Anna Ruokolainen

Recovery of boreal forest structures near abandoned villages in Western White Sea Karelia, Russia

Regeneration of natural forest structures and dead wood has a key role in the long-term maintenance of biodiversity in most parts of the boreal zone. In order to obtain benchmarks for practical dead wood management rapidly, we utilised unintended historical experiments in land use by studying the recovery of forests surrounding abandoned villages along 2.5-km transects in NW Russia. The signs of past human forest use declined as a function of distance from villages. We found that the closest forests were 130 yr old or younger and contained very few elements typical of natural forests. Forests at a distance of between 1 and 1.5 km were older than 150 yr but showed marks of selective cuttings and had a less complete continuum of dead wood than forests that were 2–2.5 km from the villages. The most remote stands, which were generally older than 200 yr, predominantly had no signs of past forest use and had the most diverse dead wood composition. Our study shows that full recovery of the dead wood continuum in middle boreal forests is a slow process and also that less intensive past forest use can have a significant effect on the dead wood continuum.

Recovery of functional groups of fungi and wood-decaying species of conservation concern after variable intensity forest utilization

Information concerning the speed of recovery in forest ecosystems is critical when seeking to determine the length of sustainable logging rotations, or for the evaluation of different forest restoration options for species conservation programs. Different functional groups may have specific roles within the ecosystem processes and costly conservation efforts should be targeted at species of conservation concern. Therefore, an analysis of how functional or ecological groups recover following disturbance could provide more precise information than the recovery of taxonomic groups alone. We studied the recovery rate of taxonomic and functional groups of fungi in a boreal landscape where forest use had ceased more than 60xa0years ago. The forests in our study areas had a variable utilization history. The stands located near abandoned settlements were former scrubland. The adjacent stands formed a selectively cut zone and were followed by stands deeper in the forest matrix that were largely in pristine condition. We recorded boletoid, agaricoid and aphyllophoroid fungi species numbers in 0.25xa0ha sample plots at 500xa0m intervals along seven 2–2.5xa0km long transects. The transects started at the edge of the forest next to the abandoned settlements. Distance (intensity of previous forest utilization) did not affect the species richness of the taxonomic or functional groups of fungi, although the number of aphyllophoroid species of conservation concern was 50% lower in the forests that had been utilized in the past than in the surrounding pristine forests. Moreover, in stands close to the villages, the composition of aphyllophoroid species (β diversity) differed from that of more distant and less utilized stands. Our results would suggest that the majority of ecosystem properties provided by higher fungi groups seem to recover within one century. However, the slow pace of accumulation of dead wood in an advanced state of decay probably slows the recovery of aphyllophoroid species of conservation concern.

A continuum of dead wood with various habitat elements maintains the diversity of wood-inhabiting fungi in an old-growth boreal forest

Evidence on habitat associations of threatened wood-inhabiting species in boreal forests may contribute to a better understanding of their ecology and conservation needs. We examined the diversity of wood-inhabiting fungal communities in an old-growth boreal forest with high substrate availability and continuity based on repeated surveys of fruit bodies. The number of species in morphological and functional groups in relation to coarse woody debris (CWD) attributes was estimated with generalized linear models. Additionally, we calculated species interaction networks of CWD attributes and fungal species. The composition of fungal communities was analysed using a non-metric multidimensional scaling with subsequent environmental fitting. Old conifer (especially spruce) logs and large aspen logs with branches represented the most important substrates for the red-listed species and the indicator species of old-growth boreal forests. Among “dynamic” CWD attributes such as time since tree death, decay class and stage of epixylic succession, the latter was the most important indicator of diversity of all species and their morphological and functional groups. The interaction network provided evidence of the importance of tree species diversity for fungal diversity. The composition of fungal communities was tree species specific and related to dynamic attributes, bark cover and diameter of logs. Our results suggest the importance of a continuum of dead wood from different tree species with a variety of niches such as branches, exposed wood, fragmented and complete cover of bark and patches of epixylic vegetation to maintain the assemblages of wood-inhabiting fungi in an old-growth boreal forest.

Eleven remarkable Diptera species, emerged from fallen aspens in Kivach Nature Reserve, Russian Karelia

Abstract Background In 2016, saproxylic Diptera associated with aspen (Populus tremula L.) logs were studied in the Kivach Nature Reserve, Russian Karelia, using trunk emergence traps. New information Eleven rare species of Diptera (families Limoniidae, Scatopsidae, Axymyiidae, Mycetophilidae, Sciaridae, Platypezidae, Syrphidae and Clusiidae) with poorly known distribution and ecology were recorded. For each species, basic diagnostic characteristics were provided along with the information on microhabitats. An attempt was also undertaken to outline possible associations with wood-decaying macrofungi using nonparametric correlation.

Checklist of aphyllophoroid fungi (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota) in boreal forests of the Solovetsky Archipelago (Arkhangelsk Region, European Russia)

Herein we present a checklist of aphyllophoroid fungi of the Solovetsky Archipelago, located in the White Sea (Arkhangesk Region, European Russia). The annotated list contains 275 species belonging to 139 genera of aphyllophoroid basidiomycetes (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota). Eight species (Athelia bombacina, Ceraceomyces tessulatus, Clavariadelphus truncatus, Clavaria zollingeri, Clavulinopsis luteoalba, Hyphoderma obtusiforme, Phanerochaete jose-ferreirae, and Ramaria obtusissima) are recorded from the Arkhangelsk Region for the first time, and 23 species were recorded for the first time from the Solovetsky Archipelago. Most records are documented by herbarium specimens.