Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Deciduous trees in Europe’s hemi‐boreal forests are of major importance considering not only the
biodiversity tied to them and therefore their nature conservation values, but also due to their
relevance for forest recreation, their role in mixed stands and in risk spreading when it comes to
adopting forest ecosystems towards the expected climate change. For these reasons it seems also
important to incorporate deciduous trees more into the forest management and its planning to be
able to keep track of them as well as of their associated benefits. This thesis introduces the first steps
taken into that direction: after summarizing the importance of the deciduous species in Sweden’s
hemi‐boreal region it contains an GIS investigation of deciduous trees in Kronobergs län and finally a
simulation illustrating the effects for production and biodiversity when increasing the deciduous
share in a forest landscape. The investigation has shown that the vast majority of the total deciduous
volume can be found admixed into mixed or conifer dominated stands, while only 13% of it is
standing in deciduous dominated forest types, accounting for 5% of the forest area. These stands,
where birch is the prevailing species, are furthermore located close to open land types like
agricultural areas, urban sites or lakes. Another important result from the study demonstrates
moreover that there are huge differences within the county having a deciduous rich south and a
comparable poor north‐east when it comes to broadleaved trees. Finally the simulation regarding an
increased deciduous share following the criteria concerned with deciduous trees in the new FSC
standard resulted in only minor differences in the forest production: the harvest possibilities and the
standing volume in the coming decades. The state of the indicators for biodiversity on the other hand
was generally able to improve remarkably also pointing at deviations caused by the different
approaches taken to reach the FSC target.