Conservation biology

We study how biodiversity is affected by forestry, conservation measures and climate change. We do this through ecological studies of various organism groups, such as beetles, fungi, lichens and vascular plants. We often put biodiversity in a larger perspective by linking it to ecosystem services and also considering other aspects that are important when making decisions about land use.

Examples of research questions in our field studies are:

• What species are present in woodland key habitats and low-productivity forests of different types and in different landscapes?
• How are insects affected by local climatic conditions and large-scale climate change?
• What makes forests valuable for recreation and how is that related to biodiversity conservation?
• How are biodiversity and ecosystem services affected by different forestry methods?
• Which conservation values are created by prescribed burnings and how are they related with biodiversity conservation

We conduct projects where we synthesize knowledge about ecological compensation, climate-adapted nature conservation, consequences of extracting harvesting residues, and spatial localization of conservation measures. These projects consider both agriculture and forest land.