Driftwood is woody debris that is floating on the sea or brought onto the shore by the sea. It can have a natural origin but often it originates from human activities. Driftwood has a significant ...ecological role as a microhabitat for a large range of species. Dead‐wood‐associated aphyllophoroid fungi on driftwood have been studied rather little globally, and there are hardly any studies conducted in the Baltic Sea. We studied the diversity and ecology of polypores and corticioids growing on driftwood (man‐made logs) on the shores of the Finnish SW‐archipelago. In total, 394 driftwood logs were surveyed for visible fungal sporocarps. We found altogether 145 species (1023 records) of which approximately three‐fourths were corticioids. The driftwood logs hosted several rare and noteworthy species, such as one new corticioid species, 16 nationally rare species, and 40 new species to the region. The five most common species accounted for one‐third of all observations, whereas 82 species (11% of all records) were recorded only once or twice. Larger logs hosted, on average, more species compared to small‐diameter logs. The mean number of species increased significantly when comparing the logs in the first and the middle stages of decay. Our results show that driftwood logs can host a wide variety of species and they provide an important substrate for many dead‐wood‐associated fungi, including species of conservation concern and species with restricted ecological requirements. Driftwood hosted several species that have not been previously found in the archipelago forests, and the logs clearly enrich the fungal diversity in the area. Our results encourage to increase dead wood for fungi in coastal forests where it has been dramatically decreased as a result of strong hemeroby.
Knowledge of the Finnish aphyllophoroid funga has increased substantially in recent years. In this article, we present two species new to Finland: Spiculogloea subminuta Hauerslev and Typhula suecica ...I. Olariaga, G. Corriol, I. Salcedo & K. Hansen, and document Sistotrema luteoviride Kotir. & K.-H. Larss. for the third time globally. We also contribute 50 new records of 33 nationally rare species (with a maximum of ten previous records in Finland) and list 52 regionally new species, found for the first time in a certain subzone of the boreal vegetation zone in Finland. Each record is enclosed and contains notes on the substrate. Furthermore, the ecology of the nationally new species and the distribution of rare species are discussed.
Aphyllophorales is an unnatural group of fungi, which are mainly wood decaying saprobes but also mycorrhizal or parasites, and are phylogenetically diverse. In this study we focused on polypores, ...corticioids and hydnaceous wood decayers with the common feature to form basidiocarps on woody substrates or litter. The checklist is mainly based on material collected during 2008–2010 in the Archipelago Sea National Park and its surrounding area in Southwest Finland. The aim of the study was biogeographical and ecological research of wood-inhabiting aphyllophorales and their habitats. We list 303 species from the study area. It is 40% of all known species (756) of the target groups recorded in Finland. Six species new to Finland were collected during the field work, which are already reported earlier. Our collections include 26 species, which can be defined as rare, with only five or less earlier records in Finland, and 18 species that are red-listed.
•Comparability of dead wood related indicators of forest naturalness is unknown.•We found that only half of the pairwise comparisons of five indicators were correlated.•Total volume of dead wood was ...most often correlated with other indicators.•Indicators did not consistently select the five “most natural” and five “least natural” natural areas.•Ranking of sites depended on the indicator which must be noted in conservation assessments.
Several measures related to dead wood have been used as indicators of forest naturalness, but their general applicability and comparability is unclear. We compared five dead wood related measures: volume of dead wood, dead wood diversity index, number of cut stumps, dead wood continuity profile and number of kelo trees (specific type of dead pine trees). Furthermore, we studied if these indicators provide similar relative ranking of forest sites. Study sites were located on 40 islands of the Archipelago Sea in southwestern Finland in the hemiboreal zone. Islands included sites that apparently varied in their naturalness. The total volume of dead wood was on average 16.6m3ha−1 (range 4.1–42.9m3ha−1). The dead wood diversity index varied from 4.4 to 56.2 (median 23.6), and the number of cut stumps from 0 to 173.3stumpsha−1 (median 33.0). The dead wood continuity profiles indicated four patterns: strong continuity (5 islands), weak continuity (13 islands), old continuity gap (15 islands) and low abundance (4 islands). The number of kelo trees varied between 0 and 42.9kelosha−1. The dead wood diversity index and the number of cut stumps were significantly related to the volume of dead wood. The volume of dead wood and the dead wood diversity index varied significantly along with the continuity patterns. The number of kelos was negatively correlated with the number of cut stumps, but not with other measures. Ranking order of the study sites according to the three indicators (volume of dead wood, dead wood diversity index, number of cut stumps) showed significant similarity. The volume of dead wood provided the best overall agreement with other indicators but requires considerable effort to measure. The number of cut stumps, however, provides direct information on human activity. The indicators of naturalness provide data for many purposes, like conservation priorization. Based on our results, the selected indicator can affect the output of the assessment considerably. Therefore, it important to consider these differences when interpreting assessments that are based on different indicators.
Six myxomycete species new to the Åland Islands are presented: Comatrichaelegans, Cribrariaintricata, Didymiumminus, Hemitrichiaclavata, Liceavariabilis and Trichiafavoginea. The record of ...Cribrariaintricata is the third in Finland. Specimens were collected in September 2014. Altogether the number of myxomycete species found from the Åland Islands is now 55.
We present new records of noteworthy aphyllophoroid fungi, mainly polypores and corticioids in Finland. The following 19 rare or infrequently collected species are presented with notes on their ...substrates: Amylocorticium subsulphureum, Antrodiella parasitica, Ceraceomyces sulphurinus, Clavaria atroumbrina, Clavaria rosea, Gloeophyllum carbonarium, Hyphodontia flavipora, Junghuhnia fimbriatella, Lindtneria chordulata, Odonticium septocystidia, Peniophorella guttulifera, Perenniporia tenuis, Postia immitis, Repetobasidium vile, Resinicium pinicola, Sidera vulgaris, Tomentella coerulea, Trechispora laevis and Xylodon pruni. We also list 41 aphyllophoroid fungi as new to some sections of the boreal vegetation zone in Finland.
•Surrogacy is a relevant concept in biodiversity conservation.•Raptors have often been tested and used as surrogates for other taxa.•We test surrogacy potential of white-tailed sea eagle nesting ...habitat.•We find the species to be poor surrogate for wood-inhabiting fungi and vascular plants.•Careful evaluation should always precede the use of single species as surrogates.
In order to tackle the current biodiversity crisis, a plethora of tempting shortcuts, such as the surrogate species approach, have recently been used to pinpoint important areas for protection. At the same time, species-specific conservation programmes are implemented in order to ameliorate the status of target threatened species. In the cases where species-specific programmes are evaluated and found to provide no apparent benefit to the target species, it is important to evaluate whether such conservation efforts may benefit other taxa sharing the same landscape with the target species. Here we assess the surrogacy potential of white-tailed sea eagle (WTSE) nesting habitat as indicator of biodiversity richness (using vascular plants and fungi as surrogated taxa) on islands of the Archipelago Sea in South-western Finland. We compared species richness on islands with and without a WTSE nest. We found weak evidence that islands with a WTSE nest support higher richness of vascular plants than islands without a nest. Conversely, we found no evidence that WTSE nests could be valid surrogates for fungi species inhabiting old-growth forests. Within the spatio-temporal and ecological limits of the present study, we suggest that the nesting habitat of WTSE may hold some surrogate potential for taxa, such as vascular plants, that may indicate high habitat diversity. This finding however remains to be confirmed. At the same time, it appears evident that the WTSE nesting habitat has poor surrogate potential with regards to old-growth forests. Overall, our findings line up with a growing body of other studies calling for caution and careful evaluation of the surrogacy efficiency of single species.
Thunb. is an invasive alien plant which was introduced from East Asia to Europe in the 19
century. Over the decades it has spread along the Finnish coast, including the archipelagos of the Baltic ...Sea. The shrub grows particularly along sandy beaches, stony shores and seashore meadows. There it leads to serious changes in coastal ecosystems and replaces native plant species. This paper presents the distribution and habitat preferences of
in and near Archipelago Sea National Park in SW Finland. We identified 205 stands in the study area, 58% of them in protected areas. Systematic inventories do not cover the whole study area, so it is likely that dozens of stands remain undiscovered. Stands of the species were concentrated on the outer islands, where the archipelago’s most characteristic flora and fauna occur. Data on the shore type and area of all stands were collected. The total area covered by
was 7277 m
before control work started in 2008. The largest stand occurred on Örö Island, covering
2500 m
before its eradication, and the median size of all stands was 6 m
. Five of the six largest stands were on sandy beach, but stony shore was the most common habitat type.
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