2006. Conflict management as a means to the sustainable use of natural resources. Silva Fennica

Abstract: Pastures for reindeer can be divided into green pastures (mainly herbs and grasses) of summer time and more or less snow-covered lichen pastures of winter. Fall and spring pastures have a composition in-between these extremes, but for model purposes bisection is sufficient. For the animals the green-pasture season is an anabolic phase with a physiological building-up of protein reserves, while winter is a catabolic phase where food-intake is reduced and the animals to a considerable extent survive on the accumulated reserves from summer. While protein reserves are stored from summer to winter, lichen pastures are stored from year to year. Grasses and herbs not being grazed are wilting by the end of the growing season, while lichens not grazed can live for many years. This corresponds with fundamental differences in both growth pattern and resilience. The implications of the different features, and their interconnections, are not easy to survey without formal modeling. The point of departure is a simple pasture-herbivore model, well known from the literature building on a set of differential equations. A new two-pasture-herbivore model is developed. The model includes as basic elements the Klein (1968) hypothesis and that a residual lichen biomass is kept ungrazed due to snow-cover protection. Further the annual cycle is divided into four stylized seasons with herd rates of winter survival, spring calving, summer physiological growth and fall slaughtering. Isoclines are derived for summer pasture, winter pasture and herbivores. Stability properties are discussed in relation to various situations of seasonal pasture balance. Empirical examples, particularly that of changes in pasture balance and vegetation cover in Western Finnmark,

Carbon accumulation in Finland’s forests 1922–2004 – an estimate obtained by combination of forest inventory data with modelling of biomass, litter and soil

www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/19/1961/2015/ doi:10.5194/hess-19-1961-2015 © Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Estimation of temporal and spatial variations in groundwater recharge in unconfined sand aquifers using Scots pine inventories

Terrestrial lichen biomass is an important indicator of forage availability for caribou in northern regions, and can indicate vegetation shifts due to climate change, air pollution or changes in vascular plant community structure. Techniques for estimating lichen biomass have traditionally required destructive harvesting that is painstaking and impractical, so we developed models to estimate biomass from relatively simple cover and height measurements. We measured cover and height of forage lichens (including single-taxon and multi-taxa ‘‘community’ ’ samples, n = 144) at 73 sites on the Seward Peninsula of northwestern Alaska, and harvested lichen biomass from the same plots. We assessed biomass-to-volume relationships using zero-intercept regressions, and compared differences among two non-destructive cover estimation methods (ocular vs. point count), among four landcover types in two ecoregions, and among single-taxon vs. multi-taxa samples. Additionally, we explored the feasibility of using lichen height (instead of volume) as a predictor of stand-level biomass. Although lichen taxa exhibited unique biomass and bulk density responses that varied significantly by growth form, we found that single-taxon sampling consistently under-estimated true biomass and was constrained by the need for taxonomic experts. We also found that the point count method provided little to no improvement over ocular methods, despite increased effort. Estimated biomass of lichen-dominated communities (mean lichen cover: 84.961.4%) using multi-taxa, ocular methods differed only nominally among landcover types within ecoregions (range: 822 to 1418 g m22). Height

Multi-source inventory methods for quantifying carbon stocks

ABSTRACT. Our aim was to investigate the amount of digging work (cratering) done by semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus) in woodland lichen pasture and the effect of snow and pasture conditions on the body condition of female reindeer. From 17 February until 21 April 2001, eight barren reindeer females were allowed to graze freely in a fenced area (20 ha). Measurements before the study showed the amount of lichens within the fenced area to average 632 kg DM/ha in dry pine forest. Inside the fenced area, there was 31.1 cm of relatively soft snow in February and 41.8 cm in April. Observations showed that in February the reindeer spent 39.8 % of the time digging and grazing and 1.0 % foraging arboreal lichens. In April, they spent 29.8% of the time digging and grazing and 5.2 % foraging arboreal lichens. During cratering, reindeer foraged (dug and picked food) with a certain repeated rhythm, using both front feet equally. The size of the grazed area and the volume of snow removed from a single crater were dependent on the total foraging time per crater. The mean body mass of the reindeer was 67.1 ± 2.67 kg in mid-February and 64.9 ± 2.98 kg in late April. It was calculated that in February one reindeer dug and grazed 75.6 m2 per day, and the mean change in reindeer body mass was actually +39 g per day. In April the corresponding figures for one reindeer were 60.1 m2 and-27 g per day. In the snow and pasture conditions prevailing during this study, the reindeer were able to get enough food and thereby energy to preserve their body condition well.

iii Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) management techniques have changed since the founding of the reindeer industry on the Seward Peninsula in 1891. From 1891-1915, herds were small and management was intensive. Between 1915 and 1944, community herds and joint stock companies were formed. Herd management was extensive and herds were large and relatively free roaming. A period of re-privatization followed from 1944 to 1960, during which a limited number of moderately stocked ranges were established. The era after 1960 saw the introduction of several new forms of technology, some of which became catalysts for broad changes in reindeer management. Snow machines (c. 1960s), helicopters (c. 1970s), radio telemetry (c. 1980s), and Internet use became an integral part of how reindeer were managed. Most recently, satellite telemetry and online mapping have been developed as herd management tools. Combining telemetry, mapping programs, and the Internet allows herders to monitor range use, herd movement, and whether their animals need to be moved to refuge areas to

Forest inventory-based large-scale forest biomass and carbon budget assessment: new enhanced methods and use of remote sensing for verification

Forest soils store a substantial amount of carbon, often more than the forest vegetation does. Estimates of the amount of soil carbon, and in particular estimates of changes in these amounts are still inaccurate. Measuring soil carbon is laborious, and measure-ments taken at a few statistically unrepresentative sites are difficult to scale to larger areas. We combined a simple dynamic model of soil carbon with litter production estimated on the basis of stand parameters, models of tree allometry and biomass turnover rates of different biomass components. This integrated method was used to simulate soil carbon as forest stands develop. The results were compared with measurements of soil carbon from 64 forest sites in southern Finland. Measured carbon stocks in the organic soil layer increased by an average of 4.7 1.4 g m2 a1 with increasing stand age and no significant changes were measured in the amount of carbon in mineral soil. Our integrated method indicated that soil carbon stocks declined to a minimum 20 years after clear-cutting and the subsequent increase in the soil carbon stock (F/H 1 m) was 5.8 1.0 g m2 a1 averaged over the period to next harvesting (125 years). Simulated soil carbon accumulation slowed down considerably in stands older than 50 years. The carbon stock measured (F/H 1 m) for the study area averaged 6.8 2.5 kg m2. The simulated carbon stock in soil was 7.0 0.6 kg m2 on average. These tests of the validity of the integrated model suggest that this method is suitable for estimating the amount of carbon in soil and its changes on regional scales.