Conservation significance of intact forest landscapes in the Scandinavian Mountains Green Belt
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Conservation significance of intact forest landscapes in the Scandinavian Mountains Green Belt Johan Svensson . Jakub W. Bubnicki . Bengt Gunnar Jonsson . Jon Andersson . Grzegorz Mikusin´ski
Received: 6 July 2019 / Accepted: 1 August 2020 / Published online: 10 August 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Context As forest harvesting remains high, there is a crucial need to assess the remaining large, contiguous and intact forests, regionally, nationally and globally. Objectives Our objective was to analyze the spatial patterns and structural connectivity of intact and primary forests in northern Sweden with focus on the Scandinavian Mountain region; one of the few remaining large European intact forest landscapes.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01088-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Methods Over 22 million ha with 14.5 million ha boreal and subalpine forest and with data consisting of a 60-70 year retrospective sequence, we analyzed distribution, density and connectivity of forests that have not been clear cut, using moving window and landscape analyzes derived from Circuitscape. Results We revealed a contiguous, connected and semi-connected intact forest landscape forming a distinct Green Belt south to north along the mountain range. Almost 60% of the forestland remains intact, including contiguous clusters 10,000 ha and larger. The connectivity is particularly high in protected areas with primary forests outside contributing substantially to overall connectivity. We found gaps in connectivity
J. Svensson B. G. Jonsson Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, 901 83 Umea˚, Sweden e-mail: [email protected]
G. Mikusin´ski (&) Department of Ecology, Grimso¨ Wildlife Research Station, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, 730 91 Riddarhyttan, Sweden e-mail: [email protected]
J. W. Bubnicki Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, 17-230 Białowie_za, Poland
G. Mikusin´ski School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, 739 21 Skinnskatteberg, Sweden
B. G. Jonsson Department of Natural Sciences, Mid Sweden University, 851 70 Sundsvall, Sweden J. Andersson Sweco Environment AB, Umestan Fo¨retagspark Hus 12, Box 110, 901 03 Umea˚, Sweden
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in the southern parts, and furthermore low or absent connectivity across the whole inland and coastal areas of northern Sweden. Conclusions Given its ecological values, the Scandinavian Mountains Green Belt is a key entity supporting ecological legacies, boreal biodiversity and ecosystem services, resilience and adaptive capacity, which needs to be safeguarded for the future. On the very large areas outside the mountain region, forestlands are severely fragmented, connectivity values are lost, and forest landscape restoration is needed for conservation and
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