2nd Conference of the Norwegian Ecologial Society (NØF)nof2015.uib.no/abstract_booklet.pdf ·...

2nd Conference of the

Norwegian Ecologial Society (NØF)

Ecological change, changing ecology

March 12 – 13th 2015, Bergen

2

Table of Contents

Key Note Presentations

3 Stein Byrkeland

4 Sigrunn Eliassen

5 Jens-Christian Svenning

6 Tron Frede Thingstad

Oral Presentations

8 Per Arild Aarrestad

9 Auestad, Inger

10 Kuber Prasad Bhatta

11 Kine Blom

12 Ursula Brandes

13 Maite Cerezo

14 Katrine Eldegard

15 Marianne Evju

16 Kåre Flatlandsmo

17 John-Arvid Grytnes

18 Aud Halbritter

19 Mari Heggernes Eilertsen

20 Stein Joar Hegland

21 Anne Hertel

22 Line Johansen

23 Lawrence Kirkendall

24 Subhash Lele

25 Rob J Lewis

26 Karen Lone

27 Anders Lundberg

28 Marie U. Maurset

29 Anders Nielsen

30 Magnus Svendsen Nerheim

31 Siri L. Olsen

32 Dilli Rijal

33 Eli Rinde

34 Line Rosef

35 Fride H. Schei

36 Alistair Seddon

37 Lila Nath Sharma

38 Olav Skarpaas

39 Audrey J. Geffen

40 Ynghild Storhaug

41 Christian B. Strømme

42 Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

43 Markus Arne Kjær Sydenham

44 Mia Vedel-Sørensen

45 Ole R. Vetaas

46 Sølvi Wehn

Poster Presentations

48 Sigrun Aune

49 Sigrid Skrivervik Bruvoll

50 Maite Cerezo

51 Kjetil Fossheim

52 Bjørn Arild Hatteland

53 Siri Vatsø Haugum

54 Stein Joar Hegland

55 Øistein H. Holen

56 Mari Jokerud

57 Eveliina Kallioniemi

58 Rozalia Erzsebet Kapas

59 Martin Kopecký

60 Hanna Lee

61 Maria Fotland Løvik

62 Bahar Mozfar

63 Toril Nes

64 Trond Reitan

65 Liv Guri Velle

66 Unni Vik

67 Kristin Wangen

2

Key Note Presentations

3

The Nature Diversity Act — from wise men to wise use

Stein Byrkeland1*

1Deputy Director for Environmental Protection, Hordaland County Governor's administration, Norway.

*Corresponding author email: [email protected]

Applied ecology and conservation in the 21st century: Keynote presentation

Wise use is a mantra in modern area planning in Norway. The Nature Diversity Act — established 2009 — provides new tools for decent, scientifically based and sustainable management. Every decision affecting area use in Norway needs to be in accordance with this act. Still, cumulative effects by a series of legal decisions may have negative, and sometimes destructive, effects on biodiversity, especially so for the area-demanding species. The number of decision makers is high and their skills may often be poor, and decisions may also be overruled due to political pressure. Habitat fragmentation is an important but often ignored topic affecting populations of vulnerable species. Will there be a viable population of Capercaillie in western Norway in 50 years from now, as long as forestry, construction of power lines, recreation and a number of other activities affecting their natural habitat are not coordinated in large regions, and access to wild areas is made easier due to building of new roads? Is there a point in preserving breeding islands for seabirds as long as these birds are not able to find enough food in the surrounding oceans? How can the 10 remaining populations of River Pearl Mussels in Hordaland be managed when there has hardly been any new recruitment for decades? The presentation will focus on recent challenges in nature conservation in western Norway, and also stress the importance of improved coordination between scientists and civil servants dealing with nature management.

4

Extra-pair mating and the evolution of cooperative neighbourhoods

Sigrunn Eliassen1*

1Institute for Biology, University of Bergen, Norway.


Open session: Keynote presentation

Our understanding of avian mating systems was completely overturned by the invention of molecular techniques and paternity analysis, revealing that the majority of bird species, once thought to be monogamous, were instead genetically polyandrous. Females commonly solicit copulations with males other than their paired mate, but the adaptive reason has been elusive. Using a theoretical model I will argue that the key driver in the evolution of extra-pair mating lies in the distribution of a male's potential paternity across nests. When a male gains interest in several neighbouring families, this creates incentives for him to cooperate with other males to produce public goods that in turn benefit females. In the context of socially monogamous birds, such cooperative behaviours may include reduction in territorial or aggressive interactions between neighbours, resource sharing during offspring rearing or collective behaviours to discourage predators. Our theory represents a shift in focus from genetic effects of extra-pair mating to the ecological consequences of predation and food limitation, which may have profound effects on reproductive success in wild populations. The model predicts that extra-pair sires are usually close neighbours, that extra-pair paternity is more common in short-lived species, and that different reproductive interests cause males to cooperate more toward public goods than females – patterns which are all commonly observed in field studies. I will discuss how our perspective adds to the broader goal of understanding the evolution of cooperation among non-related individuals and the emergence of complex societies in species including our own.

5

Biodiversity in a world of human dominance and rapid change – anthropocene challenges and opportunities

Jens-Christian Svenning1*

1Section for Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.


Global ecology in the Anthropocene: Keynote presentation

Human activities increasingly dominate the Earth system, taking up space, using the land and the species, changing the atmosphere and the climate, and blending long isolated floras and faunas. A predominant consequence throughout history has been dramatic losses of species diversity and natural ecosystems. With increasing intensities in all these Anthropocene drivers looming in the future such losses are likely to continue. Still, the Anthropocene also brings new possibilities and not all changes need be losses. Here, I will first consider prehistoric and historical human-driven dynamics, their legacies and the novel Anthropocene opportunities in the context of two biological cases, megafaunas and forests. Rapid and strong climate change is likely to characterize the coming decades and centuries, and as the second part of my presentation I will discuss the likely impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems and what may be possible as adaptive responses by people and society to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services. Finally, I provide some thoughts on the general conceptual and ethical challenges that biodiversity conservation and nature management in the Anthropocene entail, and how interdisciplinary perspectives may help address these.

6

Predicting the microbial response of the surface ocean ecosystem: modelling and mesocosm experiments

Tron Frede Thingstad1*

1Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway


Predictive ecology: Past, present and future: Keynote presentation

Dissolved nutrients can enter the pelagic food web through phytoplankton varying greatly in cell size, or through heterotrophic prokaryotes. The corresponding pathways through the microbial food web to metazoans involve different functional groups, occur at different characteristic time scales, and have different biogeochemical consequences. Developing a predictive ability for these responses in the microbial food web is thus a central element in predicting the ocean’s responses to anthrophogenic influence and global change. Experience shows, however, that similar experimental perturbations can evoke very different pathways, presumably rooted in differences in the state of the ecosystem present at startup. Responses observed in one experiment can therefore not be directly used to predict the next, but requires some kind of mathematical model that allows description of the initial state, the perturbation and the trophic interactions of the microbial food web. I describe the background for such a model and how it has developed to its present state through a series of mesocosm experiments.

7

Oral Presentations

8

Effects of amine emissions from CO2-capture plants on vegetation, soil and soil fauna in a nitrogen sensitive terrestrial ecosystem

Per Arild Aarrestad1*, Bård Pedersen1, Line Tau Strand2, Jens Åström1, Heidi Elin Myklebost1 and Mari Jokerud3

1Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. 2Norwegian University of Life Sciences. 3University of Bergen.


Norwegian changing landscapes: long presentation

CO2-capturing from fossil fuel burning power plants has become a commercial process worldwide. One method, developed on an industrial scale, is chemical absorption by use of amines. The process leads to minor emissions of amines and nitrogen degradation products, which have the potential to affect the surrounding environment through eutrophication. A two years experimental study with the aim to clarify effects of relevant dosages of amines was carried out on Atlantic bog in western Norway. The study was performed as a standard Before After Control Impact experiment with yearly watering of amines on permanent plots with three different nitrogen dosages, corresponding to a worst case scenario of emissions, the critical load of nitrogen and three times the critical load for the bog ecosystem. The vegetation was analysed for plant species composition, plant growth, visual damages and nutrient chemistry of plants. Soil water was analysed for chemical components. Collembola (springtails) in peat were analysed for species richness and community composition. Low dosages of amines did not affect the bog ecosystem, except an increase in diversity of Collembola. However, the study indicated an early stage of eutrophication at high dosages with increased nitrogen availability in soil water, increased growth of graminoids and a decrease in lichens.

9

Spruce on the loose – a project addressing the invasion potential of sitka spruce in coastal Western Norway

Auestad, Inger1* and Rydgren, Knut1

1Sogn og Fjordane University College, Dept. of Science and Engineering, Sogndal, Norway.*Corresponding author email: [email protected]

Managing invasive species: short presentation

Although legislation presently restricts planting of the alien conifer sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) due to its invasive potential, planting is recommended in coastal areas due to fast growth and alleged potential for reducing greenhouse emissions. In 2015, we launch a PhD-project investigating the invasion potential of sitka spruce in coastal Western Norway at landscape, community and population scale, emphasising the species’ dispersal potential.

The project focus on the following issues: How has the coastal landscape changed after establishment of sitka spruce plantations, and how will it develop in the future? These questions will be answered by time-series analyses of aerial photos in GIS and distribution modelling. Moreover, we study the effect at community level through vegetation analyses in areas prone to sitka invasion. Finally, we explore how sitka spruce demography relate to environmental factors, using population modelling (IPM).

Preliminary investigations at the landscape scale indicate that careful selection of sample units may allow effective but representative mapping and subsequent monitoring of sitka distribution. Moreover, sitka spruce invasion processes may exhibit regional variation since planting patterns follow the landscape pattern and vary between large scaled landscapes such as Stadlandet (S&Fj) and fine scaled landscapes such as Radøy (Ho).

10

Changes in species composition after two decades of temperature increase and canopy closure of temperate Oak-Laurel forest in central Himalaya

Kuber Prasad Bhatta1* and Ole Reidar Vetaas1

1Department of Geography, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.


Global ecology in the Anthropocene: long presentation

We compare oak forest from 1993 and 2013 to study an effect of increased canopy-closure and atmospheric temperature on the species composition of oak forest. We sampled 64 plots of 100m2 following sampling protocol of Vetaas (1997), and recorded all terrestrial vascular plants, altitude, and canopy cover in each sample plot. We analyzed the changes in species abundance with respect to canopy cover and atmospheric temperature using uni- and multivariate statistics.

Observed changes were towards an increased abundance of trees and climbers, whereas decline of the herbaceous and shrub species. The changes were mostly explained by the atmospheric temperature with a minor but significant canopy effect. A significant decrease in the weighted average elevation of the 2013 plots as compared to those in 1993 was evident. However, such a decrease in elevation optima was insignificant for the site with dense and stable canopy cover.

Even though fine-scale temporal changes in the temperate forests are mostly driven by regional climate warming, landuse dynamics can modify the fingerprints of climate warming on the species composition. Hence, the magnitude of the temporal vegetation change is dependent of the severity of regional climate warming, landuse-change, and life form traits of the plant species.

11

Traditional hay-cut management can alleviate the effects of anthropogenic nitrogen deposition on meadows, but only a little

Kine Blom1*, Amy Eycott1 and Vigdis Vandvik1

1Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway.


Norwegian changing landscapes: short presentation

Increased nitrogen deposition associated with intensification of agriculture and increased fossil fuel combustion leads to decreased species richness and functional diversity in grasslands across Europe. It has been suggested that biomass removal, mimicking the hay cutting regimes of traditional meadowland management, can mitigate for increased nitrogen addition.

In the BEGIN study we quantified relative effects of N deposition and land-use abandonment on a lowland meadow in western Norway with low background deposition. Since 2007, oxidised and reduced forms of nitrogen have been added to plots to mimic different sources, with a combined form applied at two concentration levels and across two types of cut – the traditional cut in July, or July plus September. We measured community composition and above-ground biomass every year, plus biomass divided by functional group every second year. Nitrogen addition in all forms and concentrations decreased species richness regardless of cutting regime. Cutting considerably increased growth of the bryophyte Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus. Biomass patterns depend on nitrogen form, cutting regime, and position within the meadow. We suggest that traditional management is maintained but that it cannot compensate for the increased nitrogen deposition experienced near nitrogen sources such as intensive animal units, fossil fuel power stations and motorways.

12

Genetic analysis of Cytisus scoparius expansion in Norway

Ursula Brandes1*, Beate Furevik1, Line Rosef1 and Siri Fjellheim1

1Department of Plant Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1430 Ås.


Managing invasive species: short presentation

During the last 50 years, Cytisus scoparius (Fabaceae) has expanded rapidly from its limited distribution on the southern coast of Norway in 1900. The shrub causes concerns because it occasionally invades vulnerable ecosystems, such as coastal dunes and heathlands. One reason for the recent expansion of C. scoparius could be the introduction of invasive genotypes. This is the case in Denmark, where two different genotypes were identified; one is regarded as native and the other as invasive.

This study aims to identify if C. scoparius is native or was introduced to Norway. We further want to determine the frequency and origin of possible introductions and their subsequent expansion pattern in Norway.

We sampled seventy-nine populations of C. scoparius from Norway, Europe and from Norwegian herbarium specimens dating back to 1896. Samples were analysed for chloroplast DNA sequence variations.

Results show a high genetic variation in chloroplasts of C. scoparius in Norway, but no temporal and spatial structure. Most of seven different haplotypes group with European samples, which reveals multiple successful introductions from different European sources. Herbarium samples show that introductions occurred already before 1900. Additional nuclear DNA analysis will reveal the genetic diversity within and gene flow among different populations.

13

Arctic fox diet in Yamal Peninsula

Maite Cerezo1*, Natasha Sokolova2, Alexandr Sokolov2 and Dorothée Ehrich3

1Northern Populations and Ecosystem research group, University of Tromso, Norway. 2Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia. 3Northern Populations and Ecosystem research group, University of Tromso, Norway.


Open session: short presentation

Specialist and generalist predators play different roles in food webs and have different impacts on their prey populations. The arctic fox behaves as specialist or a generalist to different degrees. In inland tundra arctic foxes usually act as lemming or small rodent specialists. Their reproductive activity in terms of number of breeding pairs and litter size, is strongly influenced by lemmings and/or voles cyclic dynamics which constitute the major part of the diet in peak years. Such fox populations fluctuate in synchrony with the small rodent cycle. In Fennoscandia, the fading out of the rodent cycles, possibly associated to climate change, has been determined as one of the causes of the dramatic decline in arctic fox populations. Here we study an arctic fox population in the low Arctic on Yamal peninsula, Russia. Contrary to expectations, the breeding activity does not appear to follow the small rodent dynamics, which is characterized by rather low amplitude fluctuations and low densities. Preliminary results from the dietary analysis showed that small mammals have an important role on the diet, but prey items such as eggs, birds, both passerines and waterfowl, and berries represent an important part of it as well.

14

Edge effects on plant power-line clearings

Katrine Eldegard1*, Ørjan Totland1 and Stein R. Moe1

1Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Environmental Science and Technology, Norway. *Corresponding author email: [email protected]


Power-line clearings are edge-creating disturbances in landscapes worldwide, but there have been few studies on the vegetation bordering them. We quantified edge effects on plant communities along such clearings and identified factors influencing these at 51 sites in Norway. We compared edges with their corresponding ‘non-edge’ reference habitats on either side of the edge, and measured differences in species composition across the edge.

Differences in species composition were greater between clearings and their edges than between forests and forest edges. Plant communities in clearings and adjacent forests converged along the edge, but differences in species composition across the edge increased with edge contrast and forest productivity. Edge effects on species composition into the forest were smallest along north-facing edges, whereas those in the clearings increased with power-line age.

Species richness increased slightly towards the edge in forests but decreased considerably towards the edge in clearings. The direction and magnitude of edge effects on either side differed among functional groups. Edge contrast and edge aspect were the prime factors influencing the magnitude of edge effects into forests, whereas in clearings these were influenced principally by tree regrowth in the clearings and forest productivity. We discuss the management implications of our results.

http://www.nmbu.no/en/about-nmbu/faculties/miljotek


15

Short-term monitoring can guide decisions in large-scale restoration projects

Marianne Evju1* and Dagmar Hagen2

1Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Gaustadalleen 21, 0349 Oslo, Norway. 2Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Postboks 5685 Sluppen, 7485 Trondheim, Norway.


Applied ecology and conservation in the 21st century: long presentation

Restoration of degraded ecosystems is a stated CBD-target to halt the loss of biodiversity. Effective ecological restoration depends on the explicit formulation of goals, which are translated into scientifically measurable ecological attributes that can be monitored. Data from long-term monitoring are rarely available when restoration is planned and implemented. In this study, we show how short-term monitoring data are incorporated into the large-scale restoration of a former military training area (165 km2). The restoration includes the removal of 90 km of roads. To test the effectiveness of technical methods for removal and the level of intervention necessary to ensure ecological recovery, a pilot project was established in 2002, removing 1.2 km of roads and testing three restoration treatments to facilitate vegetation development. A monitoring program was initiated to record the vegetation recovery, using three ecological attributes to evaluate effects of restoration treatments: vegetation cover, species richness, and abundance of non-native species. We discuss pilot project results in relation to level of intervention of the restoration treatments and to temporal scale. We consider the implications of the short-term data for the large-scale restoration and describe the cooperation between developers, research ecologists, and contractors, illustrating how adaptive management is relevant to large-scale restoration projects.

16

Pricing both sides of the story

Kåre Flatlandsmo1*

15700 Voss, Norway.


Global ecology in the Anthropocene: short presentation

Ecosystem services and their contribution to human welfare is a huge and challenging topic. By the turn of the century several studies on this issue were accomplished, the more significant ones were MA** and TEEB***.

Although controversial, the concept of “pricing both sides of the story” is accepted by a number of leading international and Norwegian biologists as a tool supporting efforts to maintain the diversity of nature in order to obtain durable ecosystem services.

The importance of visualizing the economic cost of human action on nature is discussed, as well as the challenging task of introducing this view into the political decision making process at a local level. Furthermore the importance of The Norwegian Biodiversity Act is discussed and how this legal act may prove to be useful in support of this effort.

To illustrate some concrete aspects, the economic value of the carbon storage abilities of marsh land is used as a case, together with a general view on the huge amount of small scale electric power plants at present being built in the western part of Norway, and their impact on nature.

** Millennium ecosystem Assessment

*** The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity

17

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Scenarios Network (ScenNet)

John-Arvid Grytnes1*



Predictive ecology: Past, present and future: short presentation

Scenario-building has been used to a large extent in the scientific literature to predict what will happen with biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services under different global change impacts. Such scenarios are important tools for communicating threats to biodiversity and for efficient management measures. Scenario exploration also makes an important contribution to global programs such as Future Earth and the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). ScenNet is a newly launched project aiming at establishing a network of scientists with knowledge and competence scenario-building, from biologists studying the effects of climate change, ecologists giving advice on a sustainable exploitation of biological resources, to sociologists studying the socio-economic effects of changes in biodiversity and ecosystems. ScenNet will make it easier for national organisations and political decision-makers to find relevant competence on the effects of global changes. At the same time, the network will also contribute to international programs like IPBES. Another important aspect for ScenNet is to allow researchers on the different aspects of these scenarios to meet and learn from each other across specialisms and countries. The project is in the building phase and scientists interested in this topic are very welcome to contact the author of this presentation.

18

Climate change effects on phenology in alpine plant communities

Aud Halbritter1*, Ørjan Totland1,2 and Vigdis Vandvik1

1Department of Biology University of Bergen, Norway. 2Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.



Phenology in plants is very sensitive to changes in temperature and generally trends towards earlier spring phenology have been observed in the northern hemisphere. However, changes in precipitation patterns can be important at high elevation, because increased snowfall during winter can shorten the growing season. Accelerated flowering after late snowmelt indicate plastic phenological responses in many plants. In addition, transplant experiments indicate that the timing of flowering is to some extent genetically determined.

We studied phenological responses in alpine plant communities, using a climate grid that combines a temperature and a precipitation gradient to assess the independent and joint impacts of both variables. The start, peak and duration of flowering and seed set was assessed for 40 plant species on vegetation turfs that have been transplanted to warmer, wetter and both warmer and wetter conditions. We explicitly asked, to what extent differences in phenological responses are plastic or genetically determined. Understanding to what extent species will respond to future climate change by phenotypic plasticity or adaptation is important, because it could affect their ability to persist. Furthermore, changes in the timing of flowering can disrupt plant-pollinator interactions with consequences for both plants and insects.


19

Speciation in the dark: diversification and biogeography of the deep-sea gastropod genus Scaphander in the Atlantic Ocean

Mari Heggernes Eilertsen1* and Manuel Antonio E. Malaquias2

1Marine Biodiversity Research Group, Department of Biology, University of Bergen, 5006 Bergen, Norway. 2Phylogenetic Systematics and Evolution Research Group, Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.


The power of phylogenetics to interpret ecological patterns: short presentation

Speciation and biogeographic patterns of deep-sea faunas are poorly understood because of taxonomic difficulties, comparatively limited and uneven sampling, and a shortage of available material for molecular phylogenetic inference where broad geographic and taxon coverage is desirable. The aim of this work is to improve understanding about the mode, geography and tempo of diversification of deep-sea organisms, using a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of the heterobranch gastropod genus Scaphander. Sister relationships between Indo-West Pacific and Atlantic lineages suggest both vicariant events caused by the closure of the Tethyan Seaway and dispersal between the two ocean basins, likely around South Africa during episodic disruptions of the deep-sea regional current system caused by climate change events. Cladogenetic estimates do not support a comparatively older diversification of deep-sea faunas, but corroborate the hypothesis of a pulse of diversification centred around the Oligocene–Miocene epochs. Allopatric speciation was prevalent, but one potential case of sympatric speciation was detected between two western Atlantic species. Amphi-Atlantic species were found to occur at deeper depths and we hypothesize that trans-Atlantic connectivity is maintained by dispersal between neighbouring reproductive populations inhabiting the abyssal sea floor and by dispersal across the shelf and slope of Artic and sub-Arctic regions.

20

Road verge and landscape scale effects on vehicle-deer collision risk

Stein Joar Hegland1* and Liv Norunn Hamre2

1The Norwegian Red Deer Centre, Svanøy, Norway. 2Faculty of Science, University College of Sogn and Fjordane, Sogndal, Norway.



Vehicle-deer collisions pose a large threat to wildlife welfare and traffic security, and represent a significant socio-economic cost. Landscape factors may play a significant role in determining risk for collisions and hence to adapt mitigations and plan new roads. We investigated whether landscape composition and configuration could help explain collision risk. We hypothesized scale-dependency in the impact of landscape composition such that increasing proportion of open vegetation on road verge scale would decrease collision risk due to increased visibility, but that more open vegetation on larger scales would increase collision risk as red deer is attracted towards agricultural land for grazing. There was no scale-dependency of landscape composition on collision risk as higher proportion of grassy vegetation on both 10 and 100-m scales decreased the number of red deer vehicle collisions Vehicle-deer collisions were reduced by ca. 50% when no vegetation was present on road verge scale and a case study of road verge clearance verified these findings. The landscape configuration “forest-uphill-and farmland-downhill” increased collision risk. Road verge clearance is effective as mitigation to reduce vehicle-deer collisions. A rule of thumb when planning roads in winter habitats of deer roads is to avoid the spatial configuration of farmland-downhill and forest-uphill.

21

Bears and Berries - Foraging on a patchily distributed food resource

Anne Hertel1*, Sam Steyaert1, Andreas Zedrosser2,3, Atle Mysterud4, Ole-Gunnar Støen1 and Jon E. Swenson1,5

1Institutt for Naturforvaltning, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway. 2Department of Environmental and Health Sciences, Telemark University College, 3833 Bø, Norway. 3Institute for Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Gregor Mendel Str. 33, A-1180 Vienna, Austria. 4Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway, 5Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, 7485 Trondheim, Norway.


Applied ecology and conservation in the 21st century: short presentation

In central Sweden, brown bears feed on berries to increase their body mass for hibernation. Berry occurrence and abundance is highly variable in space, but there are few explicit analyses of how much berries affect space use of bears relative to other habitat requirements. Because berries ripen over a short period, bears are likewise constrained by time to use resources efficiently. Thus, bears have to deal with a high degree of uncertainty. Here we used GPS telemetry to document how bears navigate the landscape in search for high-quality berry patches. We monitored seven individuals with a scheduled GPS fix rate of 24 positions per day over a period of four weeks in August 2014. We analyzed movement trajectories and visited 360 field positions to determine berry abundance. Berry abundance and probability of berry occurrence at foraging positions was compared to random positions (n = 376), while controlling for habitat covariates. Bears selectively chose areas with a higher probability of berry occurrence (p < 0.001) and higher berry abundance (p <0.001) than that found in random plots. Our study highlights that bear movement during fall is affected by berry distribution, and hence a key to predicting their behavior.

22

Evaluations of ecosystem services from vegetation in semi-natural boreal landscapes

Line Johansen1*, Sølvi Wehn1 and Simon Taugourdeau1

1Bioforsk, Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Stjørdal, Norway.



In boreal ecosystems, traditionally diverse agricultural landscapes were composed of a mosaics of intensively used fields (monocultures), low intensively used vegetation types such as semi-natural grasslands and forests. The landscapes are now changing to less diverse landscapes of fields and forests. Agricultural landscapes are potential suppliers of ecosystem services such as aesthetic, genetic, pollination and agricultural production. The ongoing process of landscape change will influence provision of ecosystem services but little is known about in which directions. The aim of this project is to shed light on potential outcomes of the land-use changes on ecosystem services in agricultural boreal landscapes.

In the project we will develop indicators obtained from plant trait databases and botanical survey to assess ecosystem services provided by plant communities in semi-natural pastures and abandoned habitats. This will clarify potential losses or gains when low intensive management is ceased. In the presentation we will present a method to assess ecosystem services and highlight potential differences between the two land use categories.

23

Extreme inbreeding

Lawrence Kirkendall1*



The power of phylogenetics to interpret ecological patterns: Long presentation

Extreme inbreeding encompasses dioecious animals which normally mate only with other family members and hermaphroditic animals and plants which regularly self-fertilize. Many biologists believe that regular inbreeding is rare and an evolutionary dead-end, a reasonable assumption given the pervasiveness of strong inbreeding depression observed in experiments with outbreeders. However, inbreeders are more common than generally supposed, and in many groups extreme inbreeding is common and has been successful for tens of millions of years. Indeed, in certain groups of plants and animals, the most widespread and abundant species are inbreeders. I review the general phylogenetic patterns of extreme inbreeding, and point out some clear ecological correlates.

Regular inbreeding rapidly produces homozygous multi-locus genotypes which are passed on relatively intact from one generation to the next, by what can be called quasiclonal reproduction. I briefly discuss the salient similarities and differences between inbreeding and truly clonal (asexual) reproduction.

24

Occupancy and Abundance estimation in the presence of detection error: What can we do with single survey?

Subhash Lele1*

1Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.



Detection error is present in almost all ecological surveys. The method of replicate surveys, where one visits the same survey location several times, is the most commonly used method to correct for detection error. This method suffers from various shortcomings: (a) hard to satisfy assumption of close population assumption, (2) logistical and financial difficulties, and (3) lack of replication in historical data. We show that if information on habitat covariates that affect occupancy (abundance) and detection is collected, then one can estimate detection probability as well as occupancy/abundance parameters. This removes the need for replicate surveys. We discuss abundance estimation in N-mixture models and their extension to distance sampling situations where data might have been collected under many different protocols.

25

Accurate species pool measures through dark diversity estimates: A comparison of methods

Rob J Lewis1*, Robert Szava-Kovats1 and Meelis Pärtel1

1 Inst. of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Lai 40, Tartu 51005.


Predictive ecology: Past present and future: long presentation

Species observations form the foundations in which ecological theories are established and verified, biodiversity conservation is fostered and monitored and, statistical models are developed and scrutinized. Observations are however, subsets of the larger species pool. The remaining fraction i.e. all species theoretically able to exist but otherwise absent has recently been coined the ‘Dark Diversity’, with evidence emerging supporting it unveils valuable information regarding underlying community processes and the distribution and function of species.

Capturing this information is however not straightforward as dark diversity cannot be directly measured. It can nonetheless be estimated, and here we empirically test two plausible methods: 1) species co-occurrence probability and, 2) ecological requirements of species i.e. Ellenberg indicator values. Using a national-scale dataset of 3380 spatially-nested coastal vegetation plots of 4m2 and 200m2 from Scotland, we quantify and validate dark diversity estimates.

Results indicate the co-occurrence method to be more robust and more accurate of the two, being less sensitive to changes in confidence thresholds, and resulting in significantly fewer negative mismatches (i.e. species observed but not predicted). We conclude that dark diversity can be successfully estimated using readily available data, through exploring species co-occurrence patterns. We discuss the utility of the two approaches and the implications for improving our understanding of the mechanisms governing species coexistence.

26

An adaptive behavioural response to hunting: surviving male red deer shift habitat at the onset of the hunting season

Karen Lone1*, Leif Egil Loe1, Erling L. Meisingset2, Inga Stamnes1 and Atle Mysterud3

1Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway. 2Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Organic Food and Farming Division, Tingvoll, Norway. 3Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Norway.



Using habitat with dense concealing cover is a common strategy for risk avoidance, with a higher chance of survival being the pay off. At the same time, risk avoidance can be costly in terms of missed foraging opportunities. We investigated individual fine-scale use of habitat by 40 GPS-marked European red deer, Cervus elaphus, and linked this to their survival through the hunting season. Whereas all males used similar habitat in the days before the hunting season, the onset of hunting induced an immediate switch to habitat with more concealing cover in surviving males, but not in males that were later shot. This habitat switch also involved a trade-off with foraging opportunities on bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus, a key forage plant in autumn. The lack of a corresponding pattern in females can be because females were already largely using cover when hunting started, as predicted by sexual segregation theory and the risk of losing offspring. The behavioural response of males to the onset of hunting appears to be adaptive, given that it is linked to increased survival, an important fitness component. Management should consider the potential for both ecological and evolutionary consequences of harvesting regimes on behaviour.

27

Annual mowing can increase the abundance and distribution of the endangered and red-listed plant species Serratula tinctoria L.

Anders Lundberg1*

1Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway.



In Norway, Serratula tinctoria has a restricted distribution in the southwest, i.e. the southern part of Jæren. In total, 18 populations are known. Three of these have become extinct and most of the rest are retreating due to cessation of mowing. The species is red-listed and considered endangered (EN). Since 2010, a few of the populations have been managed through annual mowing and the response of Serratula tinctoria has been monitored. Mowing has been carried out in September-October each year, to enable ripening of the seeds. After five years of treatment, the number of Serratula plants in the test field has increased by 140% and the distribution has increased by 12.5%. The management has been a success and can now be applied to other populations of Serratula in Norway. Invasion of blackberry is a challenge in some populations of Serratula and efforts have been made to get rid of blackberry there. All above-ground biomass of blackberry has been harvested by hand in June each year and the fields have been mown in September-October. After five years of treatment the number of blackberry shoots increased by barely 10%. This calls for a reconsideration of the type of blackberry management necessary to reduce its threats to Serratula tinctoria.

28

Long-term effects of shifts in grazing pressure on alpine vegetation vary along an elevational gradient

Marie U. Maurset1*, Gunnar Austrheim and James D.M. Speed

1NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.



Sheep (Ovis aries) are the main large herbivore in Norwegian mountains during summer and these herbivores have shaped the alpine plant communities over a long land-use history. Sheep are selective feeders, and increased livestock densities increases the pressure on some plant species and growth form groups while others benefit from the grazing. Cessation of grazing also alter the competitive relationship among plants, but how plant species respond to shifts in grazing pressure along an elevational gradient is less known. We used a large-scale enclosure experiment, located in the low- to mid-alpine zone, with fixed sheep densities (0, 25 (maintained density) and 80 sheep km-2). Frequency changes of plant species and growth form groups were studied in permanent vegetation plots during 12 years of experimental grazing. Graminoids increased in response to enhanced grazing, while tall herbs decreased. Low herbs decreased at low elevations in response to cessation of grazing, but not at higher elevations, and shrubs decreased at low elevations in response to both enhanced and decreased grazing pressure. This suggests that shifts in grazing pressure cause different responses among growth form groups of plants, and that these responses vary along the elevational gradient.

29

Pollination; an Ecosystem Service Affected by Climate Change (Polliclim)

Anders Nielsen1* and Stein Joar Hegland2

1Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Norway. 2Stiftelsen Norsk Hjortesenter/Høgskulen i Sogn og Fjordane.

Corresponding author email: [email protected]


Plant-pollinator interactions are ubiquitous in nature, ensuring sexual reproduction in wild plant communities and maximum yield from entomophilous crops. Several recent reviews have highlighted the lack of empirical data available for studying the effect of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions. The Polliclim project seeks to investigate climate induced changes in plant pollinator systems. Different crops will be studied in both the northern and southern hemisphere, including also interactions with adjacent wild plant and pollinator communities. I will present our plans for the coming year and some preliminary results from our studies of raspberry pollination in Norway. It appears that raspberry is not pollinator or pollen limited in the four farms we have studied (two in Vestfold and two in Sogn). Flower visitation was not affected by agricultural practice (growing tunnels) and the visitation frequencies were similar both within and between our focal areas. Overall the majority of visits (87%) were conducted by honeybees, illustrating the importance of managed pollinators in this system, while ~10% was conducted by bumble bees. However, the importance of wild pollinators varied. The farms on the west coast both received ~6.5% wild pollinator visits while on the east coast the numbers were ~26% and ~16%.

30

Microbial diversity of plastic associated marine biofilms

Magnus Svendsen Nerheim1*, Inger Lise Nerland2, Kevin Thomas2 and Gunnar Bratbak1

1Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway. 2Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway.



Plastic associated microorganisms likely mediate the fate of plastic pollution in the marine environment, and are expected to impact several key processes including degradation, buoyancy, chemical adsorption and colonization of or ingestion by larger organisms.

Relative bacterial abundances on 8 different plastic polymers, exposed for 6 weeks in a marine environment, were determined using molecular techniques. The beta-diversity of the associated marine biofilms was investigated and related to several factors, including depth, polymer type and properties, and toxicant load.

Bacterial communities localized on plastic deployed at the surface and at the seafloor differed significantly. No significant difference was observed between the communities on different plastic types at the same depth, and could not be explained by plastic properties. Toxicant loads were higher in samples from the seafloor and did not explain the community structure on different plastic types. Surface exposed samples contained a large variety of taxa, ranging from algae to cnidarians. SEM micrographs show no indication of physical microbial-plastic interactions.

Overall, these results clearly show the presence of diverse biofilm communities on plastic pollution in a marine environment. Their interaction with the substrate and its associated chemicals requires will prove important in understanding the future of marine plastic pollution.

31

From facilitation to competition: temperature-driven shift in dominant plant interactions affects population dynamics in semi-natural grasslands

Siri L. Olsen1,2*, Joachim P. Töpper3,4, Olav Skarpaas1, Vigdis Vandvik4 and Kari Klanderud2

1Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Oslo, Norway. 2Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway. 3Faculty of Engineering and Science, Sogn og Fjordane University College, Norway. 4Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway.


Global Ecology in the Anthropocene: long presentation

Biotic interactions are often ignored in assessments of climate change impacts. However, climate-related changes in species interactions, often mediated through increased dominance of certain species or functional groups, may have important implications for how species respond to climate warming and altered precipitation patterns. We examined how a dominant plant functional group affected the population dynamics of four subdominant forb species, and whether this effect varied with temperature and precipitation, by experimentally removing graminoids in semi-natural grasslands along natural climate gradients in southern Norway. Biotic interactions affected population growth rates of all study species. Overall, the net outcome of interactions between dominants and subdominants switched from facilitation to competition with increasing temperature, mainly driven by changes in plant survival. Precipitation had less consistent, species-specific effects. Our findings suggest that global warming may increase the relative importance of competitive interactions in semi-natural grasslands, thereby favouring highly competitive dominant species. As a result, these grasslands may become increasingly dependent on traditional management practices (e.g. grazing and mowing) to maintain viable populations of subdominant species and thereby biodiversity under future climate conditions. Our study highlights the importance of population-level studies for understanding the underlying mechanisms of climate change impacts on plant communities.

32

Impact of invasive Heracleum persicum (tromsøpalme) on species richness and diversity

Dilli Rijal1*, Torbjørn Alm1, Lennart Nilsen2 and Inger Greve Alsos1

1Department of Natural Sciences/ Tromsø Museum, UIT- The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway. 2Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UIT- The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.


Managing invasive species: long presentation

Heracleum persicum (tromsøpalme), an introduced ornamental of the 19th century, has become a serious pest in Scandinavia. The impact of species on Norwegian biodiversity was evaluated by comparing species richness, diversity indices and vegetation composition of H. persicum invaded and non-invaded sites. Cover of each species was estimated for 56 pair control-invaded plots of 4 m2 from 12 locations. A total of 68 and 78 species were observed in invaded and control plots, of which 13 and 23, respectively, were unique. Both evenness and Shannon’s diversity were reduced in invaded (0.58 ± 0.02 and 1.20 ± 0.05, respectively) compared to control plots (0.72 ± 0.02 and 1.52 ± 0.07, respectively). Species richness was significantly lower in invaded plots than controls only when the invader was excluded from the analysis. In contrast to expected, we observed a positive association of genetic diversity of H. persicum with species richness within invaded plots (r2

adj = 0.22). Sørensen index of dissimilarity was significantly lower in invaded (0.64 ± 0.003) than non-invaded (0.75 ± 0.004) plots. Latitude, slope and genetic diversity of Heracleum persicum explained most of the variations in the invaded vegetation; whereas, latitude and species richness were strongly correlated with vegetation of control plots. Heracleum persicum has reduced the abundance of coexisting species and indicated a risk of local extinction through competitive exclusion.

33

Changing kelp forests

Eli Rinde1*, Hartvig Christie1, Camilla W. Fagerli1, Trine Bekkby1,2 Hege Gundersen1 and Kjell Magnus Norderhaug1,3

1Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway. 2Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway. 3Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Norway


Open session: long presentation

Due to climate change and human impact kelp forests are in a state of change both with respect to distribution, growth and survival. Some of the most productive and species rich kelp forests in the world are found along the Norwegian coast. Here, areas previously grazed by sea urchins are now recovering in regions that have become warmer during the last decade and in areas which experience increased abundance of crab. NIVA has studied kelp forests (biodiversity, primary and secondary production, population dynamic etc.) and kelp and sea urchin interactions for more than 20 years, and we will present recent knowledge on the influence of multiple stressors (physical factors, temperature, changes in trophic interactions) on kelp forests and likely influences of climate change on stability properties (e.g. the ability to maintain dense vegetation cover) of this important marine ecosystem.

34

Regional invasion of a nitrogen-fixing shrub – the case of Cytisus scoparius in SW Norway

Line Rosef *1, Einar Heegaard2, Siri Fjellheim1, Ursula Brandes1, Johannes Kollmann3, Thomas Wagner3 and Hans Martin Hanslin4

1Department of Plant Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, PO. Box 5003, NO-1432 ÅS. 2Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Fanaflaten 4, NO-5244 Fana. 3Restoration Ecology, Technische Universität München, Emil-Ramann-Str. 6, 85350 Freising, Germany. 4Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Særheim, NO-4353 Klepp Stasjon.


Managing invasive species: long presentation

Forty years ago, Cytisus scoparius, a leguminous shrub, had a limited distribution in Norway. In recent decades, it has expanded aggressively in coastal areas of southern Norway. In this investigation, we focus on the climatic and anthropogenic drivers of this regional invasion. The study area was SW Norway (from Grimstad to Øygarden) including vulnerable ecosystems such as coastal sand dunes and heathlands. C. scoparius individuals (14590) were geo-referenced, and the GPS auto-file represents a measure of the sampling intensity. For a broad scale statistical model we applied a regionalized cross-validation selection approach, and we allowed for a latent spatial structure by a Gaussian Field (GF). The climatic influence on the spatial distribution was associated with warm autumns, and wet springs and dry summers. In addition, there was a negative correlation with distance from buildings. These results in combination with a noticeable spatial range (GF) suggest that an anthropogenic driven spread is very important for the expansion of C. scoparius, and while it is abundant in ruderal ecosystems, it only rarely invades vulnerable ecosystems.

35

What is going on in our broadleaved woodlands?

Fride H. Schei1*, Magne Sætersdal1 and John-Arvid Grytnes2

1Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Fana, Norway. 2Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.



Several reserves were established in broadleaved woodlands in 1984, as broadleaved woodlands was, and still are, considered to be threatened. The main threats reported are invasive species, lack of traditional forest management and increased browsing by wild ungulates. Unfortunately, our understanding of how these factors affect the forest is constrained by the lack of long-term studies in such woodlands. Here, we use total inventory lists of vascular plants in 25 broadleaved woodlands (10 reserves) sampled in 1988-89 and 2009 to quantify vegetation changes and to relate them to environmental changes. We find an increase of several invasive and black-listed species, e.g. Sambucus racemosa and Petasites japonicus. We also show that these woodlands are becoming denser, with a decrease in abundance of some light demanding species and with an increase in presence and abundance of boreal species (e.g. Vaccinium vitis-idaea). Our results support the understanding that these woodlands have been affected by humans for a long time and much of the observed changes are likely to be due to the cessation of traditional forest management. We ask: Are we contributing to change the broadleaved woodlands by "letting in" boreal and invasive species? And does it matter that these woodlands are changing?

mailto:[email protected]

36

Untangling the climatic signal of the hemlock decline (Tsuga canadensis): a species distribution modelling approach

Alistair Seddon1*, Hannah Smith2 and Joseph Chipperfield1

1Department of Biology University of Bergen, Norway. 2Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, UK.


Predictive ecology: Past, present and future: long presentation

The mid-Holocene hemlock decline is one of the most intensively studied palaeoecological

events. Marked by a steep decline in pollen percentages across North America ca. 5,500

years ago, the hemlock decline occurred in less than a century, and in some places in even

less than a decade. Whilst some studies concluded that a pest or pathogen outbreak was the

most likely explanation, several others have raised the possibility that droughts played an

important role. If so, the hemlock decline may be an important ancient counterpart to the

drought-and pest-induced tree mortality events that are becoming increasingly widespread.

Using the output from a global palaeoclimate model and data from ~330 sites from the

Neotoma Palaeoecological Database, this study applies a species distribution modelling

approach to evaluate the drivers of hemlock range dynamics from 6000 yrs BP (Before

Present) to the present day. Specifically, we ask the question, to what extent were hemlock

range dynamics driven by changes in climate during the mid-Holocene?

37

Does canopy gap disturbance enhance species diversity in subtropical sal forests?

Lila Nath Sharma1, John Arvid Grytnes2, Inger Elisabeth Maren1 and Ole Reidar Vetaas1

1Department of Geography, University of Bergen. 2Department of Biology, University of Bergen.



Canopy gap disturbance has been used as management prescription in forests to enhance species diversity and structural heterogeneity. Such application is based on hypotheses which argue that gaps have higher richness. We carried out this study to analyze if gaps play role to enhance plant species diversity and test hypothesis related to canopy gap disturbance and diversity. We sampled subtropical Shorea robusta forest in Central Nepal and collected vegetation data from canopy gaps and closed forest in 10m*10m plots laid along two lines transect. We compared species richness and composition between canopy gaps and closed forest. Seedlings and total woody species richness did not differ between gaps and non-gaps, however sapling density as well as richness was higher in the gaps. Species per stem was not different for total woody, seedlings as well as saplings. Seedlings and total woody species composition did not differentiate gaps and non-gaps however sapling stratum was distinct between these two. We conclude that gaps are not always sites of higher species richness rather they are necessary to enhance tree diversity. Gap disturbance is the primary sources of spatial heterogeneity in the forest like BCF where topographic gradients are almost absent.

38

Predicting the occurrence of hollow oaks

Olav Skarpaas1*, Stefan Blumentrath1 and Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson1,2

1Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Oslo, Norway. 2Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.



Hollow oaks are a biodiversity hotspot and a priority habitat under the Norwegian Nature Conservation Act. Knowledge on the occurrence of these oaks is therefore important, but as of yet incomplete. We used multimodel inference and prediction based on AIC-weighted binomial regressions to assess the probability of occurrence of hollow oaks regionally and locally around monitored oak stands in forests and cultural landscapes. The regional patterns in forests were clearly affected by large-scale geographical gradients, with probabilities increasing eastwards and declining northwards and upwards. These gradients were less clear in the cultural landscape. Topographic variables like slope and aspect were also more important in the forest than in the cultural landscape. In forests, probabilities were lower in spruce-dominated and highly productive areas. In the cultural landscape, probabilities increased with distance to road and decreased with distance to forest edge. Locally, occurrences were less predictable but related to topographical and land cover variables suggesting higher probabilities in interior forest and marginal cultural land. We conclude that different biogeographic and land-use related processes drive the occurrence of large hollow oaks in forests and cultural landscapes at different scales, and discuss the implications for conservation.

39

Post-settlement growth of hake from the Norwegian coast based on otolith microstructure analysis: Evidence for counter gradient variation?

Arved Staby1*, Jane Godiksen1, Christel Krossøy2, Åse Husebø1 and Audrey J. Geffen1, 2

1Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway. 2Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.



Little is known of the life history of European hake (Merluccius merluccius) in the northern parts of its range - especially in contrast to the extensive literature on populations in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. Small hake are consistently found in the fjords of Southern and south-western Norway, but it is not clear whether these are resident fish or whether these areas are simply nursery grounds for a larger migratory population. Conditions in the fjords are generally colder than the areas inhabited by juvenile hake in other areas, and if these are resident populations, then some local adaptation may be expected. Counter gradient variation (CGV) is a common phenomenon in fish with a wide latitudinal range, and is often manifested as an increased growth rate in the most northerly populations. We might expect hake to exhibit a similar pattern. Otolith primary increment analysis has been successfully applied to measure growth in small (young of year, YOY) individuals in the Mediterranean, Bay of Biscay, and English Channel. Here we conduct a similar analysis of YOY hake from Norwegian fjords, and combine our findings with published data to test for higher individual growth at higher latitudes, as consistent with CGV.

40

Pollination as an ecosystem service: A study on the distribution of pollinators on apple crops in Lofthus, Norway

Ynghild Storhaug1, Vigdis Vandvik1, Sandra Nogue2 and Bjørn Arild Hatteland1

1Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway. 2Oxford Long-term Ecology Lab, Biodiversity Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK.



Pollination is an important ecosystem service that benefits the human welfare by increasing the quantity and quality of fruit and seed set of many crops. There is a lack of studies on the effect from wild and managed pollinators on crops in Norway. Due to the recent global decline in bee abundance and diversity it is important that this knowledge gap is addressed.

We studied pollination as an ecosystem service in 22 apple orchards in Lofthus, Western Norway. We walked transect walks to determine the distribution of wild and managed pollinators and tested the effect from surrounding factors, such as weather, elevation, forest and hives on the pollinators. Total yield and percent fruit set on branches were used to measure the pollination success.

Flower rich habitat in the surroundings of the apple orchards is important for pollinator abundance and diversity. Wild pollinator abundance and diversity, together with honeybee abundance, are positive for fruit set and yield of apples in Lofthus.

41

Ultraviolet-B and temperature affect phenological shifts in Populus tremula

Christian B. Strømme1*, Riitta Julkunen-Tiitto2, Unni Krishna2, Anu Lavola2, Jorunn E. Olsen3 and Line Nybakken1

1Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management. 2University of Eastern Finland, 20101 Joensuu, Finland. 3Department of Plant Sciences, CERAD, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway.


Open session: long presentation

At high latitudes, perennial plants synchronise physiological processes to seasonal change through environmental sensing. Day length, light quality and temperature are well known drivers of seasonal change in plants. We have been investigating the effects of altered temperature and light regimes on phenological shifts in female and male clones of Populus tremula. In one experiment, established in 2012 in Eastern Finland, temperature and UV-B were modulated to +2ºC and +30% of ambient levels, respectively, between June 1st and October 1st 2012. Apical stages were recorded during bud set in autumn and bud break in spring. In a second experiment, established in 2014, we established three field sites placed along a valley side in Central Norway, yielding different climatic regimes. Within each site, we tested the effect of reducing UV-B radiation using attenuation filters, and also logged temperature, PAR and UV-B. Growth and apical stages were recorded throughout the growing season, and clones were sampled for analyses of phenolic compounds, macronutrients and hormone profiles. Published and preliminary results from experiment one and two, respectively, are consistent in showing that UV-B and temperature affect the timing of bud set and bud break in Populus tremula, indicating acclimation to ongoing environmental change.

42

Conservation value in wilderness forest

Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson1,2, Gunnhild Søgaard3, Graciela M. Rusch4 and David N. Barton2

1 Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway. 2 Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Gaustadalléen 21, NO-0349 Oslo, Norway. 3 Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute (NFLI), P.O.Box 115, 1431 Ås, Norway. 4 Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, P.O. Box 5685 Sluppen, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway.



In order to improve the protection of biodiversity in forest we need to know how policy instruments work. We use a nationwide network of 9400 plots in productive forest (> 1m3 increment ha/yr) to analyze to what extent large-scale policy instruments target forest of high conservation value in Norway. We studied Strict Protection, Landscape Protection, Mountain Forest and the much-discussed Wilderness Areas, a subset of so-called “Inngrepsfri Natur I Norge”. As forest of high conservation value (HCV-forest) we considered the area of 12 Biodiversity Habitats and of Old-Age Forest. We found that 22% of productive forest area contained Biodiversity Habitats, and 9% contained Old-Age Forest. More than 70% of the productive forest area was not covered by any large-scale conservation instruments. For all instruments, except Landscape Protection, the targeted areas contained significantly higher proportions of HCV-forest than areas not targeted by these instruments. Areas targeted by Strict Protection had higher proportions of HCV-forest than areas targeted by other instruments, except for areas targeted by Wilderness Area, which showed similar proportions of Biodiversity Habitats. Our results indicate a potential to improve forest conservation by better targeting high conservation value areas.

43

Community phylogenetics provide a common currency for the processes involved in community assembly: Exemplified using bee species assemblages

Markus Arne Kjær Sydenham1*, Katrine Eldegard1, Stein Joar Hegland2, Anders Nielsen3, Ørjan Totland1 and Stein Ragnar Moe1

1Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O.B. 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway. 2Norwegian Red deer Centre, 6914 Svanøybukt, Norway; University College of Sogn and Fjordane, Faculty of Engineering and Science, P.O. Box 133, N-6851 Sogndal, Norway. 3Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, NO-0316 Blindern, Oslo Norway.


The power of phylogenics to interpret ecological patterns: long presentation

The inclusion of phylogenies into community ecology provides a common currency for the analyses of the four processes involved in community assembly; i.e. speciation, dispersal, ecological selection and drift. We studied how the phylogenetic relatedness between bees determines their resource use at the local scale (i.e. selection), and spatial distribution on a global scale (i.e. dispersal and selection).

We found that local bee communities are structured by ecological filtering processes operating at the floral resource and global scales, through floral visitation and climatic conditions, respectively. A significant phylogenetic signal in the floral associations of bees was present in all eight of the bee-flower networks that had > 20 species. On a global scale, the phylogenetic beta-diversity increased with geographic distances up to approximately 5,000 km and with climatic dissimilarity between bee-flower networks.

We conclude that the past decades developments of community phylogenetics and theory of community ecology provide a strong and intuitive conceptual framework for community ecologists. Moreover, difficulties related to the interpretation of community phylogenetic patterns – resulting from either community level or biogeographical processes – may be overcome by identifying the spatial scales relevant for the ecological processes of interest and defining the ‘regional species pool’ thereafter.

44

Carbon budgets of alpine shrubs compared to meadow and heath communities in Central Norway

Mia Vedel-Sørensen1*, Bente Jessen Graae2 and Richard Strimbeck

1Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.



Shrub cover in arctic and alpine ecosystems has increased in recent decades and may influence the ecosystem properties and processes. So far little is known about changes in carbon (C) stores and fluxes when alpine communities are encroached by shrubs and this study aims to I) estimate where and how much C is stored in the different communities and II) compare shrub C fluxes to that of heath and meadow. C pools and C fluxes were measured in Empetrum-dominated-dwarf-shrub heath, snow-patch meadow, and Salix-dominated shrub communities, in Dovre Mountains, Central Norway.

Even though above ground C storage was greater in the shrubs, below ground C storage in the shrubs was half of what it was in the meadow and heath. The C turnover was also greater in the shrubs, thus overall they may sequester less C in the ecosystem than the alpine meadow and heath. We discuss the carbon budgets in relation to ecosystem consequences of vegetation transitions and mitigation of climate change.

45

Conservative niche continuum:

an intercontinental comparison of woody genera along temperature gradients

Ole R. Vetaas1*, John Arvid Grytnes2 and Bradford A. Hawkins3

1Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Post Box 7802, N-5020 Bergen, Norway. 2Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Post Box 7800, N-5020 Bergen, Norway. 3Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 USA.


The power of phylogenetics to interpret ecological patterns: long presentation

Phylogenetic niche conservatism predicts that closely related species will have similar distributions along important environmental gradients, including temperature gradients. We test the conjecture that woody-plant genera have temperature optima (where maximum numbers of congeneric species occur) towards the centre of the temperature range of a given genus. Then we test if 15 monophyletic genera of woody plants from Central Andes (Peru), central Himalaya (Nepal), and China have similar order along temperature gradients. This will be consistent with phylogenetic niche conservatism, whereas a strong difference among regions indicates niche divergence and significant plasticity of species and genera of different clades. The analyses verify the conjecture that maximum numbers of congeneric species are found towards the centre of the temperature range of the genus. The orders of generic optima along the temperature gradient in each region were highly correlated (r>0.8), verified for both ordination scores and estimated optima by weighted average temperature. The consistency of the order of disjunct genera along temperature gradients in different continents is most probably related to inherent phylogenetically conserved traits. Thus, temperature tolerances within a clade are conserved over time and space.

46

To predict the consequences of land-use change on vegetation dynamics; both taxonomic and functional biodiversity indexes as well as other ecological drivers have to be invested

Sølvi Wehn1*, Line Johansen1 and Simon Taugourdeau1

1Bioforsk, Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Stjørdal, Norway



Predicting how human induced vegetation changes affect ecosystems and their biological communities is one of the most urgent tasks in ecology. In Norwegian lowlands one of the main threats to biodiversity is abandonment of low intensive land-use areas. Effects of changed land-use on vegetation are generally made by assessing the effect on the number of species as indicators of biodiversity. However, community structure changes and ecosystem processes are not necessarily well described by this biodiversity indicator only. Functional trait responses might better predict structures and processes than species richness. Therefore, studies of functional traits and biodiversity indexes of these might provide deeper insight. In addition, to predict reliable future vegetation changes, multifactorial determinants have to be considered as vegetation is not driven by one determinant only.

We will present a study where we aim to assess effects of ceased pastoralism on plant richness, functional traits and diversity indexes of these in Norwegian boreal ecosystems. In this study we investigated leaf, height and seed traits and in total 19 diversity indexes. Climatic, edaphic and biotic drivers of these biodiversity measurements were also identified.

The results of this study show the importance of investigating several biodiversity variables if predictions are to be reliable as we found that abandonment influenced species richness, plant traits and diversity indexes differently. E.g. even if species richness was lower in abandoned compared to in managed areas, several functional diversity indexes were higher. Further, responses varied along environmental gradients which show the need to include also multiple and potential interacting determinants in the predictions.

47

Poster Presentations

48

Semi-natural grasslands in a Central Norwegian boreal landscape

Sigrun Aune1*, Knut Anders Hovstad1, Anders Bryn2 and Rune Halvorsen2

1Bioforsk - Norwegian Institute for Agriculture and Environmental Research, 7512 Stjørdal, Norway. 2Department of Research and Collections, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, 0318 Oslo, Norway.


The present agricultural landscape reflects a long history of changing land-use and farming practices, caused by e.g. technological development, urbanisation processes and climate changes. A deeper understanding of how the landscape has been altered by changes in agricultural practice is essential for the management of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and conservation of semi-natural grasslands.

The aim of this project is to identity land-use changes and to model associated changes in ecosystems and biological diversity. The study focuses on changes within the last 60 years, and the study area is in a Central Norwegian inland region with a long history of agricultural activities. The distribution, patch size, and plant species composition of semi-natural grasslands were mapped during the summer of 2014. Land-use changes will be reconstructed by extensive use of historical aerial photos, old maps and interviews. The collected data will be analysed to identify management-related factors and important environmental gradients which can explain the present distribution and species composition in semi-natural grasslands. The potential time-lags and time-scales at which vegetation responds to landscape changes, will be given particular attention. This poster is a brief presentation of the project, research questions, and the study design that will be used.

49

A smoky strategy: germination responses to smoke in coastal and inland Calluna heathlands

Sigrid Skrivervik Bruvoll1*, Vigdis Vandvik1 and Liv Guri Velle1

1Department of Biology University of Bergen, Norway.

* Corresponding author email: [email protected]

The survival of seedlings is a crucial stage in carrying on the plant’s genes into the next generation, and for population persistence and plant dispersal. Consequently there is a strong selection pressure on this event, and through time plants have evolved many different adaptions for improved seedling survival. Fire adaption is one example, where the germination timing is affected by different components of the fire, like smoke and ash, allowing seedlings to emerge during the relatively low-competition and high-nutrient ‘window’ that opens after a fire. This phenomenon has been documented in many parts of the world and in the past few years also in Norway. We now know that some plants in Norwegian Calluna coastal heathlands respond to smoke, and that this is most likely a result of management driven evolution, as people have been burning the heathlands for 6000 years. What we do not know, however, is which species other than Calluna vulgaris that have this response, how common this adaption is in the heathlands, and whether these responses differ in coastal and inland locations. In my master project I will look for the answers to these questions, and on this poster I summarise existing knowledge on smoke responses in Norwegian heaths, and propose a methodology for further investigation of smoke responses in different plant functional groups.

mailto:[email protected]

50

Arctic fox diet in Yamal Peninsula

Maite Cerezo1*, Natasha Sokolova2, Alexandr Sokolov3 and Dorothée Ehrich4

1Northern Populations and Ecosystem research group, University of Tromso, Norway. 2Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia. 3 Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia. 4Northern Populations and Ecosystem research group, University of Tromso, Norway.


Specialist and generalist predators play different roles in food webs and have different impacts on their prey populations. The arctic fox behaves as specialist or a generalist to different degrees. In inland tundra arctic foxes usually act as lemming or small rodent specialists. Their reproductive activity in terms of number of breeding pairs and litter size, is strongly influenced by lemmings and/or voles cyclic dynamics which constitute the major part of the diet in peak years. Such fox populations fluctuate in synchrony with the small rodent cycle. In Fennoscandia, the fading out of the rodent cycles, possibly associated to climate change, has been determined as one of the causes of the dramatic decline in arctic fox populations. Here we study an arctic fox population in the low Arctic on Yamal peninsula, Russia. Contrary to expectations, the breeding activity does not appear to follow the small rodent dynamics, which is characterized by rather low amplitude fluctuations and low densities. Preliminary results from the dietary analysis showed that small mammals have an important role on the diet, but prey items such as eggs, birds, both passerines and waterfowl, and berries represent an important part of it as well.

51

ArtsApp, artsidentifikasjon i en ny tidsalder

Kjetil Fossheim1 og John-Arvid Grytnes1



Naturforståelse og artskunnskap er viktig for kartlegging av vårt biologiske mangfold. Identifisering av arter kan ofte være svært krevende. Til dette formålet har det tradisjonelt vært brukt dikotome identifikasjonsnøkler. Disse er både tung å ta med seg på feltarbeid og ofte tungt forståelig for mindre erfarne biologer og naturinteresserte. Med dette som utgangspunkt har vi utviklet «ArtsApp» for smarttelefoner. ArtsApp er et samarbeid mellom Institutt for biologi, bioCEED, Skolelaboratoriet for Realfag og Artsdatabanken.

ArtsApp er en interaktiv identifikasjonsnøkkel til bruk ved artsbestemmelse. ArtsApp skiller seg fra tradisjonelle nøkler ved at man ikke trenger å gå punktvis gjennom nøkkelen, men heller kan velge ut hvilke kjennetegn man vil bruke. ArtsApp er en så kaldt «Multi-access key», noe som gjør at du ikke vil stå fast dersom det er et kjennetegn du ikke kan svare på. Dette gjør det mulig for at alle, fra profesjonelle biologer til naturinteresserte, vil kunne bruke ArtsApp. ArtsApp er også geografisk smart og kan si hvilke arter som er observert i nærheten før. I dag inneholder ArtsApp bare nøkkel for plantegruppen Carex (Starr), men det vil komme flere med tiden. Det skal med tiden også lages en enkel mulighet for å utvikle nye nøkler til applikasjonen.

52

Insects as vectors of phytoplasma in fruit trees

Bjørn Arild Hatteland1,2*, May Bente Brurberg3, Rosemarie Tedeschi4, Barbara Jarausch5 and Dag-Ragnar Blystad3

1Department of Biology, University Bergen, Bergen, Norway. 2Plant health and plant protection, Bioforsk – Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Ullensvang, Norway. 3Plant health and plant protection, Bioforsk – Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Ås, Norway. 4Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, Torino, Italy. 5AgroScience, Neustadt, Germany.


Phytoplasmas are bacteria in plants which affect the resource allocation reducing the production of fruits. These bacteria can be spread by phloem-feeding insects, of which psyllid species (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) have been shown to transmit both apple proliferation and pear decline in Europe. In Norway the phytoplasma in apple trees has been spread during the last two decades and is currently causing lower yields in the apple production. Here we will present an ongoing study in Norway on phytoplasmas in apple orchards and discuss the dynamics between plants, bacteria and vectoring insects.

53

Vegetation changes in the Scandes due to hiking and climate change over the past 100 years

Siri Vatsø Haugum1*, Jutta Kapfer2, Kari Klanderud3 and John-Arvid Grytnes1

1Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway. 2Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Tromsø, Norway. 3Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway


The observed range shift towards higher altitudes for alpine vegetation is in general explained by climate change, while the interaction with other factors has received less attention. One such factor is that the hiking activity has increased sharply in most alpine areas during recent decades. Trampling may cause loss of species close to trails, but hiking may also enhance species richness by transport of seeds and organic material.

We investigated the interactions between climate changes and hiking activities on summits in the Scandes. The methodology was a resurvey of historical data from the same summits, first sampled in the first three decades of the 20th century and then resampled in 1998, 2014 and 2015. The results show increased species richness on all of the investigated summits. Several summits frequently visited by hikers had a higher increase in species richness than less visited ones, which indicates an interaction between climate change-driven species shifts and hiking.

54

Winter induced resistance in bilberry

Stein Joar Hegland1,2*, Tarald Seldal2, Marte S. Lilleeng2,3 and Knut Rydgren2

1 The Norwegian Red deer Centre, Svanøy, Norway. 2 Faculty of Science, University College of Sogn and Fjordane, Sogndal, Norway. 3 Department of Natural Resource Management, The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.


Indirect effects of herbivores working through the quality of food resources may be ecological important, but less visible than direct effects on vegetation. In this study we wanted to test whether winter browsing of red deer on the ecological important forest shrub in boreal forest could induce defense responses that would decrease growth and reproduction of bilberry and cascade onto invertebrates that are dependent on the focal plant. We tested the effect of deer browsing and compared it with chemical treatment by use of Methyljasmonate (MeJA) and control plots in blocks both in clear-cuts and forest. During growth season we measured growth, reproduction and insect activity on individual ramets within the treatments. We explicitly expected that the combined effect of MeJa and natural deer browsing would give the strongest response on bilberry biomass and reproduction, and subsequently on the activity of invertebrates feeding on the plant. Chemical treatment during wintertime reduced bilberry biomass growth during the growth season, and clearly hampered reproduction, indicating induced defense response. The effect of natural winter browsing by deer was not consistent with a small specific and no additive effect. Activity of insects was clearly affected by chemical treatment, but not by natural browsing.

55

Patterns of trait expression: trade-offs and correlations

Øistein H. Holen1* and Thomas O. Svennungsen1

1CEES, University of Oslo, Norway.


Traits that enhance fitness but are subject to a trade-off are usually predicted to correlate negatively. One well-known exception is when the units under study (e.g. individuals, populations) vary so much in state (e.g. resource level, condition) that the underlying trade-off is masked. We have developed a game theory model of trait expression, using an organism with two defence traits as our example. We depart from the traditional two-way trade-off and consider the more general case where one or both defence traits trade off with a third trait such as fecundity or growth. We find both positive and negative correlations between the focal traits to be generic outcomes of the model, even in the absence of variation in state. If one defence is environmentally determined, the sign of the correlation between the defence traits depends on the spatiotemporal distribution of enemy encounters. If both defences are strategic and trade off with the third trait, the sign of the correlation depends strongly on the shape of the three-way trade-off. The results are relevant for plant-herbivore and predator-prey interactions.

56

Impact of nitrogen deposition on species richness and species composition of ombrotrophic mires in Western Norway

Mari Jokerud1*, John-Arvid Grytnes1 and Vigdis Vandvik1



There is little research on ombrotrophic mire vegetation and the possible impact of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on species richness and composition in Norway. It is important to detect whether N deposition is impacting this system since this vegetation type is listed as ‘vulnerable’ in the Norwegian Red List and because it has low ‘critical load’ for nitrogen. Research show that deposition of N reduces biodiversity in nutrient poor ecosystems, including ombrotrophic mires. Increased N deposition favours faster growing and larger species, leading to competitive exclusion of plants adapted to low N deposition.

We present a gradient survey on ombrotrophic mires along the coast of Western Norway were we assess changes in species richness and species composition in vascular plants and bryophytes in relation to nitrogen deposition impacts. Linear multiple regression model and backward selection was used to assess which environmental gradient best explained species richness patterns in the study.

The findings suggest that nitrogen deposition is impacting the mire vegetation in the south where nitrogen deposition is highest and also above the suggested critical load (500-1000mgN/m2/yr). The southern localities had lower species richness while the northern localities had higher species richness. The species richness of bryophytes and particularly the liverworts increased with latitude.

57

Bumblebee diversity and densities in moderately intensified northern farmlands

Eveliina Kallioniemi1*, Jens Åström1, Sandra Åström1, Sondre Dahle1, Jan Ove Gjershaug1, Heidi Myklebost1, Arnstein Staverløkk1 and Graciela Rusch1

Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim, Norway.


Recent pollinator declines have raised concerns about maintenance of biodiversity and stability of food production. Despite bumblebees being important wild pollinators, landscape scale studies of bumblebees to date have mainly focused on highly modified landscapes while in moderately modified systems pollinators can show different responses to landscape use and features. Here we studied factors influencing bumblebee diversity and abundance in a gradient of moderately intensified Norwegian farming landscapes of 2km radius by using bumblebee and flower transects and ground-truthed land cover maps. We found that land-use diversity was positively correlated with both bumblebee diversity and density. Bumblebee diversity was also positively linked to flower diversity and abundance of “flower poor” land, i.e. silage unfarmed land and grass crops. In contrast, bumble density was negatively correlated with “flower poor” land. These results suggest that while landscapes with abundant “flower poor” land-use types might not be able to sustain large population sizes they can be important for populations of different species in providing other resources, such as variety of nesting places. This means that certain land-uses can have a trade-off between their influence on bumblebee diversities and densities. Understanding these factors is important for development of more pollinator friendly farming practices.

http://globalraptors.org/grin/ResearcherResults.asp?lresID=307

http://globalraptors.org/grin/ResearcherResults.asp?lresID=307

58

Impact of Impatiens glandulifera on two different vegetation types

Rozalia Erzsebet Kapas1*, Bente J. Graae1

1Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.

*Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]

The occurrence of invasive species in a previously non-invaded area is major threat to the native co-occurring species. Invasive species are spreading and adapting quickly in the new environment, but little is known about how serious the effect is on the performance of resident species. We conducted a greenhouse experiment using the black listed, invasive Impatiens glandulifera investigating its impact on riparian and roadside vegetation. We tested whether the dense roadside vegetation will be less-vulnerable to the invasion, than the more open riparian vegetation. We found that under invasion of I. glandulifera the biomass of co-occurring species was reduced in both roadside and riverside vegetation, but as expected with least impact on the graminoid-dominated roadside vegetation. The total biomass of the co-occurring, forb-dominated riverside vegetation decreased with approximately 70% in the presence of Impatiens glandulifera; especially the functionally similar and dominant broad-leaved species such as Filipendula ulmaria and Urtica dioeca, lost more than half of its biomass. Our results show that those species which have the most similar growth form to invasive species are likely affected most by the occurrence of Impatiens glandulifera in new vegetation.

59

Increasing precipitation buffers plant species against climate warming

Martin Kopecký1*, František Máliš2,3, Petr Petřík1 and Jozef Vladovič3

1Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Science, Czech Republik. 2Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, Slovakia. 3National Forest Centre, Zvolen, Slovakia.


Climate warming is believed to push species to higher elevations. Contrary to this belief and despite global warming, plant ranges moved somewhere upward and elsewhere downward. To disentangle this conundrum with temporally replicated data, we used 1435 forest plots resurveyed after more than three decades. Despite observed warming, species did not shift upward, likely because increasing precipitation compensated increasing evaporative demand.

Regionally increasing precipitations thus buffered plant species from global warming through maintaining constant water availability. This explains obvious discrepancies among previous results and suggests spatially variable reshuffling of plant assemblages according the local changes in water availability, resulting in novel ecosystems and spatial mismatch between dependent species. To better understand species range shifts, we must focus on so far neglected changes in water availability.

60

Evaluating ecological and climatic impacts of continued management, succession, and afforestation in Norwegian coastal heathlands

Hanna Lee1,2*, Vigdis Vandvik3, Liv Guri Velle4 and Heidi Saure5

1Uni Research Klima, Norway. 2Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Norway. 3Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway. 4Møreforsking AS, Norway. 5NLA University College, Norway.


Semi-natural coastal heathlands in Norway offer unique opportunities for evaluating the consequences of contrasting policy and decision making options regarding land use change, and the implications for ecosystem functioning and delivery of important ecosystem services, including feedbacks to the climate system. Abandonment and afforestation are the two major threats to coastal heathlands, and we explore ecosystem consequences of these threats in a land use scenario analysis. The three land use scenarios we will investigate are 1) traditionally managed heathlands (HEATHLAND), 2) heathlands undergoing natural succession of shrubs and trees as a result of land use abandonment (SUCCESSION), and 3) afforested heathlands with Sitka spruce as suggested in the proposed planting of “climate forest” (AFFORESTATION). We explore empirically how land use change affect plant biodiversity and soil C stock. We will use a space-for-time substitution by establishing the observational plots at a natural gradient of vegetation shift over time and latitudinal gradient that exhibits natural gradient of mean annual temperatures. We will conduct model simulations to understand how land use change in coastal heathlands influence ecosystem structure and function to affect future climate by establishing several scenarios of land use change using the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM-CLM4.5).

61

Evaluation of “citizen science” observations using a systematic sampling for Syrphidae species

Maria Fotland Løvik1*



Citizen science has become an important part of the research towards conservation of biodiversity. Citizen scientists will have different levels of experience and abilities. They are therefore more likely to make mistakes in cryptic species such as hoverflies. Even though citizen science may contain bias, the value of the data collected increases with the understanding of the bias created. It is therefore important to understand and acknowledge the bias while working with data collected by volunteers.

In my master project I will model the distribution of the Norwegian hoverfly species based on data available from the online database Gbif.org, and compare this with the distribution based on my own, more systematically collected field data. To compare both these data sets against climatic data from met.no, we will use different models in the programming language R and analyses in ArcGis. The performance of climatic models based on the different datasets can shed light upon some of the problems that may lie in the use of these databases in different conservation cases and hopefully find new ways to deal with bias and make these huge amounts of data more useful for scientific purposes.

62

Evaluation of GBIF as a tool in understanding bumblebee distribution in Norway for scientific research and management purposes

Bahar Mozfar1* and John-Arvid Grytnes1



Detailed knowledge of species’ ecological and geographic distribution and the relationship between distribution and environmental variables is crucial for many aspects of environmental research, resource management, and conservation planning. The global biodiversity information facility (GBIF) is the largest online provider of distribution records, containing data on species observations gained from public involvement and volunteerism. However, all distributional databases are biased, and it is therefore important to assess and understand these biases so they can be taken into account in future research and management. An important pollinator group, bumble bees (Bombus spp.) was used as an exemplar taxon to investigate whether the observations in GBIF share a similar spatial pattern as data collected from a more systematic field survey across climatic gradient of southern Norway. Data from the field survey will be related to climatic variables to create a distribution map. This will in turn be compared to distribution data from GBIF. The objective of this paper is to explore potential biases in the GBIF data and to discuss how these biases can be accounted for and making the GBIF data better suited for research and management purpose.

63

The effects of moose (Alces alces) browsing on boreal tree species in Norway and Quebec

Toril Nes1*, Gunnar Austrheim1 and James Speed1

1Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway.


The moose is a selective browser in the forest and has a strong impact on the boreal ecosystems. This study uses an experimental design with exclosures and browsed controls to look at the effect of the moose on the height growth of trees in a regenerating stage of the boreal forest in Norway and Canada. The exclosures were built in 2008 in Norway and 2010 in Canada in recently clear-cut areas. Different tree species experience different browsing pressure and have different responses to browsing. Four common tree species have been chosen from each country and their height growth has been compared with and without the presence of moose. The general trend is that the height growth of the late successional coniferous species is relatively unaffected by the treatment except for two low tolerant species, whereas the early successional deciduous species are greatly affected by the treatment. Moose can therefore be considered ecosystem engineers in the boreal forests because of the way they directly affects the trees, and because of their impact on the competition between the tree species. This might lead to alternative successional trajectories or even a change in the distribution of species in the later successional stages.

64

Do not divide count data with count data; a story from pollination ecology

Trond Reitan1*, Anders Nielsen1

1Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Norway.


Studies in pollination ecology are often concerned about estimating statistical models describing differences in flower visitation. Traditionally flower visits have been reported as frequencies; number of visits per flower per time, while numerous environmental variables have been used to explain the variations in visitation frequencies observed. Using visitation frequencies in statistical analyses comes with two major caveats; namely the lack of knowledge on its error distribution and that it does not include all information found in the data. Recording 10 flower visits in 20 flowers over a 30 minutes period is not the same as recording 100 visits in 200 flowers, though these observations both generate a frequency of 1 visit per flower per hour.

We simulated datasets with various “flower visitation” distributions over various numbers of

flowers observed (exposure) and with different types of effects (e.g. binomial, linear,

random) inducing variation in the data. The different data sets were then analyzed first with

the traditional approach using number of visits per flower (time was kept constant for

simplicity) and then by use of count data models (Poisson, negative binomial) including

number of observed flowers as an offset variable. As expected, the analysis of count data

gave a much better chance of detecting effects than the traditionally used frequency

approach. In one example, we show that twice the amount of data (sampling effort) was

need to get the same statistical power in a test using frequency data as compared to a test

using the original count data.

65

Coastal Calluna heathlands: the relevance of biogeography for management-driven post-fire vegetation dynamics

Liv Guri Velle1,2 and Vigdis Vandvik2

1Møreforsking AS, Norway .2Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway.


The coastal heathlands of northwest Europe are classified as highly endangered and a habitat of high conservation importance throughout their geographic range. Previous research into heathland vegetation dynamics has typically been carried out within single sites or regions, and hence little is known about the variability of land-use effects and successional dynamics along biogeographic gradients. In the “VILLSAU” project we have studied wet and dry Calluna heath vegetation in five sites spanning a 340-km latitudinal gradient along the west coast of Norway (60.70°–63.79° N). The main findings are: 1) there is considerable geographic variation in species composition, post-fire successional trends and dynamics; 2) species that increase after fire generally have more specific environmental requirements and narrower geographical distributions than the pre-fire flora resulting in a biotic ‘heterogenisation’ after fire; 3) smoke-induced germination in Calluna is found in populations from traditionally burnt coastal heathlands but is lacking in naturally occurring populations from other habitats with infrequent natural fires; 4) old Calluna stands (>50 years since last fire) has a high restoration potential as they develop characteristic heathland vegetation and structure after their second fire rotation.

66

The plant root microbiome diversity and resilience in a changing climate

Unni Vik1*

1 Section for Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O box 1066 Blindern, 0316 Oslo


All living plants are closely associated with a high diversity of microorganisms essential for their functioning. Belowground, plant roots live in symbiosis with root associated fungi (RAF) and also host a rich diversity of prokaryotes, together known as the plant root microbiome. RAF has recently been shown to have a surprisingly important role in carbon storage and sequestration. It is nonetheless largely unknown how the plant root microbiome responds to climatic changes, such as shifts in temperature and precipitation regimes. In the recently funded DRIVE project, the plant root microbiomes response to a changing climate will be investigated using the already established infrastructure of the SEEDCLIM project. The climate change effects will be investigated in an observational field study, as well as transplantation and common garden experiments. The outcome of the project, unveiling potential effects of the plant root microbiome are likely to be included in, and thereby optimize, future climate models.

67

Distribution modeling of mixed northern hepatic mat species

Kristin Wangen1*, Kristian Hassel1 and James D. M. Speed1

1University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway.


The mixed northern hepatic mat community occurs in the most oceanic parts of northwestern Europe and is in Norway restricted to the southwestern coast. The community is characterized by its many large leafy liverworts. Many of them are exclusive to this community, globally rare and limited to some of the world’s most oceanic areas. In order to manage our biodiversity, it is important to have knowledge about distribution and climatic requirements of species. This study focuses on three mixed northern hepatic mat species: Scapania nimbosa, S. ornithopodioides and Anastrophyllum donnianum. The aims are to explore which climatic variables are most important in limiting the species distribution, and see to what extent the species are saturated within their climatic niche. To answer these questions, species distribution models (SDMs) predicting the present climatic niche will be made for each species. To work out the model, both known presence data and an approximation for absence data have been used. A range of climatic variables have been analyzed, among others the length of the growth season, a variable which we have worked out based on the snow cover during the year.

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