About the project

Eirik Romstad

Humans have influenced their surroundings from the start of their presence at the plantet. That is also the case for forest ecosystems.

The project aims at (i) analysing how human land-use, biodiversity dynamics, ecosystem function, and abiotic factors interact in Norwegian boreal forests, (ii) identifying scientifically based management strategies which will ensure biodiversity and ecosystem function, and (iii) analysing the efficiency, risks, and distributional impacts of various policy means to secure biodiversity and to balance the gains between biodiversity functions, moose production, and timber harvest.

The project uses a multidisciplinary approach. It includes strong historical and modelling components. The core of the project consist of competencies in forest ecology, economics, quantitative palaeo-ecology and population biology.

The project will use many and very different sources of information to establish and analyse the complex relationships between human use of forests, natural ecosystem dynamics, biodiversity, ecosystem function, and long-term change of forest ecosystems by targeting those relationships at different spatial- and temporal scales. Observationally, analytically and experimentally assessed measures of habitat distributions, habitat qualities, biodiversity, and ecosystem processes will provide information on present-day ecosystem and landscape properties. Combinations of several retrospective vegetation history and archaeological methods will provide information on long-term natural changes, human settlement, timber logging, grazing pressure and economical profits. The project will thereby be able to analyse patterns in habitats, biodiversity, and ecosystem processes in relation to different main causes to such patterns, e.g. human land-use, landscape history and climatic change. All information will be integrated into policy and forest management contexts by use of process modelling and a spatial forest model.

The project will include forest landscapes along east - western gradients in South- and Central Norway including forest landscapes close to Oslo (the capital city of Norway), where strong and different interests are in conflict as regards the value, management, and use of the forests.

Updated: 12.08.04
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