Species monitoring produces information on effects of ecological restoration
This text was published in the blog of Priodiversity LIFE. Check out the other blog posts as well (metsa.fi).
12.3.2025
In the Priodiversity LIFE project, we work on many kinds of tasks associated with ecological restoration: actions in practice in different habitats, communication and guidance, as well as collecting, analyzing and modelling scientific materials.
The project has diverse approaches and goals, which means we examine the effects of ecological restoration from different points of view: from the responses of fauna and flora and habitats, to social and economic impacts. People working at Luke (Natural Resources Institute Finland) participate in all scientific examinations and analyses. Moreover, as it is with EU projects, reporting, meetings and forms to fill are numerous.
The goal is to produce time series of species 10 to 20 years from the action
In the next part I describe the species monitoring, which is Luke’s coordinating responsibility in Priodiversity LIFE. First results can be expected in 2026, for species determination, saving, and checking the info after collecting work in the field take a lot of time. On the other hand, collecting samples is spread for quite a long period, from 2024 to 2030, so in the end, there’s little to tell about single years.
The main goal of species monitoring is to produce time series of species within a minimum of 10 to 20 years from the action. The main method is to sample different environmental variables, forest cover and the fauna and flora of different habitats.
As it usually is in modern science world, financiers are often excited about a cool experiment setting for the first couple of years, but then the settings tend to be buried under new innovative things. In Priodiversity LIFE, we shake the dust off from old experiments. Every inventory here will be made in experiment settings that had been established at least a decade ago, from which species data had been collected already before, and that have a sufficient number of replicates left considering statistical comparisons. The sampling sites and data-collecting methods are the same as in sample collections before.
The habitats we examine are wetlands and traditional biotopes of the countryside (operated by Syke, Finnish Environmental Institute), marshlands (operated by Metsähallitus Parks and Wildlife Finland, and Luke), and stream waters and managed forests (operated by Luke). In all these habitats, actions aimed at improving the ecological conditions have been made in the early stages of examination, such that fall into ecological restoration in the broad sense.
Collecting samples in four different research areas
In the first two years of Priodiversity LIFE (2024-2025), we replicate samplings from four experimental settings. Firstly, a project about Calypso orchids (CALYPSO), started by prof. Esa Huhta in Rovaniemi region in 2005, will find out what kinds of forestry and restoration methods made in managed forests allow this species to remain in the study sites.
Secondly, the RETREE project, established in Heinävesi and Savonranta regions by Tornator in 1997, examines the ability of retention tree groups of different sizes (0.01-0.06 ha) to retain species typical to mature spruce forests. In the tree inventories of summer 2024, we noted that spruce trees located even in very small retention tree groups were, after surviving the shock of the start, remaining even surprisingly well upright and alive. The determination of moss and lichen samples collected the same summer is underway when writing this text.
Thirdly, in the EVO project, established near the Häme University of Applied Sciences in Evo in 2001, we survey the effects from prescribed burning and the addition of dead wood on species in 24 spruce-dominated forests, which all have a small spruce mire. This feature helps us figure out whether restoration has different effects on species living in moist or dry sites within forest. In the autumn of 2024, something new was tried in the forests of EVO project: we collected soil samples, in which DNA methods are applied to find out about variation in the composition of soil fungi and bacteria.
Fourthly, in the summer of 2025, we will collect beetle and vegetation data in a restoration burning site established in Greenbelt LIFE project in 2005. The site is located in coniferous forests adjacent to Finland’s Eastern border region and considers the combined effects of deadwood produced in different ways and prescribed burning, as in the EVO project.
The long-term species correlations of ecological restoration for information
In the following years of 2026–2030, we will do samplings in habitats other than forests, too. Correspondingly, several organizations execute different experimental settings and sampling protocols. The produced data will be used as background material for socio-economic models that will be produced in Priodiversity LIFE. The new materials will inform us about the long-term benefits (and harms) for species, following the practical restoration actions in Priodiversity LIFE, and they will be used in project reporting and scientific publications.
Matti Koivula, research professor, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)
Priodiversity LIFE offers solutions to halt nature loss. The project gathers a wide range of committed operators who together have the chance to find the most impactful and cost-efficient ways to stop nature loss in Finland. In the project we will create requirements to make halting the nature loss into a new skill for Finnish entrepreneurs, and to make Finland an expert on international scale. Priodiversity LIFE is coordinated by Metsähallitus Parks and Wildlife Finland.
Priodiversity LIFE – for halting biodiversity loss (metsa.fi)
