In the summer of 2002 Sølvi Wehn finished her Master degree. The study area of her thesis was Ambohitantely Forest on the high plateau of Madagascar. This forest is located in an area with a high frequency of human induced grassland fires. These fires penetrate the edges of the few remaining forest fragments. The main objective of the investigation was to study natural recovery of tree species after these fire-penetrations into forest edges of the Ambohitantely Forest. The results indicated that there was recovery of native tree species, but the first species to establish after fire was introduced non-woody species. Title of the master thesis:
Wehn, S. 2002.Reestablishment of tree species after fire in Ambohitantely forest, Madagascar.
Master thesis in Biodiversity, Dept. Botany, NTNU. Trondheim.

The intensity of the land use by summer farmers in the Jotunheimen mountain landscape has decreased over the last fifty years, and due to this, large parts of the semi-natural grasslands today are in a process of forest succession. This results in reduced habitat and landscape diversity, and the species richness in the mountain valleys is declining.

In Norwegian mountains Primula scandinavica and Gentiana nivalis are two key species for semi-natural grasslands.

The mountain valley of Griningsdalen is situated in the municipality of Vågå in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. It is a side valley east of Sjodalen in the Jotunheimen mountain range. The bottom of the valley lies in an average of 1000 metres above sea level.

A change in livestock composition and livestock number has had a severe impact on the habitat diversity in Griningsdalen. A mixed livestock of cattle and sheep grazing all over the valley is replaced by a livestock of milking-goats, which have their grazing area limited by a diurnal milking time. The goats creates patches near the summer farms that are heavily grazed and others neglected.

Aims:

• to identify changes in biodiversity at landscape and habitat levels in a period of forty years (1964-2002), with special focus on the habitat semi-natural grassland in the valley Griningsdalen in Jotunheimen, Norway.
• to develop landscape models, on response of scenarios for socioeconomic changes developed in the BioScene project

Predictions:
A decline in habitat diversity in Griningsdalen is expected, which will be shown as a decline in areas and number of patches of semi-natural grassland. There is also expected an increase of the ongoing process of forest succession as a result of the decline in grazing pressure.

Methods:

• interpretation and comparison of two series of aerial photos taken in Griningsdalen in 1964 and 2002
• photos will be interpreted and digitalised stereoscopically with an analytical plotter, and with the computer programme ERDAS Imagine; Orthobase
• data will be implemented to a GIS for preparation and analysis of the dataset and development of maps
• data will be corrected and confirmed by a field study in the summer of 2003, and populations of the key species of semi-natural grasslands; P. scandinavica and G. nivalis will be registered
• a predictive model of the distribution of the registered habitat- and landscape elements in response to the socioeconomic scenarios developed in the BioScene project

Phenotype = genotype + environment

Thus, one of the challenges is to understand the many ways that environment influences the pattern of phenotypic variation within species.

The aim of this study is to investigate to what extent there is a variation in morphological and reproductive traits within Gentiana nivalis in Norwegian Mountains. Gentiana nivalis is an annual species and therefore well suited as an indicator species of environmental change in mountain ecosystems.

Nine populations were studied in three different regions in Nordland, Northern-Norway summer 2002. Variables that were recorded was: plant height, number of flowers, number of leaves, size of upper leaves, size of seed capsule, number of seeds, seed weight and number of ovules and defected seeds. Furthermore the extent of herbivory on the plant and survival during summer were recorded.

The result so far indicate no regional effect on phenotype. However, the data show variation between population, suggests that local factors in the particular habitats imply phenotypic variation within Gentiana nivalis.

Espen T. Aarnes studies the rare endemic grassland species Primula scandinavica and the influence of land use and ecological disturbance on the population dynamics in subalpine areas.

The populations studied were located in mountains of Midtre Gauldal County in Sør-Trøndelag fylke in areas influenced by mountain summer farming for the last centuries, but with different degrees of disturbance today. Land use categories are: livestock grazing; abandoned livestock grazing. This is grouped together with other types of ecological disturbance such as tracks from livestock, humans and vehicles. The result shows that seedling establishment of P. scandinavica is dependent of bare soil, which in most cases is formed by livestock. Ecological disturbance like livestock grazing or other factors that create bare soil is critical for ensure seedling establishment and thus vital populations of Primula scandinavica.
Leaves from the field populations are currently being analyzed with DNA-methods for detecting differences in population genetics.

In her thesis she used aerial photographs from 1949 and 1992 to calculate change in forest cover in the Ambohitantely area, and to create a topographic model used to analyse the remnant forest occurrence. The study area was divided in three categories, defined by the land history as related to whether the area had been under protection or not. ArcGIS was used data preparation and analysis.

Hanssen, S.K. 2002. The Ambohitantely Special Reserve in Central Highland, Madagaskar - Forest change and forest occurrence.
Master thesis in Natural Resource Management, Dept. Botany, NTNU. Trondheim.

BioScene:
Susanne K. Hanssen is working with ecological consequences of land use change in parts of Jotunheimen. The agricultural modernisation process during the last fifty years has a severe impact on landscape patterns. Agricultural factors like the amount of livestock, and changes in the composition of the livestock grazing an area can strongly influence landscape and vegetation. Homogeneous farming and a decrease in land use by the farmers are factors affecting the biodiversity. These implications of the agricultural restructuring in Jotunheimen can lead to changes in landscape patterns and are predicted to result in a decline in biodiversity and species richness.
Spatial landscape models will be developed by digitising different time series of aerial photos. The vegetational changes will be analysed by the use of ERDAS and ArcGIS. The result from these models will be combined with socio-economic data, based on interviews with local farmers to create new scenarios and models. The result will be used to predict future possibilities for conservation species and habitats in Jotunheimen.
This work is a part of the EU research project BioScene.

Dunfjeld, Sigbjørn.

Saami resource using shaping biological diversity in Northern Norway.PhD- project in Natural Resourse Management, NTNU.