Data-set 1:

High-altitude old-growth forests on state land in Koillismaa, Northern Finland

Sampling frame: Areas fulfilling the following criteria were included in the sampling:
1) They were located in the municipalities of Taivalkoski, Kuusamo or Posio.
2) They were owned by state, and belonged to the old-growth-forest inventory programme of the Finnish Forest and Park Service (Kumpulainen et al. 1997) at spring 1995, when this study was started
3) They were classified as "high altitude areas". (All state-owned areas were divided into high-altitude areas and lowland areas at that time. The high-altitude limit is about 300 metres above sea level).

Field methods: 100 hectare study quadrates. In two first study sites, the included study plots were larger than normally, 1 ha, and they were formed of four subplots of 0.25 hectares.

Selection of study plots: Random sampling. No more than 1/3 of the area of any 100 hectare study quadrate was allowed to fall out of the sampling frame. All sample plots of 0.5 hectares fullfilled the sampling-frame criteria. See a thorought description of the sampling procedure .

Amount of data: Five independent study quadrates, each including one 0.5 - 1 hectare study plot (total 3,5 hectares). If the "additional" 0.5 hectare areas are excluded, the remaining five 0.5 ha sample plots include 508 dead trees, of which 317 were more than 10 cm thick. In addition, tree- and dead tree- and biotope data were collected along altogether seven kilometers of sampling lines (total area 7 ha).

Species included in the study: All wood inhabiting polypores and some other wood inhabiting fungi, see a list of target species.

Field workers: Mariko Lindgren. Maijukka Pasanen and Kaisa Raitio assisted on one study plot.

Time and duration of field work: Summer 1995. Altogether nine days.

Funding: Field work was funded by the Finnish Forest and Park Service. This financing covered materials, and salary and travell expences for Lindgren.

Areas selected (sampled) for the study:
Taivalkoski:

  • Purnuvaara (7277:540)
  • Tunturivaara (7283:538) and Salmivaara (7298:555), from the planned National Park "Syöte".
    Posio:
  • Iso-Teuronvaara (7337:541)
    Kuusamo:
  • Valtavaara (7345:599).

    Results: Some results of the dead-tree-data and preliminary species results are presented in my seminar-paper 28.11.1995. For indicator-species, some results are given in a seminar paper made in 1996. Forest and Park Service has been informed about the findings of threatened species in the sample plots.

    Notes: This data is relatively small, and partly collected at unfavourable time of year (in July and late June). However, it is valid for perennial species as such, and - for all species - comparable with other data collected partly during the same period (data sets 2 and 3).
    I consider collecting more data from high-altitude old-growth forests later on. The data collected from high areas of Pijaozero wilderness, Russia, partly fullfills this need.