Data-set 3:

Old-growth forest inventory areas 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 not 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 the first study site, the included study plot was larger than normally, 0.75 ha, and it was formed of three 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 - 0.75 hectare study plot (total 3,25 hectares). If the "additional" 0.25 hectare area is excluded, the remaining five 0.5 ha sample plots include 759 dead trees, of which 522 were more than 10 cm thick. In addition, tree- and dead tree- and biotope data were collected along altogether five kilometers of sampling lines (total area 5 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. Heini Koskula assisted on one study plot.

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

Funding: Field work was funded by the Finnish Forest and Park Service. This financing covered materials, and salary and travell expences for Lindgren. Some of the data-processing and the writing of the article (see below) was done as a part of the research project "Structure and dynamics of natural and managed boreal forest landscapes - Linking landscape pattern, stand structure and species diversity", financed by FIBRE (Finnish Biodiversity Research Programme), Academy of Finland. Specimen identification work and writing has also been supported by the Mycology Department of Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki.

Areas selected (sampled) for the study:
Taivalkoski: