Data-set 4:

Intact forest areas in nothwestern Russian Karelia

Sampling frame: The largest forest-massives of the districts of Muezhersky and Kostomuksha were considered. By using satellite images, three selection areas of 130 square kilometres each were outlined. The northernmost of them - Vienansalo - was situated in the inventory area of the planned Kalevala National Park (Gromtsev 1998), and the southernmost of them - Lake Maxim area - belongs to the unprotected primeval forest southeast of the Kostomuksha Strict Nature Reserve. To allow easy access, the third selection area - Marjavaara - stretches along a new logging road at the southern edge of the planned Kalevala NP. The Russian UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) gridlines limited the selection areas so that only full square kilometres were included. To avoid human impact, areas near villages and larger watercourses - suitable for timber floating - were excluded. Each selection area consisted of, and was surrounded by, continuous, mainly unfragmented primeval forest-mire mosaics of several hundreds of square kilometres.

Field methods: 100 hectare study quadrates.

Selection of study plots: In each of the three selection areas, three study quadrates - limited by Russian UTM gridlines - were randomly chosen.

Amount of data: Nine study quadrates, each including one 0.5 hectare study plot (total 4.5 hectares). Study plots include 2215 dead trees, of which 1199 were more than 10 cm thick. In addition, tree- and dead tree- and biotope data were collected along altogether nine kilometers of sampling lines (total area 9 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. Jarmo Pyykkö assisted on three and Riitta Nykänen on one study plot.

Time and duration of field work: Summers 1995 and 1996. Altogether about 30 days.

Funding: Travell expences for field-work were covered by WWF Finland in year 1995 and by Kainuu Environmental Centre in year 1996. No other financing was available for the field work. 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.

Quadrates selected (sampled) for the study:
Vienansalo: