Research

Objectives

• Management regimes in south boreal taiga forests
• Restoration and management of biodiversity in production forests
• Functioning of upland and peatland forest ecosystem

Research and monitoring activities

Long-term experiments, many of them initiated in the early 20th century, are focused on the performance of different provenances of boreal conifers tree species, various methods of regeneration of mature stands, comparisons of even-aged and uneven-aged management systems, impacts of cuttings on runoff water quality, carbon cycling and green house gas emissions, decomposition rates of different types of litter, and impacts of various degrees of thinning, biomass and nutrient removals and fertilization on stand nutrition and growth and yield. Monitoring on flowering of forest trees and seed and litter crops has been running for many decades. Vesijako is also represented in the more recent monitoring networks addressing natural forest dynamics and biodiversity and stand dynamics following different types of restoration and prescribed burnings.

Landscape approaches

The forests outside experiments are managed by applying a variety of different management regimes. Landscape approaches are supported by a GIS-database of up-to-date site and stand parameters, resultant of consecutive inventories of all compartments. Access to these data is available by an intranet-GIS-application.

Documentation & data quality

The history and development of the forests are available from maps and archives. A GIS-database of site and stand parameters of all compartments is kept up to date on an annual basis. Documentation on the location, site and stand characteristics, and the measurements made on the experiments are stored in a database in Metla.

Long-term support & infrastructure

Long-term support for the research facility is well assured due to management according to management plans by Metla, and due to state-owned land. Basic monitorings are financed by Metla or other state research agencies and relevant joint research projects are strongly promoted. Advanced laboratory facilities for inorganic and organic chemical analyses etc. are available at Metla's Vantaa Research Unit. Local staff in Vesijako is available for field assistance. Accommodation and a small field laboratory are available at Vesijako.

Key references

• Hökkä, H. & Penttilä, T. 1999. Modelling the dynamics of wood productivity on drained peatland sites in Finland. Silva Fennica 33(1): 25-39.
• Huttunen, J.T., Nykänen, H., Martikainen, P.J. & Nieminen, M. 2003. Fluxes of nitrous oxide and methane from drained peatlands following forest clear-felling in southern Finland. Plant and Soil 255: 457-462.
• Kukkola, M. and Saramäki, J. 1983. Growth response in repeatedly fertilized pine and spruce stands on mineral soils. Communicationes Instituti Forestalis Fenniae114:1-55.
• Lilja, S., de Chantal, M., Kuuluvainen, T., Vanha-Majamaa, I. & Puttonen, P. 2005 Restoring natural characteristics in managed Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst) stands with partial cutting, dead wood creation and fire: immediate treatment effects. Scand. J. For. Res. 20 (Suppl 6) (in press).
• Mäkipää, R., Karjalainen, T., Pussinen, A., Kukkola, M., Kellomäki, S. & Mälkönen, E. 1998. Applicability of a forest simulation model for estimating effects of nitrogen deposition on a forest ecosystem: test of the validity of a gap-type model. Forest Ecology and Management 108: 239-250.
• Mälkönen, E. and Kukkola, M. 1991. Effect of long-term fertilization on the biomass production and nutrient status of Scots pine stands. Fertilizer Research 27:113-127.
• Müller, M. M., Varama, M., Heinonen, J. & Hallaksela A.-M. 2002. Influence of insects on the diversity of fungi in decaying spruce wood in managed and natural forests. Forest Ecology and Management 166: 165-181.
• Sarkkola, S., Alenius, V., Hökkä, H., Laiho, R., Päivänen, J. & Penttilä, T. 2003. Changes in structural inequality in Norway spruce stands on peatland sites after water-level drawdown. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 33(2): 222-231.
• Valkonen, S. & Maguire, D. 2005. Relationship between seedbed properties and the emergence of spruce germinants in recently cut Norway spruce selection stands in Southern Finland. Forest Ecology and Management 210: 255-266.
• Varmola, M. & Salminen, H. 2004. Timing and intensity of precommercial thinning in Pinus sylvestris stands. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research 19: 142-151.