Abstract
Very old, undisturbed forest stands may be important for biodiversity through their content of microhabitats or for the long periods available for colonisation, or for both. The term Ecological Continuity (EC) has been used to ascribe value to old forest stands. The relative importance of microhabitat and time for colonisation are usually not kept apart when EC is used as a conservation criterium. EC is broadly applied but poorly defined. Use of EC may lead to underestimation of the importance of forest dynamics and dispersal, and to overestimation of the importance of local land use history. If bioindicators of long-term habitat persistence are to be used, species with low dispersal capacity should be chosen. However, many lichens and other fungi, bryophytes and insects cited as indicators of EC, seem to have a patch-tracking lifestyle. They are 'colonists' according to life history strategy classification, and rather seem to indicate specific microhabitats. Terrestrial molluscs, some vascular forest plants, and those bryophytes and lichenized fungi classified as 'perennial stayers' in life history strategy classification, might be used to indicate long-term habitat persistence in forests, but more research is needed to evaluate such indicators.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahnlund H (1996) Vedinsekter på en sörmländsk aspstubbe. [Saproxylic insects on a Swedish dead aspen.] Entomologisk Tidskrift 117: 137-144
Ahnlund H (1997) Skydd eller skötsel replik angående betydelsen av kontinuitet och substrattillgång för krävande insekter. Entomologisk Tidskrift 118: 53-54
Akiyama H (1994) Allozyme variability within and among populations of the epiphytic moss Leucodon (Leucodontiaceae: Musci). American Journal of Botany 81: 1280-1287
Anonby JE (1994) Epiphytic lichen flora of aWest Norwegian pine forest: a comparison of a natural forest and a plantation. Blyttia 52: 81-87
Aronsson M,Hallingbäck T andMattsson J-E (1995) Rödlistade Växter i Sverige 1995. [Swedish Red Data Book of Plants.] Artdatabanken, Uppsala, Sweden
Arup U,Ekman S,Kärnefelt I andMattson J-E (1997) Skyddsvärda lavar i sydvästra Sverige. [Red-listed lichens and changes in the lichen flora of southwestern Sweden.] Lund
Arvidsson L,Lindström M,Muhr L-E,Ståhl B andWall S (1988) Lavfloran i Näverkärrskogen i Bohuslän. [The lichen flora of Näverkärr, Bohuslän, SW Sweden]. Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift 82: 167-192
Ås S,Bengtsson J andEbenhard T (1992) Archipelagos and theories of insularity. In: Hansson L (ed) Ecological Principles of Nature Conservation, pp 201-246. Elsevier Applied Science, London
Assmann T (1999) The ground beetle fauna of ancient and recent woodlands in the lowlands of north-west Germany (Coleoptera, Carabidae). Biodiversity and Conservation 8: 1499-1517
Baker GH (1988) Dispersal of Theba pisana Mollusca: Helioidae. Journal of Applied Ecology 25: 879-900
Baur B (1986) Patterns of dispersion, density and dispersal in alpine populations of the land snail Arianta arbustorum L. Helicidae. Holarctic Ecology 9: 117-125
Belyea LR andLancaster J (1999) Assembly rules within a contingent ecology. Oikos 86: 402-416
Bengtsson J,Nilsson S-G andÅs S (1995) Non-random occurrence of threatened land snails on forest islands. Biodiversity Letters 2: 140-148
Berg Å,Ehnström B,Gustafsson L,Hallingbäck T,Jonsell M andWeslien J (1994) Threatened plant, animal, and fungus species in Swedish forests: distribution and habitat associations. Conservation Biology 8: 718-731
Bierzychudek P (1982) Life histories and demography of shade-tolerant temperate forest herbs: a review. New Phytologist 90: 757-776
Bossuyt B,Hermy M andDeckers J (1999) Migration of herbaceous plant species across ancient-recent forest ecotones in central Belgium. Journal of Ecology 87: 628-638
Bredesen B,Haugan R,Aanderaa R,Lindblad I,Økland B andRösok Ø (1997) Wood-inhabiting fungi as indicators of ecological continuity within spruce forests of south-eastern Norway. Blyttia 55: 131-140
Brunet J (1993) Environmental and historical factors limiting the distribution of rare forest grasses in South Sweden. Forest Ecology and Management 61: 263-275
Brunet J (1994) Der Einfluß von Waldnutzung und Waldgeschichte auf die Vegetation südschwedischer Laubwälder. NNA-Berichte 94: 96-101
Brunet J andvon Oheimb G (1998) Migration of vascular plants to secondary woodlands in southern Sweden. Journal of Ecology 86: 429-438
Caro TM andO'Doherty G (1998) On the use of surrogate species in conservation biology. Conservation Biology 13: 805-814
Connor EF andMcCoy ED (1979) The statistics and biology of the species-area relationship. American Naturalist 113: 791-833
Cranston PS andTrueman JWH (1997) 'Indicator' organism groups in invertebrate biodiversity assessment. Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria 562: 267-274
De Leo GA andLevin S (1997) The multifaceted aspects of ecosystem integrity. Conservation Ecology (online) 1: no pagination
Diekmann M (1999) Southern deciduous forests. In: Rydin H,Snoeijs P andDiekmann M (eds) Swedish Plant Geography. Acta Phytogeographica Suecica 84: 33-53
During HJ (1992) Ecological classification of bryophytes and lichens. In: Bates JW andFarmer AM (eds) Bryophytes and Lichens in a Changing Environment. Oxford Scientific Publications, Oxford, UK
Dzwonko Z (1993) Relations between the floristic composition of isolated young woods and their proximity to ancient woodland. Journal of Vegetation Science 4: 693-698
Edenhamn P,Ekendahl A,Lönn M andPamilo P (1999) Spridningsförmåga hos svenska växter och djur. [Dispersal capacity in Swedish plants and animals.] Naturvårdsverkets rapport 4964. Naturvårdsverkets förlag. Stockholm [in Swedish with English summary]
Ehrlich PR (1996) Conservation in temperate forests: what do we need to know and do? Forest Ecology and Management 851: 9-19
Engelmark O andHytteborn H (1999) Coniferous forests. In: Rydin H,Snoeijs P andDiekmann M (eds) Swedish Plant Geography. Acta Phytogeographica Suecica 84: 55-74
Esseen P-A,Ehnström B,Ericson L andSjöberg K (1997) Boreal forests. In: Hansson L (ed) Boreal Ecosystems and Landscapes: Structure, Processes and Conservation of Biodiversity. Ecological Bulletins 46: 16-47
Faith DP andWalker PA (1996a) Environmental diversity: on the best-possible use of surrogate data for assessing the relative biodiversity of sets of areas. Biodiversity and Conservation 54: 399-415
Faith DP andWalker PA (1996b) How do indicator groups provide information about the relative biodiversity of different sets of areas?: on hotspots, complementarity and pattern-based approaches. Biodiversity Letters 31: 18-25
Flather CH,Wilson KR,Dean DJ andMcComb WC (1997) Identifying gaps in conservation networks: of indicators and uncertainty in geographic-based analyses. Ecological Applications 72: 531-542
Frey W andHensen I (1995) Lebensstrategien bei Pflanzen: ein klassifizierungsvorschlag. Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 117: 187-209
Fritz Ö andLarsson K (1996) Betydelsen av skoglig kontinuitet för rödlistade lavar. En studie av halländsk bokskog. [The significance of long forest continuity to red-listed lichens. A study of beech forest in the province of Halland, SW Sweden.] Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift 90: 241-262
Gauslaa Y andOhlson M (1997) Et historisk perspektiv på kontinuitet og forekomst av epifyttiska laver i norske skoger. [Continuity and epiphytic lichens in Norwegian forests. A historical perspective.] Blyttia 55: 15-27
Gauslaa Y andSolhaug K-A (1996) Differences in the susceptibility to light stress between epiphytic lichens of ancient and young boreal forest stands. Functional Ecology 10: 344-354
Goward T (1994) Notes on old-growth-dependent epiphytic macrolichens in inland British Columbia, Canada. Acta Botanica Fennica 150: 31-38
Grashof-Bokdam CJ andGeertsema W (1998) The effect of isolation and history on colonisation patterns of plant species in secondary woodland. Journal of Vegetation Science 25: 837-846
Gustafsson L,Fiskesjö A,Hallingbäck T,Ingelög T andPettersson B (1992) Semi-natural broadleaved woods in southern Sweden-habitat factors of importance to some bryophyte species. Biological Conservation 59: 175-181
Hallenberg N (1995) Dispersal abilities and distributional patterns in Aphyllophorales, with emphasis on corticioid fungi. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis Symbolae Botanicae Upsaliensis XXX(3): 95-100
Hallingbäck T andWeibull H (1996) En värdepyramid avmossor för naturvårdsbedömning av ädellövskog. [Bryophytes indicating deciduous forest stands important for nature conservation.] Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift 90: 129-140
Heinken T (1999) Dispersal patterns of terricolous lichens by thallus fragments. Lichenologist 31: 603-612
Helliwell DR (1976) The effects of size and isolation on the conservation value of wooded sites in Britain. Journal of Biogeography 3: 407-416
Honnay O,Hermy M andCoppin P (1999) Impact of habitat quality on forest plant species colonization. Forest Ecology and Management 115: 157-170
Hörnberg GO,Zackrisson U,Segerström U,Svensson BW,Ohlson M andBradshaw RHW (1998) Boreal swamp forests biodiversity 'hotspots' in an impoverished forest landscape. BioScience 48: 795-802
Johannesson J (1996) Sällsynta lavar knutna till ekar. Utbredning och miljökrav i St Annas skärgård. [Rare lichens on oak. Their distribution and environment in the archipelago of St. Anna.] Master' thesis. Department of Biology, Linköping University
Jonsell M andNordlander G (1999) Insects in polypore fungi as indicator species: a comparison between forest sites differing in amounts and continuity of dead wood. In: Jonsell M (1999) Insects on Wooddecaying Polypores: Conservation Aspects. Thesis, Silvestria 93, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Jonsson B-G andJonsell M (1999) Exploring potential biodiversity indicators in boreal forests. Biodiversity and Conservation 8: 1417-1433
Kallio T (1970) Aerial distribution of the root-rot fungus Fomes annosus (Fr.) Cooke in Finland. Acta Forestalia Fennica 107: 1-55
Karström M (1993) Indikatorarter som biologisk inventeringsmetod. In: Olsson GA (ed) Indikatorarter för identifiering av naturskogar i Norrbotten, pp 19-66. Naturvårdsverket Rapport 4276, Solna, Sweden
Kimmerer RW (1994) Ecological consequences of sexual versus asexual reproduction in Dicranum flagellare and Tetraphis pellucida. Bryologist 97: 20-25
Kirby KJ andWatkins C (1998) The Ecological History of European Forests. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kirby KJ,Webster SD andAntzak A (1991) Effects of forest management on stand structure and the quantity of fallen dead wood: some British and Polish examples. Forest Ecology and Management 43: 167-174
Kruys N andJonsson B-G (1997) Insular patterns of calicioid lichens in a boreal old-growth forest-wetland mosaic. Ecography 20: 605-613
Kuusinen M (1995) Cyanobacterial macrolichens on Populus tremula as indicators of forest continuity in Finland. Biological Conservation 75: 43-49
Landres P,Verner BJ andThomas JW (1988) Ecological uses of vertebrate indicator species: a critique. Conservation Biology 2: 316-328
Lawesson JE,de Blust G,Grashof C,Firbank L,Honnay O,Hermy M,Hobitz P andJensen LM (1998) Species diversity and area-relationships in Danish beech forests. Forest Ecology and Management 106: 235-245
Linder P,Elfving B andZackrisson O (1997) Stand structure and successional trends in virgin boreal forest reserves in Sweden. Forest Ecology and Management 98: 17-33
Longton RE (1997) Reproductive biology and life-history strategies. Advances in Bryology 6: 65-101
Martin O (1989) Smaeldere (Coleoptera, Elateridae) fra gammel lövskov i Danmark. [Click beetles (Coleoptera, Elateridae) from old deciduous forests in Denmark.] Entomologiske Meddelelser 57: 1-107
Nilsson S-G andBaranowski R (1994) Indikatorer på jätteträdskontinuitet-svenska förekomster av knäppare som är beroende av grova, levande träd. [Indicators of megatree continuity-Swedish distribution of click beetles (Coleoptera, Elateridae) dependent on hollow trees.] Entomologisk Tidskrift 115: 81-97
Nilsson S-G andBaranowski R (1997) Habitat predictability and the occurrence of wood beetles in oldgrowth beech forests. Ecography 20: 491-498
Nilsson S-G,Arup U,Baranowski R andEkman S (1995) Tree-dependent lichens and beetles as indicators in conservation forests. Conservation Biology 9: 1208-1215
Nordén B (1997) Genetic variation within and among populations of Fomitopsis pinicola Basidiomycetes. Nordic Journal of Botany 17: 319-329
Nordén B andLarsson K-H (2000) Basidiospore dispersal in the old-growth forest fungus Phlebia centrifuga (Basidiomycetes). Nordic Journal of Botany 20: 215-219
Ohlson M andTryterud E (1999) Long-term spruce forest continuity-a challenge for a sustainable Scandinavian forestry. Forest Ecology and Management 124: 27-34
Ohlson M,Söderström L,Hörnberg G,Zackrisson O andHermansson J (1997) Habitat qualities versus long-term continuity as determinants of biodiversity in boreal old-growth swamp forests. Biological Conservation 81: 221-231
Økland B (1994) Mycetophilidae Diptera, an insect group vulnerable to forest practices? A comparison of clear-cut, managed and semi-natural spruce forests in southern Norway. Biodiversity and Conservation 3: 65-85
Økland B,Bakke A,Hågvar S andKvamme T (1996) What factors influence the diversity of saproxylic beetles? A multi-scaled study from a spruce forest in southern Norway. Biodiversity and Conservation 5: 75-100
Olsson GA (1993) Indikatorarter för identifiering av naturskogar i Norrbotten. Naturvårdsverkets rapport nr. 4276, Stockholm
Peterken GF (1996) Natural Woodland-ecology and conservation in northern temperate regions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Peterken GF andGame M (1984) Historical factors affecting the number and distribution of vascular plant species in the woodlands of central Lincolnshire. Journal of Ecology 72: 155-182
Prendergast JR andEversham BC (1997) Species richness covariance in higher organism groups: empirical tests of the biodiversity indicator concept. Ecography 202: 210-216
Renhorn K-E (1997) Effects of forestry on biomass and growth of epiphytic macrolichens in boreal forests. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Ecological Botany, Umeå University, Umeå
Rogers RW (1990) Ecological strategies of Lichens. Lichenologist 22: 149-162
Rose F (1974) The epiphytes of oak. In: Morris MG andPerring FH (eds) The British Oak. Its History and Natural History, pp 250-273. EW Classey, Faringdon
Rose F (1976) Lichenological indicators of age and ecological continuity in Woodlands. In: Brown DH,Hawksworth DL andBailey RH (eds) Lichenology: Progress and Problems, pp 279-307. Academic Press, London
Rose F (1985) The forests with long Ecological Continuity of Western Europe and their epiphytic lichens. Bulletin of the British Lichen Society 56: 1-8
Rose F (1992) Temperate forest management: its effects on bryophyte and lichen floras and habitats. In: Bates JW andFarmer AM (eds) Bryophytes and Lichens in a Changing Enviroment, pp 211-233. Oxford Scientific Publications, Oxford
Runkle JR (1985) Disturbance regimes in temperate forests. In: Pickett STA andWhite P (eds) 1985: The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics. Academic Press, Orlando
Schwartz MW (1999) Choosing the appropriate scale of reserves for conservation. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 30: 83-108
Seaward MRD (1988) Progress in the study of the lichen flora of the British Isles. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 96: 81-95
Selva SB (1994) Lichen diversity and stand continuity in the northern hardwoods and spruce-fir forests of northern New England and western New Brunswick. Bryologist 97: 424-429
Selva SB (1996) Using lichens to assess ecological continuity in northeastern forests. In: Byrd M (ed) Eastern Old-Growth Forests-Prospects for Rediscovery and Recovery, pp 35-48. Island Press, Washington, DC
Söderström L (1988) The occurrence of epixylic bryophyte and lichen species in an old natural and a managed forest stand in Northeast Sweden. Biological Conservation 45: 169-178
Söderström L andHerben T (1997) Dynamics of bryophyte metapopulations. Advances in Bryology 6: 89-97
Southwood TRE (1977) Habitat, the template for ecological strategies? Journal of Animal Ecology 46: 337-365
Southwood TRE (1988) Tactics, strategies and templets. Oikos 52: 3-18
Thor G (1998) Red-listed lichens in Sweden: Habitats, threats, protection, and indicator value in boreal coniferous forests. Biodiversity and Conservation 7: 59-72
Tibell L (1992) Crustose lichens as indicators of forest continuity in boreal coniferous forests. Nordic Journal of Botany 12: 427-450. (Copenhagen)
Uliczka H andAngelstam P (1999) Occurrence of epiphytic macrolichens in relation to tree species and age in managed boreal forest. Ecography 22: 396-405
Warren MS andKey RS (1991) Woodlands: past, present and potentials for insects. In: Collins NM andThomas JA (eds) The Conservation of Insects and their Habitats, 15th Symposium of the Royal Entemological Society of London, pp 155-211. Academic Press, London
Willis KJ (1993) How old is ancient woodland? Tree 8: 427-428
Wu J andLoucks OL (1995) From balance of nature to hierarchical patch dynamics: a paradigm shift in ecology. Quarterly Review of Biology 70: 439-466
Wulf M (1997) Plant species as indicators of ancient woodland in northwestern Germany. Journal of Vegetation Science 8: 635-642
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nordén, B., Appelqvist, T. Conceptual problems of Ecological Continuity and its bioindicators. Biodiversity and Conservation 10, 779–791 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016675103935
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016675103935