New finds in Finland´s forests
A major research programme examining Finland’s less familiar forest species has collected vital new information to help plan nature conservation – and resulted in many new discoveries.
The recently completed Research Programme of Defi ciently Known and Threatened Forest Species (PUTTE) has particularly focused on forest flora, fauna and fungi down at the bottom end of the food chain. Biologists were sent out into survey sites with magnifying glasses and sample jars, instructed to leave no stone unturned on the forest fl oor in their search for unfamiliar creatures.“The surveys surprisingly revealed almost 1,500 species never previously recorded in Finland, including 185 totally new to science,” says programme coordinator Aino Juslén from the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE).
Most of the new species are taxonomically challenging tiny bugs and microscopic fungi, but the discovery and naming of new life-forms of
any kind is a uniquely satisfying achievement for
biologists.
According to Juslén, the “new” species are unlikely to be truly new invaders in Finland’s forests, but have probably been present for thousands of years, though unobserved by scientists. The programme results will be invaluable in the drafting of Finland’s next “Red List” of threatened species, due for publication in 2010.
By Fran Weaver
Photos Metsähallitus
