LAND: Driving forces in vegetation dynamics and their consequences for ecosystem services

This project looks at four specific human-related driving forces of ecosystem change that are identified as major threats to biodiversity today or are predicted to become major threats in the near future. These are (1) habitat change, (2) climate change, (3) pollution, and (4) invasive species. The project focuses on terrestrial vegetation in mires, forests, and alpine areas, which are the major habitats in "northern areas". In addition to investigating the effects of these drivers on vegetation, we will also study how vegetational changes in turn have consequences for ecosystem services, focusing on pollination. For this purpose we have assembled a research team ideally composed to meet the challenges of such a project, including specialists in palaeoeco logy, community ecology, pollination, forest ecology, cultural-landscape ecology, and numerical analyses including multivariate and univariate statistics and randomization procedures.