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Modern nature conservation is a product of post-Enlightenment modernity; I explore the heterogeneity of its conceptual and ideological background. The 19th century legacy comprises concern over human-caused extinctions; protests against excessive hunting and cruelty toward animals; utilitarian care for natural resources; and romantic sensibility concerning the value of nature for human health and spirituality. The 20th century added into conservation thinking increasing consciousness about human biospheric dependence; efforts to identify appropriate conservation targets; and most recently concern over the loss of biodiversity. The politics of nature conservation has taken shape within the framework of politics of nature, that is, choices vis-á-vis nature that have been made either as deliberate decisions on resource use or as side-effects of subsistence practices of various types. Because of tensions and conflicts with alternative ways of using nature, formulating realistic conservation policies has been a complicated task. Problems and uncertainties emerge: pursuing material aspirations of the current world society will necessarily bring about damage to ecological systems of the Earth. The way forward is to identify feasible alternatives in the midst of the tensions and ambiguities that arise, and to open up space for carrying through conservation initiatives.

We explored the importance of habitats preferred by the endangered White-backed Woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos) for threatened, saproxylic beetles (Coleoptera). We sampled 16 potential breeding forests of the White-backed Woodpecker in Finland and Russian Karelia. Our surveys yielded 16 threatened species from a total of 39,485 identified beetle individuals. All 16 species and the woodpecker are dependent on the same resource, decaying wood, and at least some of the beetles even prefer successional deciduous habitats, as does the woodpecker. Based on 6 years of data, we conclude that the number of threatened beetle species in each of these forests is considerable (6 or more), although samples from one season included only 0–4 such species. These inconspicuous threatened species might be protected through use of the White-backed Woodpecker as an umbrella species to define suitable habitats. The woodpeckers require approximately 50–100 ha of suitable habitat for breeding, suggesting that every woodpecker territory may include local populations of a number of threatened beetle species. If the White-backed Woodpecker can be saved in Finland, a suite of threatened saproxylic beetles will most likely be saved as well. We also need more information on the minimum requirements of the threatened beetles, which can be obtained only by continued study of the beetles themselves. Escarabajos Amenazados en Habitats del Pajaro Carpintro de Espalda Blanca Exploramos la importancia de los habitats preferidos por el pajaro carpintero de espalda blanca, en peligro de extincion (Dendrocopos leucotos) para los escarabajos saproxilicos (Coleoptera) amenazados. Muestreamos 16 bosques con potencial para la reproduccion del pajaro carpintero en Finlandia y la Karelia Rusa. Nuestros muestreos arrojaron 16 especies amenazadas de un total de 39,485 individous de coleopteros identificados. Las 16 especies y el pajaro carpintero dependen del mismo recurso, madera en descomposicion y al menos algunos de los escarabajos prefieren habitats deciduos sucesionales al igualque el pajaro carpintero. Basados en 6 anos de datos, concluimos que el numero de especies de escarabajos amenazadas en cada uno de estos bosques es considerable (6 o mas), aunque las muestras de una estacion incluyeron solo 0–4 de estas especies. Estas especies amenazadas inconspicuas pueden ser protegidas utilizando al pajaro carpintero como especie sombrilla para definir habitats aptos. El pajaro carpintero requiere de aproximadamente 50–100 ha de habitat adecuado para reproduccion, sugiriendo que cada territorio de pajaro carpintero podria incluir problaciones locales de un numero de especies de escarabajo amenazados. Si el pajaro carpintero de espalda blanca pudiera ser salvado en Finlandia, un espacio para los escarabajos saproxilicos amenazados seria salvado tambien. Sin embargo, necesitamos aun mas informacion sobre los requerimientos minimos de los escarabajos amenazados, los cuales pueden ser solo obtenidos mediante la continuacion de estudios especificos sobre los escarabajos.

This paper introduces the theme of this special issue, “scaling and environmental understanding”. Environmental problems are scale-specific. Consequently, environmental policy should be scale-specific, too. The scaling of environmental problems and policies is difficult because the processes creating environmental problems are non-linear. Therefore, scaling is not similar to merely choosing an appropriate magnification, as it were. Scaling requires understanding of the dynamics of the processes. I discuss two heuristic perspectives toward scaling, hierarchy and self-similarity, and suggest the use of analog models as a methodological perspective to identify fruitful similarities between physical and socio-cultural processes. A common denominator among many of the papers included in this issue is to construct analog models for particular dynamic features of environmental issues.

The concept of habitat fragmentation has become an important theme in conservation research, and it is often used as if fragmentation were a unitary phenomenon. However, the concept is ambiguous, and empirical studies demonstrate a wide variety of direct and indirect effects, sometimes with mutually opposing implications. The effects of fragmentation vary across organisms, habitat types, and geographic regions. Such a contrast between a schematic concept and multifaceted empirical reality is counterproductive. I analyzed the stabilization of the schematic view of fragmentation by the early 1980s, using a genealogical narrative as a methodological approach. The main assumptions behind the schematic view were: (1) fragments are comparable to oceanic islands; (2) habitats surrounding fragments are hostile to a majority of the organisms; and (3) natural pre-fragmentation conditions were uniform. The stabilization loop of this view was supported by the reduction of empirical research to species–area curve fitt...

A key challenge in conceptualizing ecological complexity is to allow simultaneously for particularity, contingency, and structure, and for such structure to be internally differentiated,dynamically tied to its context, and subject torestructuring. Because all organisms live insuch dynamic ecological circumstances, philosophy of ecology could become the leading site for addressing difficult conceptual questions concerning the situatedness or positionality of organisms –humans included – in their changing and intersecting worlds.

Ecology has had a lower profile in Biology & Philosophy than one might expect on the basis of the attention ecology is given in public discussions in relation to environmental issues. Our tentative explanation is that ecology appears theoretically redundant within biology and, consequently, philosophically challenging problemsrelated to biology are commonly supposed to be somewhere else, particularly in the molecular sphere. Richard Levins has recognized the genuine challenges posed by ecology for theoretical and philosophical thinking in biology. This essay sets the stage for appreciating his work; it was preceded by four articles published in Biology & Philosophy 15(2),and is followed by a personal reminiscent.

The term biodiversity may help us to reach beyond the nature–culture dualism that has a debilitating effect on conservation thinking. This, however, depends on how the term is actually used. The opportunity is that the term connects dialectically together biological entities and their conditions of reproduction and may, consequently, facilitate a shift from atomistic to processual thinking in ecology and conservation. Analogously, the term offers resources for analyzing the dynamic dependence of human activities on natural processes. Health offers a fruitful metaphor for evaluating the resilience and conditions of reproduction of ecosocial systems. On the other hand, problems and contradictions in the application of the term arise from too schematic a perception of the relationship between scientific knowledge and human, social agency. Science influences human agency primarily on the long term, by helping to form new perspectives on what it means to lead a human life. Conservation concerns have a great influence on such perspectives. However, an emphasis on ‘crisis’ may be counterproductive: scientific arguments perform poorly in a crisis situation in which, instead, short-term interests of powerful social actors such as corporations, state agencies or professional groups may gain the upper hand.

(1998). Political undercurrents of modern ecology. Science as Culture: Vol. 7, Natural Contradictions, pp. 465-491.

Heterogeneity in species assemblages of forest-floor arthropods m carabid beetles, ants and spiders m within and between different forest age classes was studied in the southern Finnish taiga. The importance of processes operating on the local scale (within the movement radius of the species) vs on the regional scale (among forest stands) in determining the observed variation was assessed. Four data sets with different spatial resolutions in mesic forests in the same general study area were used. The material consists of 18 283 carabids of 51 species, 48 769 spiders of 212 species, and 126 718 worker ants of 23 species. Analyses of abundance variation and species complementarity among successional stages revealed that in all the three taxa species occurring in the mature forest were prevalent in the younger successional stages as well, constituting more than half of the catch in any age class. A great majority of carabid and spider species were widely distributed across the forest age classes, whereas ants include a higher proportion of species with a narrower amplitude across the succession gradient. Comparisons of similarity between samples at increasing distance from one another on the local scale within forest stands (a few tens of meters to a few hundreds of meters) showed a quite consistent pattern in carabids and spiders: there was more variation between sampling sites in young successional forests than in the mature forest. Furthermore, only in the mature forest a slight, albeit statistically not significant, negative relationship between similarity of samples and distance between sampling sites was detected. In carabids and spiders, comparisons between samples located at a distance of 10n15 m from each other showed considerable heterogeneity, the mean percentage similarity being c. 0.6 (in ants c. 0.8). On the regional scale, systematic variation between young and mature forest stands is a major element increasing the total diversity (species turnover c. 50% in carabids and spiders; compositional similarity c. 0.3n0.4 in carabids, 0.2n0.3 in spiders), but variation within forest stands on a spatial scale of 10n15 meters is another important component in the total heterogeneity. The results suggest that regional abundance variation is a primary factor influencing the composition of local assemblages; a set of hypotheses elaborating this conclusion is formulated. The result implies that maintenance of habitat heterogeneity on a small scale (10n15 m) is needed to preserve biodiversity in managed forests.

We present systematic arguments for the necessity of field survey in conservation biology. Preservation of biological diversity has become a major challenge in conservation biology, but to comprehend diversity, ecologists have to obtain information on what units the ‘diversity’ of different parts of the world consists of, where these units are, and how they respond to natural and human-induced environmental change. To reach this end, systematic survey procedures need to be developed that incorporate data collecting, data analysis and conclusions about distributional patterns as well as management recommendations into an iterative process that is corrected as experience accumulates. The appropriate survey design depends on the task and needs to be fixed separately in each case; developing long-term observational systems is no less challenging a task than developing experimental systems in laboratory research, or modeling systems in theoretical research. We conclude the paper with five principles of ecological survey. A common denominator of these principles is the need to make explicit decisions at each step so that errors and insufficiency can be corrected later.

We studied the structure of spider assemblages in fragments of old coniferous forest in the southern Finnish taiga. We sampled spiders with pitfall traps in the interiors and in the edges of the old-forest patches and in the surrounding managed forests. We surveyed assemblages of ground-dwelling spiders and the relation of species to formerly mentioned three forest-habitat categories. We analysed spider assemblages in relation to vegetation structure as well. As in forest spiders there are no habitat specialists, no strict old-forest species were found. However, the spider assemblages of old forests were different from those in the surrounding managed forests. The difference was attributable to habitat differences, mainly to reduced tree-canopy cover in managed forests. Large hunting-spider species (Gnaphosidae, Lycosidae) benefitted from clearcutting and other management measures, whereas the catches of small forest-living species (Linyphiidae) decreased in plantations and open forests. The hunters colonized the edges of old-forest fragments, and were seldom found in the interior of old forest. Size of old-forest fragment did not affect significantly the spider assemblage. The results indicate that a buffer zone of mature forest with closed canopy should be left to surround the old-growth reserves in order to minimize the edge effect in the fragments

Ecological thinking has evolved in close interaction with human subsistence practices. This is evident for two broad reasons. First, human subsistence depends ultimately on the utilization of ecological processes, whether through hunting and gathering, the breeding of domesticated animals and cultivation of plants, or through production based on other biological resources. Second, we humans ourselves are biological organisms and, like all other organisms, we lead our lives enmeshed in networks of ecological relationships.

A sampling view of the colonization of small habitat fragments by birds is based on the assumption that individual birds acquire territories in the fragments randomly, and their occurrence frequencies follow from abundances in the regional species pool. We tested the following predictions of this view using bird census data from a fragment "ar- chipelago" in the southern Finnish taiga: (1) the location of breeding pairs varies randomly among the fragments from year to year, and (2) the pattern of species accrual with increasing sample size is similar to random sampling. The data agreed with the predictions. For most species the distribution of pairs in the fragments agreed with the Poisson prediction. The pattern of species turnover in single fragments agreed with the sampling view so that an average fragment had about 10 pairs of 7 species in a single breeding season, and about 40 pairs of 13 species over the 4-yr period. The sampling model is a "null" assumption that should be considered when assessing the occurrence of birds in small habitat fragments. This requirement defines methodological imperatives that have often been violated in ornithological studies; we discuss such methodological problems. The sampling model implies that local turnover in small fragments may be a mechanical reflection of change in territory location from year to year and disconnected from population dynamics. In such a case, apparent "extinctions" and "recolonizations" in single fragments are ecolog- ically trivial. Assessing the interface between sampling colonization and genuine meta- population dynamics is an urgent challenge for conservation ecology, particularly in tem- perate and boreal areas.

Samples of carabids were collected from two study areas in southern Finnish coniferous forest using continuous pitfall trapping throughout the breeding season. These were compared with samples from combinations of early and late season sampling periods (5+5, 10+10 or 14+14 days in each combination). The same species were abundart in both the smaller samples from combinations of periods and in the whole season samples. There was considerable variation in the total catch of carabids among the 10-day samples (5+5 days) which mainly reflected fluctuation in catch of the abundant species in the early season. About 42% of the total number of species was caught in every 10-day sample, 52% in every 20-day sample, and 61% and 77% in every 28-day sample. Most species not caught during the shorter trapping periods were scarce in the whole season sample (

Preface vii ntroduction: What to Say about Nature's "Speech" / Yrjo Haila and Chuck Dyke 1 Speaking of Nature / Susan Oyama 49 Natural Speech: A Hoary Story / Chuck Dyke 66 Gardens, Climate Changes, and Cultures: An Exploration into the Historical Nature of Environmental Problems / Ville Lahde 78 Participative Thinking: "Seeing the Face" and "Hearing the Voice" of Nature / John Shotter 106 Rethinking Intentionality: A Bourdieuian Perspective/ Iordanis Marcoulatos 127 Fluids on the Move: An Analogical Account of Environmental Mobilization / Lasse Peltonen 150 Fight Over the Face of Tampere: A Sneaking Transformation of a Local Political Field / Markus Laine 177 Stand/ardization and Entrainment in Forest Management / Ari Jokinen 198 Calculating the Futures: Stability and Change in a Local Energy Production System / Taru Peltola 218 Exploring Themes about Social Agency through Interpretation of Diagrams of Nature and Society / Peter Taylor 235 Who Speaks for Nature? / John O'Neill 261 Appendix: Primer: On Thinking Dynamically about the Human Ecological Condition / Chuck Dyke 279 References 303 Notes on Contributors 323 Index 325

Management practices favoring conifers at the expense of deciduous tree species, and the eradication of deciduous trees, especially aspen Populus tremula, from managed forests have resulted in population declines in several species in Fennoscandia. In addition to species depending on decaying wood of deciduous trees, earlier evidence suggests that leaf litter, especially that of aspen, is favored by many carabid species. We ran a four-year experiment in order to compare carabid assemblages of unchanged forest floor with artificially created leaf-litter plots in central Finland. A total of 18 plots (5 m in diameter) were established in three forest stands without aspen a few kilometers apart. Each stand had 3 litter plots (litter added) and 3 control plots, Pre-treatment samples were compared with those collected alter litter addition. The litter addition affected the carabid-assemblage structure by increasing the catches of some species and decreasing the catch of one species. The number of carabid species was similar in control and litter plots. The litter effect was smaller than variation among forest stands and year-lo-year fluctuations. There was a strong temporal constancy among the plots: ‘rich’ plots remained ‘rich’ from year to year and similarly, ‘poor’ plots remained ‘poor’. The significant influence of leaf litter on carabid abundance can be attributable to both abiotic factors (microenvironmental conditions, especially humidity and temperature), and biotic ones (changes in niche structure, improved food supply). Leal litter seems to have an effect on carabid distribution patterns, and deciduous trees scattered among conifers are likely to be of importance on carabid fauna in boreal forests.

The colonisation of a burned clear-cut by ants in southern Finland was monitored using pitfall traps, artificial nest sites, and direct nest sampling from the ground and stumps. Clearcutting and fire seemed to have destroyed wood-ant colonies ( group), and also other mature-forest species suffered from fire. Nylander was able to survive only in less severely burned moist sites, whereas it benefitted from the enhanced light conditions in a non-burned clear-cut. The fire resulted in an essentially ant-free terrain into which pioneering species immigrated. The mortality of nest-founding queens appeared to be high. The results supported the hypothesis that the pioneering species tend to be those that are capable of independent colony founding, followed by species founding nests through temporary nest parasitism. The succession of the burned clear-cut differed from that of the non-burned one, suggesting that habitat selection in immigration and priority effects, i.e. competition, introduce deterministic components in the successional pathways of boreal ant communities. Formica rufaMyrmica ruginodis

The management of landscapes for biological conservation and ecologically sustainable natural resource use are crucial global issues. Research for over two decades has resulted in a large literature, yet there is little consensus on the applicability or even the existence of general principles or broad considerations that could guide landscape conservation. We assess six major themes in the ecology and conservation of landscapes. We identify 13 important issues that need to be considered in developing approaches to landscape conservation. They include recognizing the importance of landscape mosaics (including the integration of terrestrial and aquatic areas), recognizing interactions between vegetation cover and vegetation configuration, using an appropriate landscape conceptual model, maintaining the capacity to recover from disturbance and managing landscapes in an adaptive framework. These considerations are influenced by landscape context, species assemblages and management goals and do not translate directly into on-the-ground management guidelines but they should be recognized by researchers and resource managers when developing guidelines for specific cases. Two crucial overarching issues are: (i) a clearly articulated vision for landscape conservation and (ii) quantifiable objectives that offer unambiguous signposts for measuring progress.

Small-scale distribution of ground beetles (Cole- optera, Carabidae) was examined, based on catches among 300 pitfall traps, in a coniferous forest in southern Finland. The sample from the whole snow-free season comprised 2405 individuals of twenty-two species. Each of the most numerous species (Pterostichus oblongopunctatus (F.), Calathus micropterus (Dft.), Leistus terminatus (Hellw. in Pz.), Notiophilus biguttatus (F.) and Cychrus caraboides (L.)) was non-randomly distributed and formed aggrega- tions within the site of c. 1.3 ha in area. Although the five species occurred in every microhabitat defined in the plot, four of them (N. biguttatus was an exception) were more abundantly found in certain microhabitat types than in the others. In addition to vegetation around the traps, the numbers of Formica ants in the traps correlated with the numbers of carabids caught, mostly negatively. The consid- erable variation in catches and species richness among single traps and among blocks of 16 traps tended to even out, when larger subsamples were taken from the total pool (blocks of 48 traps). The distribution patterns observed within the plot were compared to a reference data set from similar habitat in the same region. Species distributions among microhabitats were slightly different in the reference set and the predic- tive success was relatively poor, probably due to different scales of study in the two data sets. Variation in species distribution in the two spatial scales studied (within a habitat patch and among them) is suppos- edly due to different factors. Although no direct evidence is available from our study area, we suggest that active micro- habitat selection explains the small-scale distribution within the study plot, whereas dynamics of local populations, influenced by regional-scale differences in habitat composi- tion, are the most likely explanation for the distribution pat- terns among habitat patches.

We assessed the colonisation of clearcut forests by ants by using pitfall-trap data collected from clearcut areas of different age in southern Finland. We compared mature forests (age over 120 yr) with areas cleared 0, 2 and 10 yr before trapping. We concluded that the old-forest wood-ant systems are destroyed by clear-cutting, and that this is probably based on the loss of food resources. In the colonisation stage the role of stochasticity is counter-balanced by a number of deterministic species-specific factors in the succession of ant assemblages

The equilibrium theory of island biogeography of MacArthur and Wilson aimed at providing a unifying framework for studying insular ecology. However, the theory does not elaborate the concept of an 'island' in an ecological framework. I suggest that different types of islands be ecologically defined on the basis of processes relative to which some ecologically interesting entities on those 'islands' actually are isolated from their surround- ings. Four main island scales can be discerned, namely, the scales of (1) individuals, (2) population dynamics, (3) population differentiation, and (4) evolutionary divergence. I illustrate these different island types and their interfaces with examples mainly from northwestem Europe. The equilibrium hypothesis seems relevant primarily on the population dynamics scale. A research programme following such differentiation would include two phases: first, assessment of factors which make the environment studied 'insular', and second, construction of specific models for analysing ecological processes in those particular insular conditions.

The distribution of wintering land birds was examined in the archipelago of Aland (60°N, 20°E) along two ecological dimensions: (1) the island continuum from small skerries ((0.5 ha) to the mainland of Aland (97000 ha), and (2) the habitat range of the mainland of Aland. In the species-area relationship, both the exponential and power function models fitted well. The increase of the number of species with island size was interpreted as a consequence of increasing habitat diversity on larger islands. The smallest islands supported only few seed-eating species utilizing the islands in a fine-grained fashion; none of these birds belonged to the breeding fauna of the islands. With increasing island size and habitat diversity, insectivores and species tied to the human culture were added. On the mainland of Aland, more than half of the birds were observed near human habitations: bird communities wintering in pine forests were richer than in deciduous forests. Proportion of wintering species was greatest in the breeding communities of pine forests. The proportion of wintering species was presumably regulated by the degree of structural change in the habitat between summer and winter, this change being most drastic in deciduous habitats The species observed could be broadly classified into three feeding categories: opportunists., omnivores and scavengers, dependent on the diverse food items provided by man; food specialists, species eating seeds and berries, ranging widely in the islands and habitats; and insectivorous habitat specialists, inhabiting coniferous habitats, and islands with coniferous (pine) forests. Opportunists, in particular, gel increasing wintering opportunities by the impact of man.

To do science means to construct theories and to adopt theoretical concepts in order to explain facts of nature (or man); if the world were what it looks like, science would be unnecessary. But how are the prevailing concepts in science in general, or in ecology in particular, vindicated?

Comparaison de: effectif et densite de la population, biomasse, diversite des especes d'oiseaux de l'ile d'Ulverso (5,8 km 2 ) et de l'ile Aland (970 km 2 ). De nombreuses caracteristiques des biocenoses insulaires peuvent etre liees a des reponses autecologiques (differences dans la structure de l'habitat)

Land birds breeding on forty-four islands (size range 0.5-582 ha) in the Vargskar archipelago of the kland Islands (SW Finland) were censused in three (or two) breeding seasons in 1976-80 by one-visit methods. The islands were divided into five size classes and expected population sizes of land birds were estimated on the basis of (1) habitat composition of the islands and (2) population densities of each species in equivalent habitats in the source area, Main Aland. Prevalence is defined as the ratio between observed and expected population sizes. Observed densities of most of the fifty-six species studied did not deviate from expected values. Eleven species were more abundant on the islands than expected, including dominant generalists and species favoured by edges and bushy, heterogeneous habitat structure. Fourteen species had smaller populations on the islands than expected, but only seven of them consistently so in all census years and all island size classes. Habitat micro-structure seems important for three low-prevalence species, nest predation is invoked in two cases, in one case poor wintering capability seems a plausible factor, while one case remains obscure. Rarities were observed in the island censuses about as frequently as on Main Aland. Interspecific competition seems a plausible explanation for the absence of one species from the archipelago. One species, Turdus pilaris, changed its prevalence pattern dramatically in the study area by disappearing from the archipelago after the exceptionally cold winter of 1978/ 79; recolonization has taken place very slowly. The only species possibly showing density compensation is the dominant generalist Fringilla coelebs. Its populations on small islands are about doubled compared with the expecta- tions. Total densities are also higher than expected on small islands, but in most cases F. coelebs contributes less than half to the increase. In addition, there are no puzzling absences from small islands, but the poverty of their bird com- munities seems to result from reduced habitat diversity. Therefore autecological population responses rather than density compensation seem a plausible explana- tion of excessive population sizes of single species such as F. coelebs. We con- clude that, in these northern conditions, it seems appropriate to think of island communities as assemblages of species colonizing the islands according to their autecological (especially habitat) requirements. Ubiquitous habitat require- ments and flexibility in habitat utilization seem important correlates of coloniza

Recensement des oiseaux terrestres, sur 44 iles de l'archipel d'Aland, sud-ouest de la Finlande lors de deux ou trois saisons de reproduction. On formule un point de vue sur la colonisation des iles par les oiseaux migrateurs, dans lequel la communaute reproductrice annuelle d'une ile peut-etre consideree comme un echantillon