Biodiversity in young versus old forest

This introductory essay has been written with the purpose to form a foundation for my PhD-study. My research task is to analyze how optimal selections of forest reserves can be made, considering biodiversity as well as economy. I cover several different areas which are of importance to my studies. The essay starts with a description of the biodiversity concept and what characterizes biodiversity in the boreal forest. It continues with an overview of concepts relating to succession, such as disturbance and resilience. This theoretical opening is followed by a chapter covering the importance for biodiversity of both young and old boreal forest and later it describes the complex problem of reserve establishment. A section on the Swedish national forest inventory (NFI) is motivated by the planned use of data from this source. An overview on what an NFI is and how it has been used in previous studies related to biodiversity is given. The essay finishes with a chapter in which interesting research approaches on how to make the establishment of new reserves more efficient are discussed