This work analyzes vegetation and soils, and investigates the influence of climate change, insect pests, grazing pressure by sheep and reindeer, construction of roads and other consequences of increasing tourism in the Nordic mountain birch forests.

Animals are important components of any ecosystem and it is impossible to describe structure and funCtioning of the Fennoscandian tundra ecosystems without including this part of the system. However, the strong diversity between functionally highly different fauna groups makes it impossible to study all groups in great detail with the funds and expertise available in Fennoscandia. Relatively few productivity studies were carried out on animals in Fenno- scandian tundra regions before the IBP projects started in 1969-1970. Within IBP, more fauna groups have been investigated in the Norwegian...

The term Fennoscandia is used to denote Finland and the Scandinavian peninsula, which comprises Norway and Sweden and sometimes also neigh- bouring districts of the USSR. The western part of the Scandinavian peninsula is mountainous with peaks mostly within the range 1000-2000 m above sea level. Permafrost is not usually found in the southern districts of these alpine zones, but occurs in the northeastern part of Fennoscandia in mire, even at a low elevation. If tundra is defined as areas of permafrost, only very limited regions of Fennoscandia could be included. However, in the present...