Programmes of the Kevo Station

Abstract

Symposium of Subarctic ecology in 1966. The main features of the Fennoscandian Sector of the circumpolar Subarctic were already presented by Wahlenberg (1812) in his zonation of the area as birch zone (regio betulina), pine zone (regio subsilvatica) and coniferous zone (regio silvatica). The zonation received a great deal of attention during the time between Hult (1899) and Ahti et al. (1968). The special forest line problems in Finland have been discussed especially by Renvall, Heikinheimo, Hustich and Mikola (see References in Mikola 1970). The fundamental special features of the area are reflected in the central research programme of the Station presented in Kevo Notes No. 3 (1976). The basic attitude to research has been mainly in accordance with the recommendations (point 2) of the Circumpolar Conference on the Northern Ecology, held in Ottawa in 1975 where much more emphasis and effort be placed upon basic research than the 'management' or 'applied' studies, and that basic research include studies on the function of ecosystems, the physiological ecology of individual species, and greater development of systematic biology. This would give possibilities for a closer cooperation and communication between science and ... the native northern peoples than exist at present (point 4 in the same recommendations). Although these recommendations refer directly to Canada, they also have a circumpolar validity. In addition to the marginal birch and pine forest ecosystem studies, activated particularly during the IBP/Tundra Biome period, the programme includes the following main groups of research plans. (1) The main mapping of the area. Much geological, geomorphologi-