Mycorrhiza - University of Tartu Landscape Biodiversity Group

27.01.2025

Restoring EU priority grassland habitats and building a new narrative for their management (GrassLIFE2)

All grassland habitats of EU importance in Latvia are currently in an unfavourable/bad conservation status, with a declining (U2-) trend. It is due to a long-term neglect of the semi-natural grassland habitats that led to a dramatic decrease in total coverage of semi-natural grasslands, fragmentation, and poor quality of habitats, exacerbated by other urgent problems, such as lack of capacity and means for restoration and management, difficult accessibility and management conditions on some of the grasslands, lack of practical knowledge on restoration, low prestige for nature farming, and lack of political will and financial incentives for grasslands.

GrassLIFE2 is a continuation of GrassLIFE project LIFE16NAT/LV/262 that has successfully introduced a range of innovative restoration approaches in Latvia, while restoring 1,320 ha of EU priority grassland habitats in fourteen Natura 2000 sites. The objective of GrassLIFE2 project is to upscale the work done in GrassLIFE and tackle all major factors that have led to an unfavourable conservation status of grassland habitats in Latvia. We plan to implement a coherent package of actions, starting from best-practice restoration, to testing, assessing, fine-tuning, and applying innovative grassland restoration methods in the Latvian context.

The project targets five priority grassland habitats of EU importance: 1630*, 6120*, 6210*, 6230*, and 6270*, and will restore 1,260 ha of EU priority habitats in eleven Natura 2000 sites. The direct restoration impact will be multiplied by means of replication to other EU countries and in Latvia, demonstration and targeted communication. Project restoration areas are eleven Natura 2000 sites of core importance for the connectivity of target grassland habitats in Latvia. They were selected, based on Latvian PAF and on GrassLIFE connectivity model. The project directly supports the implementation of EU Habitats Directive and EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030.

Principal Investigator: Aveliina Helm

Partnerid: Latvian Fund for Nature (Coordinator), Latvian University, Vides Risinajumu Instituts Nodibinajums, Krastini - Valkas rajona Valkas pagasta zemnieku saimnieciba, SIA MATRICARI, SIA "3Dpro", ZS Veckigli, Praulienas pagasta zemnieku saimnieciba "Kalna Rubeni", Vetras, SIA Ruksi, ZS Varpurves, SIA Sita Nature park, SIA STRAUMES GG, Viss.lv SIA

Financing: LIFE´i programme

Duration: 01.01.2023–31.12.2028

Total Eligible Budget: 7,514,242 €

Restoring and promoting a long term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia (WOODMEADOWLIFE)

Duration: 1 November 2021 - 31 December 2026

The Estonian-Latvian joint LIFE project (LIFE20 NAT/EE/000074) "Restoring and promoting a long-term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia" focuses on the restoration of wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia, creation of sustainable solutions for maintenance and on raising public awareness of the natural and cultural heritage of wooded meadows and their protection and management. WOODMEADOWLIFE will improve the conservation status of wooded meadows in Boreal Biogeographic region by restoring Estonian and Latvian wooded meadows and establishing the system for their long-term management throughout both countries. By doing that, it will significantly contribute to the overall conservation status of 6530* in the EU, as both countries host 60% of all wooded meadows in the Boreal Biogeographic region.
The overall long-term objective of this project is to restore significant areas of priority EU habitat 6530* Fennoscandian wooded meadows (700 ha in two countries), develop agreements, guidelines and smart solutions for their future management and highlight their ecosystem services, ecological functions and unique heritage value in both countries.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Triin Reitalu, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: LIFE program, Environmental Investment Centre (KIK)

See also the project's page on Environmental Board's webpage.

18.04.2022

Interactive effects of local and landscape scale restoration of semi-natural grasslands and agricultural fields on species interactions and ecosystem functions (InterRest)

Duration: 2022-2025

Calcareous grasslands were created by traditional land use in European cultural landscapes and are one of the most species-rich habitat types. They harbour many rare and highly endangered species but are nowadays often threatened, mainly by abandonment and eutrophication. Hence, restoration measures are urgently needed. However, transnational restoration approaches are missing and evaluations within regional restoration schemes focus usually only on indicator species or species richness and ignore their biotic interactions, ecosystem functions and the landscape context. Especially species interactions are important indicators of restoration success as they are often more sensitive to environmental changes and determine vital functions that are necessary to stabilize ecosystems.

In this project we will investigate species interactions across different trophic levels including (1) plant-soil, (2) plant-pollinator and (3) bird-food resource interactions, in restored and degraded calcareous grasslands that are embedded in different socio-ecological and landscape contexts in three countries (Germany, Spain and Estonia). Additionally, we will measure ecosystem functions including soil functions, pollination and predation. We hypothesize that local restoration measures will lead to more complex and stable interactions and improved ecosystem functions compared to degraded sites. Moreover, we will investigate whether landscape-scale restoration with agri-environment schemes can make local restoration more effective through additive or synergistic effects. We will also analyse the social contexts of the restoration programs and identify key actors who are necessary to achieve local and landscape restoration goals. The results of our project will contribute to several Aichi targets by focussing on habitats with extremely high conservation value. They will inform the European Habitats Directive on the effects of restoration measures on species interactions and ecosystem functions and how they are linked to social networks. Knowledge of the contribution of agri-environment schemes at the landscape scale to the restoration of calcareous grasslands can be integrated in the Common Agricultural Policy. The project will contribute to safeguarding the precious biodiversity in calcareous grasslands, their interactions and functions and promote resilient ecosystems in European cultural landscapes. InterRest is a Biodiversa project where we collaborate with scientists from Germany, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Netherlands.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Tsipe Aavik, Triin Reitalu, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: Estonian Research Council

See also the project's official website and the project description in ETIS

26.10.2021

Country-wide assessment and mapping of the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems

Duration: 2021 july- 2023 january

The project develops a conceptual basis and methodology for economic valuation of nature's contributions to people (ecosystem services) provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems (forests, wetlands, grasslands, agricultural ecosystems). Indicators of economic value will be developed for selected ecosystem services, and spatially detailed assessment will be carried out for chosen protected areas and country-wide. The project will provide indicators and maps needed to value nature's contributions to people and integrate ecosystems and their services into decision-making in Estonia.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: Estonian Environment Agency

17.06.2021

Experience of European countries in financial evaluation of terrestrial ecosystem services

Duration: 2021 april - 2021 september

The aim of the work is to analyse experiences of financial evaluation of ecosystem services in other European countries, to give an overview of the used methodological approaches, results, conclusions and the possible application of these methodologies in Estonia. The results of the work will be used in the development of the field of financial evaluation of ecosystem services within the framework of the ELME project.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: Environment Agency

20.01.2020

CELSA project: Linking genetic diversity and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities of host plant

Duration: 2019-2020

Increasing land-use intensity across Europe has brought along the loss of many natural habitats and a rapid decrease in biodiversity. There is an urgent need for solutions to alleviate these negative effects, and the restoration of degraded habitats is the key to halting further biodiversity loss. The restoration of self-sustainable plant populations is critical for successful habitat restoration. Two of the most important bottlenecks in this context are (i) the generally low genetic diversity of restored plant populations, and (ii) the lack of suitable soil fungi. First, because plant populations colonizing newly restored habitats are often small and generally originate from few source populations, their population genetic diversity is low, resulting in reduced fitness due to inbreeding and genetic drift. Second, many plant species depend on the presence of beneficial soil fungi, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which can improve plant nutrition and protection from pathogens. Lack of such fungi in restored habitats can therefore impose a significant hurdle in the process of ecological restoration. However, it is not currently known, how both of these factors, i.e. plant genetic diversity and AM fungi, interact with each other and affect the effectiveness of ecological restoration. The results of this project will be an overview about the existing knowledge of the problem, results of the experimental study with Campanula rotundifolia as the host plant and practical guidelines to restore self-sustainable plant populations. This project is done in collaboration with Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and our colleagues from plant ecology workgroup in the University of Tartu.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Tsipe Aavik

Funding: University of Tartu and Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven)

Uudiste arhiiv

Restoring EU priority grassland habitats and building a new narrative for their management (GrassLIFE2)

Restoring EU priority grassland habitats and building a new narrative for their management (GrassLIFE2)

Restoring and promoting a long term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia (WOODMEADOWLIFE)

Restoring and promoting a long term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia (WOODMEADOWLIFE)

Interactive effects of local and landscape scale restoration of semi-natural grasslands and agricultural fields on species interactions and ecosystem functions (InterRest)

Interactive effects of local and landscape scale restoration of semi-natural grasslands and agricultural fields on species interactions and ecosystem functions (InterRest)

Country-wide assessment and mapping of the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems

Country-wide assessment and mapping of the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems

Experience of European countries in financial evaluation of terrestrial ecosystem services

Experience of European countries in financial evaluation of terrestrial ecosystem services

CELSA project: Linking genetic diversity and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities of host plant

CELSA project: Linking genetic diversity and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities of host plant

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