Finland – Land of Mires

THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 23 | 2006 F This is a book about Finnish mires. There have been three reasons to make IN NATURE L Finland – land of mires this book. Firstly: Finland really is a land of mires. We wish to tell the readers AND – what are the Finnish mires and how they look like. This book is an attempt to TTapioapio LindhLindholmolm anand�� Raimoaimo Hh�� (eds.) answer a question how these mires are functioning and how they have deve- L loped. The oldest mires are about 11 000 thousand years in Eastern Finland. AND OF MIRES The youngest mires develop at present along the Bothnian Bay coast in the west. In the south, mires have some similarity to Central European mires, and in the north the mires are close to the Arctic. Secondly: One third of the territory of Finland has been covered by mires and they have also been a target of very intensive land use. The history of land use and data on the nature conservation activities are presented in this book. The earliest use of Finnish mires has been to turn them into arable fields. In the 1900s there has been very extensive drainage for forestry. Also peat extraction, water reservoir construction, road construction and settlements have destroyed mires. On the opposite, especially during the second half of 20th century there have been several programmes to protect mires. Thirdly: As a consequence of different activities in Finnish mires we have had a long and versatile tradition to study mires. This book gives an overview of the knowledge we have on our mires in Finland. THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 23 | 2006 Order Service: Edita Publishing Ltd. P.O. Box 800, FI-00043 EDITA Customer Service: phone +358 20 450 05 fax +358 20 450 2380 Edita-bookstore in Helsinki: Annankatu 44, phone +358 20 450 2566 ISBN 952-11-2295-1 (pbk.) ISBN 952-11-2296-X (PDF) ISSN 1238-7312 (print) ISSN 1796-1637 (online) Finnish Environment Institute THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 23 | 2006 Finland – land of mires Tapio Lindholm and Raimo Heikkilä (eds.) Helsinki 2006 Finnish Environment Institute The Finnish environment 23 | 2006 Finnish Environment Institute Layout: Martti Salo Cover photo: Heikinjärvenneva, aapamire in Salamajärvi National Park Hannu Vallas Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy, Vammala 2006 ISBN 952-11-2295-1 (pbk.) ISBN 952-11-2296-X (PDF) ISSN 1238-7312 (print) ISSN 1796-1637 (online) Mires in the natural and changing Finnish landscape Finland lies between Scandinavian mountains and northern Russian plains. The Finnish landscape is characterized by a variation of small hills, valleys, depressions and small plains. It makes Finland a varying mosaic. The Finnish landscape is a mixture of forests, lakes and mires. People have lived here during the last 10 000 years, starting on quickly rising land between the retreating glacier and the Baltic Ice Lake. Earlier the change of nature has been only local, but during the last 100 years a big change and dramatic destruction of natural habitats has taken place. The second half of 20th century was a time of effective utilization of nature resources. Lakes and the Baltic Sea were polluted, forests were cut and mires were drained. Nature conservation became urgent, when the exploitation of nature became more or less total. Thus a debate on nature conservation started. Due to different environmental control systems, our lakes and rivers are not as polluted as they were about 50 years ago. The state of the Baltic Sea, however, is alarming. Several nature conservation programmes have been the rescue of many sites, habitats and areas. Today we can proudly present many nice pearls of our nature. Nature has an ability to recover or to develop into secondary habitats. Finally we have had to learn different ways to restore destroyed habitats. In Finland different habitats, fauna and fl ora have been rather well studied. This book presents results of various studies concerning Finnish mires. The editors have wanted to give different schools of mire studies a possibility to meet. We have a total of 27 articles on different topics, presenting mires in Finnish mosaic landscape. The climatic differences from south to north cause variation. The end of Ice Age has been the beginning and the basis for our nature. It has a direct infl uence on the present situation, while we still have the land uplift phenomenon. The results of studies on mire biodiversity are presented in several articles. Finally, this is a book on the relationship between man and nature. We have paid attention to the traditional use of nature, as well as on modern and more destructive uses of mires for agriculture and forestry, the effect of water reservoirs and peat mining. The environmental and biodiversity effect of these activities is analyzed. On the other hand, nature conservation has been treated. We could not understand mires without concepts and words. Finland is a peculiar country, where the main language, Finnish, is far from most languages in the world. Finnish people understand their mires in their own way and have a rich vocabulary for mires. We try to open that approach in a couple of linguistic articles. Finland – Land of mires is a book, which is dedicated to the International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG), which has got its initiative in Finland in 1983 during the Field symposium on classifi cation of mire vegetation, Hailuoto – Kuusamo. In 2006, IMCG fi nally arrives in Finland as a mature organisation, visiting several Finnish mires. This book serves as a background material for the specialists of IMCG, but this can be regarded as a textbook for all people interested in boreal mires. There are totally 29 different authors in the book. The compiling and editing of this book would not have been possible without the positive and active response from the authors, when they were asked to contribute to this rather exceptional book on mires. There is a lot of different books and articles on mires and peatlands. The information has been scattered to numerous different sources and very often written in Finnish only, and in former times in German. Finland – Land of mires, is the fi rst time, when this kind of collection of information is available in English in one volume. Finally the editors thank all the authors and referees of articles, and many other persons who have helped in different phases of the preparing of the book. We also appreciate the information and knowledge that the previous generations of mire specialists have had, and we wish to dedicate this book especially to our academic teachers and teachers in mire conservation: Rauno Ruuhijärvi, Pekka Isoviita, Kimmo Tolonen, Seppo Eurola, Ahti Mäkinen, Antti Reinikainen, Urpo Häyrinen, Yrjö Vasari and Toive Aartolahti. Tapio Lindholm and Raimo Heikkilä CONTENTS Mires in the natural and changing Finnish landscape ...............................3 Tapio Lindholm and Raimo Heikkilä Unsettled weather and climate of Finland ................................................ 7 Matti Tikkanen Climate of Finland and its effect on mires ...............................................17 Reijo Solantie Bedrock in Finland and its infl uence on vegetation ................................23 Jukka Husa and Tytti Kontula The landforms of Finland ...........................................................................27 Matti Tikkanen Postglacial history of Finnish inland waters ............................................. 39 Matti Tikkanen Lake and river systems in Finland ............................................................. 49 Esko Kuusisto Glacial and postglacial history of the Baltic Sea and Finland ................59 Matti Tikkanen Interglacial and interstadial organic deposits in Finland ....................... 69 Heikki Hirvas Mire development history in Finland ...................................................... 79 Antti Huttunen and Kimmo Tolonen Regional distribution of peat increment in Finland ................................89 Markku Mäkilä Geobotany of Finnish forests and mires: the Finnish approach ............95 Tapio Lindholm and Raimo Heikkilä Mire ecohydrology in Finland ..................................................................105 Tapani Sallantaus Ecological gradients as the basis of Finnish mire site type system......119 Rauno Ruuhijärvi and Tapio Lindholm Mire plant species and their ecology in Finland ....................................127 Seppo Eurola and Antti Huttunen Land uplift phenomenon and its effects on mire vegetation ............... 145 Sakari Rehell Palsa mires in Finland ............................................................................... 155 Matti Seppälä Cultural land use history in Finland ........................................................ 163 Heikki Simola The use of mires for agriculture and forestry .......................................173 Harri Vasander Destruction of mires in Finland .............................................................. 179 Tapio Lindholm and Raimo Heikkilä The Finnish environment 23 | 2006 5 Environmental impacts of mire utilization ........................................... 193 Hanna Kondelin Peatlands and global change – the Finnish case ....................................205 Jukka Alm and Sanna Saarnio Ecosystem services provided by Finnish mires ..................................... 215 Hanna Kondelin, Raimo Heikkilä and Jari Kouki Mire conservation and its short history in Finland ...............................229 Eero Kaakinen and Pekka Salminen Ramsar areas in Finland ...........................................................................239

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