Metapopulation Research Group University of Helsinki Annual Report 2000 Metapopulation Research Group Department of Ecology and Systematics University of Helsinki Edited by Tapio Gustafsson E-mail and web sites To contact us via E-mail use [email protected] Metapopulation Research Group (UH), http://www.helsinki.fi/science/metapop/ Biodiversity in Boreal Forests (FIBRE), http://www.helsinki.fi/science/biobof/ Survival of Species in Fragmented Landscapes (EC´s TMR-Network), http://www.helsinki.fi/science/fragland/ MRG-logo designed by Gergely Várkonyi 2 Contents Preface 5 Brief history and overview of the MRG 6 Scientific highlights of 2000 9 Structure of the MRG 19 MRG personnel and their research interests 23 Laboratory facilities 48 Helsinki Tvärminne Lammi Field sites 50 Åland Islands Kuhmo Central Finland Lammi Kilpisjärvi Greenland Synopsis of the year 2000 56 Budget Publications Theses External visits Seminars, lectures and talks TV, radio and newspapers Teaching and courses Honors and awards Council memberships Meetings organized by the MRG Visitors to the MRG Prospects for the year 2001 72 3 A mating pair of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) in the Åland Islands, photo Tapio Gustafsson. Occupied (filled) and empty (open) habitat patches suitable for the Glanville fritillary in the Åland Islands in the autumn 2000. 4 Preface The turn of the millenium demarcated the beginning of our new position as one of the centres-of-excellence in research selected by the National Research Council (the Academy of Finland) in 1999. In terms of funding, the most notable change is that we now have one large research grant that replaces several smaller ones. In terms of science, our new status is a big challenge for the next six years! Research in the year 2000 advanced along the paths that had been opened up in the previous years. The section on Scientific Highlights and the individual highlights of particular results and research projects in the section MRG Personnel present a succinct overview of our main achievements. A few projects involving the joint efforts of many students and researchers deserve to be emphasized here. The 4-month long field project in boreal forest in NE China was successfully completed by the end of August, of which a big thanks goes to Mr Antti Below from the Forest and Park Service, who was the field director of the project and who completed a comprehensive census of forest birds in the study area. The Glanville fritillary Team has nearly completed the re-survey of the entire Åland Islands for the purpose of locating all the remaining suitable habitat patches for the butterfly, and the corresponding database has been greatly developed to deal with the range of different types of data now available. Marko Nieminen and Mika Siljander together with a large number of student assistants have done a splendid job. Research on the parasitoids attacking the Glanville fritillary has much expanded and progressed in 2000, the credit of which goes to Saskya van Nouhuys, who continues to share her time between Åland in spring-summer and Cornell in autumn-winter. Two visits were made to the large Estonian island of Saaremaa, to where the Glanville fritillary project is likely to expand in the coming years. The MRG put together a package of undergraduate teaching in the autumn 2000. Many thanks to Tomas Roslin for coordinating our efforts. Finally, the MRG would not function as smoothly as it does without the commitment of Anu Väisänen and Tapio Gustafsson. I trust that the rest of the MRG will gladly join me in a special thanks of the year 2000 to Anu and Tapio! The ranks of junior MRG members have enlarged in 2000. Our warm congratulations to Otso and Meri (girl), to Niklas and Hanna (boy), to Janne and Pirkko (boy) and to Atte and Laura (?). Apart from this express evidence of happiness and trust for the future, I am glad to report that the cooperative and pleasant atmosphere that we have enjoyed in the MRG has remained just the same, thanks to all the students, post docs, research assistants and technicians working in our group. I have said this before but it warrants to be repeated - it has been rewarding to work in the Metapopulation Research Group in 2000. Ilkka Hanski 5 Brief history and overview of the MRG Professor Ilkka Hanski has worked on spatially structured populations since the late 1970's. The early work dealt primarily with small-scale spatial population structure, but since the early 1980's the focus shifted to larger spatial scales and to metapopulation dynamics in the sense of assemblages of discrete local populations connected by migration. In 1989, Hanski organized the first international meeting on metapopulation dynamics together with Professor Michael Gilpin (San Diego, UC), which resulted in the first edited volume on the subject (Gilpin & Hanski, 1991, Metapopulation Dynamics: Empirical and Theoretical Investigations, Academic Press, London). This meeting furnished impetus for the conception of the MRG. Ongoing collaboration with Professor Mats Gyllenberg (Department of Mathematics, Turku, Finland) started in 1990, the long-term field project on the Glanville fritillary butterfly was started in 1991, and the first post graduate students and post docs were accepted in the MRG in 1992 and 1993, respectively. The figure below illustrates the growth of the MRG since 1992: Currently there are 12 post graduate students and 8 post docs in the MRG, representing 5 different nationalities. 6 The MRG consists of three research teams (Metapopulation Modelling Team, The Glanville fritillary Team, and the Molecular Ecology Team) and three projects of fixed duration (Old-growth forest biodiversity, small mammal population dynamics, and forest canopy insect dynamics). Additionally, the MRG (Hanski) coordinates an European Commission-funded training network (Fragland) in the TMR programme. A more detailed description of the structure of the MRG is presented on page 19. Academic setting The MRG is the largest research group in the Division of Population Biology (DPB), Department of Ecology and Systematics, at the University of Helsinki. The permanent staff of the DPB consists of 3 professors and 8 other academic staff. Despite its small size the DPB with several active research groups and researchers has performed well in recent years. The MRG has had an influence on the general direction of research in the DPB, which is now largely focused on spatial ecology, of which metapopulation ecology represents a key area. The DPB established a joint research programme called Spatial Ecology in 1997 (see www.helsinki.fi/ml/ekol/spatial_ecology.html). Scientific standing The MRG has established a solid reputation as one of the leading research groups internationally in metapopulation ecology. The two most visible achievements of the MRG are the development of effective modelling approaches to the dynamics of metapopulations living in highly fragmented landscapes and a large-scale empirical research project on the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia). The latter started as an ecological project but has subsequently expanded to cover metapopulation genetics and evolutionary biology as well. This field project, which is well known internationally, allows us to test many theoretical predictions and it hence functions as an important interface between theory and empirical research. 7 Strategic goals of the Metapopulation Research Group · To strengthen our position as the leading research group in metapopulation biology worldwide · To build up on our current strength in combining modelling with empirical studies · To integrate genetic and evolutionary studies into the existing strong ecological framework and thereby to promote a comprehensive approach to metapopulation biology · To facilitate the application of metapopulation biology in landscape-level environmental planning and management and conservation of populations. Female Melitaea cinxia laying her eggs on Plantago leaf, photo Tapio Gustafsson. 8 Scientific highlights of 2000 Field work on the Glanville fritillary, by Marko Nieminen Monitoring of the Glanville fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) metapopulation started in the Åland Islands in the autumn 1993 and has been continued ever since. This research is exceptional in its scale, covering an area of 50×70 km2. The habitat patch network in Åland has been under revision since 1998 and this work will finally be completed in 2001, when a highly accurate GPS-based description of all ca. 4000 known habitat patches will be available. These data will allow effective spatial analyses of the monitoring results with GIS-applications. Detailed life table information on the Glanville fritillary has been collected in 2000. These results allow us to define both the key stages in the life cycle when most of mortality occurs as well as the key factors causing the mortality. A study on spatial correlation in overwintering success has been initiated and the first results show large variability between years, subareas of Åland and host plant species. In 2000, a pilot study on habitat patch occupancy of a specialist weevil Gymnetron pascuorum and its parasitoids was conducted. This weevil is specific to Plantago lanceolata, which we have mapped as one of the two host plants of the Glanville fritillary. Gymnetron pascuorum may affect Glanville fritillary’s dynamics, as it is probably a vector of a specialist fungus species. Furthermore, Anna-Liisa Laine has started a study on population dynamics