Skogslandskapen - hur skall vi värdera dem? Ska de betraktas som rekreationsområden och kulturlandskap eller som arena för konflikter och dragkamp om olika resurser? Är skogsregionerna närande eller tärande? Vilka viktiga samband finns mellan skandinaviska och tropiska landskap?Detta är några av de teman som behandlas i denna spänannde bok om de många dimensionerna och resurserna som ryms i skogslandskapen. Boken ger nya och stimulerande aspekter på framtidsmöjligheterna för en hållbar utveckling för boreala skogslandskap. Den tar också upp det nödvändiga mångbruket av skogens resurser liksom den förändrade synen på människans roll i skogen. Och inte minst behandlas den ekologiska paradoxen att störningar behövs för att bevara skogens ekologiska mångfald.Boken är författad av samhällsvetare, miljöteknologer och ekologer inom den tvärvetenskapliga forskargruppen MiljöFocus vid Karlstads universitet.

Abstract

Global changes in the climate during the last decade is frequently debated in today`s society. It is established that the climate is getting warmer. The consequences are already noticeable because of the warmer temperature. Since the earth temperature is increasing the weather systems around the world changes. The question is if the increasing temperature has something to do with both frequency and the extent of natural disasters. This question is very important and therefore research must continue to find new and improved facts.

The 4-5 of August in 2004 an area in Hagfors municipality was strike by a serious rain and thunder storm. The following consequences were severe and the road around Rådasjön was totally destroyed in several places. This study is connected to the storm in Hagfors and the current climate changes. The present question is if the storm and its consequences are caused by a warmer climate. Following this study also discusses causes of this storm and its consequences.

The area where this study was performed is tremendously sensitive to water erosion. The latest ice age has affected this area and therefore consists of material from till. Above this Rådasjön is situated in a broken valley that makes the lake very deep and steep sided. During the storm in 2004 there were at lot of material that strived down the steep sides to the lake. This affected not only the roads, but also the people who lived there during the time.

The purpose of this investigation is mainly to study if pupils have enough knowledge concerning the water cycle and the life of the plants’, and what kinds of household word they have, to discuss pollution within these areas. I also studied how the pupils’ knowledge are holding up against what the course-plans says, since it have come to light by other investigations that knowledge are insufficient within the nature-oriented (No) subject in school.

The survey has carried out on 28 pupils in a 5th grade, with help of a questionnaire survey. Their teacher has been interviewed and I have studied their local course-plans and also the pupils’ schoolbooks in No.

The result of the questionnaire survey indicates that the pupils had insufficient knowledge within the areas of plants’ life and pollution, something their teacher had a presentiment about.

The conclusion is that they need to go out more often in the nature and see how the plants and the environment are affected by different factors. Since the school have a school-forest it should be excellent too use in teaching. This should however be no worry since the school books are following the course-plans goals.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which trout used fishways to swim past two power plants at Finsjö in River Emån. Two different methods of  collecting data were used, radiotelemetry to determine if fish find the fishways (attraction efficiency) and PIT-tags to measure the number of fish that passed through the fishways (passage efficiency). The study showed that passageefficiency, being 89 % at lower Finsjö and 100 % at upper Finsjö, was high compared to other similar studies. Attraction efficiency was 75 % at lower Finsjö and 59 % at upper Finsjö, which indicates that the fish have difficulty finding the fishway entrances, particularly at upper Finsjö.

This project has been carried out during 10 weeks, and has resulted in a common digital map containing the municipalities of Falun, Borlänge and Säter. To reach the desired result I have had to carry out a number of analyses on the ingoing data, and standardize the data to make the completion of a common map possible. The project has been divided into two large parts, collection and standardization of data, and cartographic adaptation of data. The first part has demanded most time, while considerably less time has been spent on the cartographic adaptation. Data that has been used was collected from the municipalities’ primary maps, the Swedish Land surveying’s parcel map and the Swedish National Road Administration’s National road database (NVDB). The software FME from the manufacturer Safe Software has been a very helpful tool to standardize data, and has been used in a large scale. The routines for updating the data that is suggested, has also been developed with the software. To study and control the look of data, the software ArcGIS from ESRI has been used. ArcGIS has also been used for the cartographic adaptation. The developed map doesn’t claim to be topological correct, even though the topology has been considered in some ways. The focus has been to develop a map that is clear and simple, and that after minor adjustments can be used by other actors other than the Rescue Service of Dala-central. Example of these actors can be other activities within the municipalities, such as the street offices, or external actors who wish to use a common map in their activities.

Forest Stewardship council (FSC) is a good example of a civil regulated environmental labelling-initiative. It is also an arena for different organisations interesting in sustainable forestry to work and handle forestry issues. FSC has allowed many private initiatives to move ahead of poor national and international environmental legislation. Instead they have turned towards the market with consumer pressure and in co-operation with companies. The sustainable forestry initiative has become a part of organisations’ ‘Environmental Responsibility’ which is a part of their ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) work. The aim of my thesis is to describe the phenomenon of FSC, both practically and theoretically, from a stakeholder approach. I have picked out two companies which are heavily involved in the FSC practice, IKEA and Sveaskog. The two companies are important players in shaping and developing FSC. The different practices are handled as two separate case-studies. A third case-study explores FSC both on national and international basis. The following research question will be answered: From a stakeholder view, how does FSC works in practice? To describe these three forestry practices is a contribution in itself. I will also use an analysing tool inspired by stakeholder theory to make the studies’ stakeholder partnerships as clear as possible. With the knowledge exposed in answering the first question I will further ask: Can stakeholder partnerships in a civil regulated environmental practice, create sustainability? Kemp’s (2005) five dimensions for sustainability improve the understanding. Every dimension will be followed by an interpretation from my forestry practice in the previous chapter. Both IKEA and Sveaskog drives an ambitious work to create sustainable business, which will be analysed through an ethical-, social-, nature-philosophic-, economic- and legal perspective of the sustainability concept.

The thesis is analysed by an explorative methodological approach with qualitative data, since it best can encapsulate the essence of the complexity which constitutes the answers to the research questions. Each case study will be described in separate texts which make up multiple realities mentally constructed by ourselves.

The analysis shows, both for Sveaskog and IKEA, that stakeholder partnerships generate a number of things. The partnerships generate constructive interaction where new and experienced ideas are born; obligations, processes and responsibilities for their stakeholder engagement; and environmental and social benefits in terms of FSC and other civil regulations and what environmental and social benefits the work leads to. But my description and analysis of the practice and the stakeholder analysis do not answer the general question of the thesis: Can stakeholder partnerships create sustainability?

When going through the critical voices from the five dimensions of sustainability, the task of creating sustainability seems to be impossible. I have confronted the five dimensions with environmental and social responsibility practice in Sveaskog and IKEA, and found substantial efforts in each and every dimension of sustainability. This practical work seems hopeful, whether there is sustainability or not, a serious ambition and extensive goals sometimes makes a difference.

The background to the study is to investigate how source separation system works from the students' point of view. Through analysis of what the theory says about behaviors, habits, attitudes and knowledge of source separation from a questionnaire study on the Thimbles 1'200 students, this essay will attempt to answer what these students think about and what knowledge they have of source separation systems. To find out what the theory says about this, I investigated what the Naturvårdsverket says about environmental behaviors and how they work together with recycling. I have also examined how it can be paired with today's lifestyle so that we live in today's consumer society. The purpose of this essay is to try to illuminate and explore the environmental awareness in everyday life are among today's students at KAU. The result will be produced by the exploratory survey. The main result of this study is that many of today's students know how Thimbles source separation system works, and most believe it is important to source separation. What many students today believe the source separation system is that it is good to have in today's design and it works fairly easily, and sorting as part of the everyday behaviour is easy to get involved with. However, it seems that you sort source better when you have people around them than when you are home alone.

The two papers presented in this thesis focus on population genetic study on freshwater pearl mussel populations in Sweden, using RAPD method. In paper I, I examine genetic variation within and between 5 populations in a single drainage area in south western Sweden. In paper II, I study the evolutionary relationship, and how genetic variation is related to population size, age structure and geographic isolation in 14 populations of freshwater pearl mussel in south central Sweden. In both papers I and II, I found that genetic variation was larger than found in previous studies using other techniques, and variation was larger between than within populations. I did not found any correlation between geographic and genetic distance, which indicates that mussel populations have been adapted locally to environmental factors in a relatively short time. In paper I, I found that genetic distance between populations was greater than found in other studies, despite small geographic distances. In paper II, I found that populations were highly differentiated indicating little gene flow between them. There was no significant positive relation between genetic variation and population size or age structure but there was a significant positive relation between mean age and population size indicating that many populations have gone through bottlenecks recently.

Abstract

GPS telemetry is a method with good accuracy to determine animal movements in the terrain. It is necessary to determine locations of free-ranging animals in order to understand movement patterns and habitat use, and to understand the consequences of human impacts like highways. This study aims to describe moose movement patterns and to evaluate the effect of highway traffic intensity on moose movements across a highway.

Moose in Southwestern Sweden have different movement rates throughout the year. Increased movement rate for females was observed during spring and summer. The breeding season (15 September -15 October) is the most important season for bulls. Our result shows that bulls significantly increase their movement rate during the rut, compared to other times during the fall. Movement rate increased twice compared with female movement rate during this period. No difference was observed during the rutting period for females (15 September- 15 October) compared with no rutting period during fall. During winter time, both sexes retain low movements, mainly caused by energy saving actions. A distinct crepuscular rhythm was exhibited during the summer and fall season, movements were more intense during dawn and dusk hours. No distinct crepuscular rhythm was noticed during winter and spring seasons.

The traffic intensity at highway E6 in Southwestern Sweden increases during the morning hours and reaches its maximum during midday. Moose in southwestern Sweden crossed highway E6 more often at night time than day time. Thus highway crossings by moose occurred at times of peak moose movements, and traffic volume had lower importance.

This is my thesis on the D-level at the university in Karlstad at the department for environmental science. It is an analysis of the idea of self-realisation in the deepecology movement.

The Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess is one of the profiles in the foreground of deepecology in the world. His teories is important for the development of how to look at ecophilosophical matters in the nordic countries.

i will therefor investigate his theories and see how Naess constructs the relation man-nature in his ecosophy T. The principle of self-realisation and identification is there the most important foundation for the antropocentric perspective.

In my analysis I use Martin Bubers philosophy of dialogue and his thoughts about relational concept of the self as tools for my investigation.

Ecophilosophy is an academic subject that touches a variety of fields of studies but has the collaboration between the subject of culture and nature as its base. Bubers concept of the self that highlights the third. Videlicet, the relation is a third aspect of the selfs constitution apart from the me and you.

I will also, as Buber does not notice power and hierarchy in his teory, try to integrate Val Plumwoods critique towards dualism in the thinking of western society as a complementing tool.

Plumwood points out, in her ecofeministic point of view, the importance of noticing difference as an important aspect of the problems in western thinking when it comes to the relationship between humanity-environment. To develop a non-dualistic thinking, according to Plumwood, it would take a critical analysis of all types of concepts that has been developed through the classic concept of logics reduktionistic discussion wich uses separation as a method.

Plumwoods conclusion is that to come to terms with the underlying powerstructures we have to examine the thinking itself.

Buber who is rooted in the jewish chassidism tradition has from a spiritual point of view examined aspects of the relationship between I and the other/world which touches Plumwoods theories.

By combining these two thinkers I want to formulate a more complex analysis of Arne Naess principle of self-realisation.

To reach a good built environment, it is important to integrate environmental concerns early in the societal planning processes. The insight of this led to a new EC-directive, a k a the SEA- directive, on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment, which aims to promote a sustainable development. The directive has been implemented into the Swedish legislation and involves, for municipal detail planning, in particularly that an introductory impact assessment has to be made in order to determine whether a plan can be assumed to cause a significant environmental impact. In that case an entire environmental assessment has to be done. New procedures for municipals have to be developed due to the changes in legislation, which for example implies that the projects must be assessed from established environmental criteria.

This present study investigates which type of environmental restrictions and criteria that is required from a methodology used to decide whether an early impact assessment is needed. The potential use of checklists is especially analysed. The study suggests that checklists are suitable in this context. The advantages clearly seem to overweigh the disadvantages.

Furthermore an analysis of what impact assessment should include is made and a proposal of a checklist is presented. It was obvious that aspects other than those in the Swedish EIA-regulation should be included and also that other than ecological and physical principles of sustainability are important, for example economy and public health. To create a new proposal for a checklist, good examples were also used from already existing checklists. Those were from the municipals of Gävle and Norrköping.

The mining industry has been an important commerce in Norberg. When this activity ended, it resulted in unemployment for the workers in the mining industry.

My investigation aimed to analyse and find possible connections between the mining industry and alternations of the society.

In my study I focused upon the following issues:

- Has the mining industry been of importance for the growth/recession of the society Norberg?

- What was extracted from the mines at Klackbergsfältet and in which quantities?

- What the use of Klackbergsfältet today?

To be able to accomplish this investigation with the desired analysis I learnt the rudiments of the software ArcGIS deskop.

The study shows that the mining industry has been of importance for the recession of Norberg, but the study can not show a negative effect for the structure of the society, as the population turn out to have been stable in the study.

The way children develop language is essential in every preschool irrespective of their direction. The preschools that focus on language as their profile and the special preschools that reserve place for children with language difficulties are more specialized to work with language development than ordinary preschools.

The aim has been to find out whether the special preschool that includes children with language difficulties and the ordinary preschool differ in their work with childrens language development. By interviewing preschoolteachers attempt has been made to find out how the different preschools work with childrens language, but also to find out what teachers find most important in their work with childrens language. After the interviews this has been put in relation to the curriculum of the preschools, research on childrens language development and stimulating activities for the language development. The main question has therefore been: Is there a difference between the ordinary preschool and the special preschool in their work for childrens language development?

Except from the special preschools access to speech therapists, the survey has shown that there are no established differences between the different kinds of preschools. This applies within the groups of the same kind of preschools aswell. Nevertheless it can be interpret that the special preschools attach great importance to structure, training and support in communication and teamwork. The ordinary preschools intend to do a purposeful work with linguistic awareness.

The sustainable city is a relatively recent concept which has gained increasing attention the last decades both through the international community and through grass root movements. This study aims to explore how the sustainable city can be translated from theory to practice, using the United Nations universal guide lines for sustainable human settlements as a theoretic background to a comparative case study of Curitiba, Brazil and Portland, USA. The grass root movement of the eco-city concept is also explored as it is a broader approach to sustainable urban planning then the UN HABITAT guide lines. The study focuses on the integration of land-use and transportation systems as a way to improve the efficiency of cities. A well planned and integrated land-use and transportation system can limit land-use development while reducing green house gas emissions. The study show that the key for improving urban planning is through long term political engagement. There is no city which has successfully implemented strategies for sustainable development. A common problem is the conflicting interest of growth that undermines the potential of integrating sufficient strategies. Often governments fail to address the dynamics of the concept of sustainability which must be viewed as a constant process. The city of Curitiba demonstrates that less developed nations can improve urban planning even with limited means.

Water regulation may alter hydraulic head gradients with consequences for the exchange of water between the river and the hyporheic zone. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of discharge on hyporheic water quality in a regulated Swedish boreal river during a 10-day experimental period with a sequence of alternating high- and low-flow episodes. A 250 m reach was instrumented with 28 piezometers placed at 150 and 300 mm below the river bed or below the mean groundwater level in the floodplain, and these piezometers were used to measure temperature, oxygen, electric conductivity and pH. High daily variation in air temperature during the first 3 days was transmitted vertically through the stream water into the hyporheic zone within hours. An oxygen saturation of 100% in the river water corresponded to 60–70% saturation at 150 mm depth and 30% at 300 mm depth. The hyporheic oxygen concentration at 150 mm depth decreased during the experimental period, falling into a range that is potentially harmful to incubating salmonid eggs. This was interpreted as a long-term response to the overall regulation regime, rather than a response to short-term water regulation during the experiment. Even though the effect of short-term regulation on the quality of hyporheic water in the river bed was limited, there was a more pronounced effect on the quality of floodplain hyporheic water. Most of the driving forces for temporal variation of water quality in the river bed came vertically from the river water, rather than from the lateral exchange.

The passage efficiency of downstream migrating brown trout (Salmo trutta) smolts past two hydropower plants in the River Emån, southeastern Sweden, was evaluated by telemetry. From 26 April to 17 May 2005, 40 wild brown trout smolts were radio-tagged, and their positions were recorded daily until 14 June. Approximately 45% of the individuals passed both power plants, and 15% made it to the sea, some 28 km downstream of the power plants. About 20% of the individuals ceased migrating, residing in a lotic habitat. Mortality due to predation was 33%, and the predation rate was higher in the power plant dams than it was downstream of the power plants. Turbine-induced mortality was greater in the upper power plant (40%) than in the lower one (13%). Fish that chose the alternative routes, through the gates, swam past the upper dam faster than fish that swam through the turbines. The results confirm previous work in the river, namely that measures need to be taken to improve passage efficiency past the power plants, particularly passage of the upper power plant. Such measures are of crucial importance if the nature-like bypass channels at the power plants in Finsjö are going to have any long-term effects on the brown trout population.

This report is about the impact climate change has on the water and sewage systems in general, and the situation in the municipality of Karlstad in particular. Which vulnerabilities are linked to water and sewage systems with regard to climate change and extreme weather situations, what are the possibilities to adapt the system to this and what significance does climate adaptation of the water and sewage systems have in relation to sustainable development?To answer these questions I have studied literature on the subject and interviewed several people who work with these types of questions. The answers I have received state that there are a multitude of vulnerabilities linked to the water- and sewage systems, but that there are also many strong interests which strive to take measures and adapt to a changed climate. I have also come to the conclusion that the starting points and views of the possibilities to act differs between the people that I have interviewed, but that theses problems are built into the concept of democracy.

ABSTRACT

The fauna of the Lower Cambrian is far from fully understood, as is the environment of that epoch. Some of the most crucial moments in the history of evolution takes place during this epoch; the Cambrian explosion and the appearance of ecosystems as we know them. That makes it an important period to investigate. Doing so, the Lower Cambrian offers a lot of problems, one of which is that body fossils are seldom preserved. That has often left us with trace fossils to create an image of the Lower Cambrian life, but also some bedrock features such as ripple marks.

The main purpose of this work has been to investigate the possibilities of relating the wave lengths and forms of recent wave-generated ripples to fossil ones, and also to evaluate the methods for that kind of comparison. In this case the ripple marks belong to about 520 million year old sandstone formations at the shore of Trolmens strand (Kinnekulle area) and the mine Centralgruvan (Kvarntorp, Kumla). In total eighteen ripple trains from the Lower Cambrian were compared to the recent ripples in the shallow waters of Persbols strand and a somewhat steeper offshore area of Herrängen, northern and southern lake Skagern respectively.

After measuring the ripples several methods were used to find a practical and accurate procedure for the Persbols strand area. The conclusion is that, depending on depth and water transparency, a combination of methods should be used. Closest to the shore it was possible to take photos along the entire section from above water level, but because of the water depth further from the shore the aim of measuring the entire distance had to be abandoned. Instead, measurements should be taken with an adequate frequency, in this case every other meter up to one hundred meter from the shore line.

As a result of the measured recent ripples three different zones have been distinguished. One is situated 0-3 m from the shore line, or also a water depth down to 20 cm. The ripples in this area have wavelengths between one and four cm. and are asymmetrical, in some cases transforming to symmetrical in the outer part of the zone. It is only in this area, and some very shallow parts outside this zone, catenary ripples can be found. They are built up in the meter closest to the shore.

The second zone is situated approximately 3-80 m from the shore, or in areas of 20-80 cm water depth. The wave lengths grow from some 4 to 8 cm as the water depth increases. The ripple form is symmetrical, with the exception of some areas on the lake side of sand banks. Also, ripples with short crests and long throughs seems to dominate this zone.

Further out from the shore, more than 80 m, or in waters deeper than 80-100 cm, a third zone appears. The wave lengths are about 10 cm and, without any exceptions, the ripples are, symmetrical. None of the largescale fossil ripple marks were located due to the fact that no measurements further than 100 m from the shore were made.

The methods used here will make it possible to determine the environment of formation of the ripple marks, at least within 100 m from the shore, to the degree considered necessary for investigations in Earth science. Furthermore, the depth of water has appeared to be just as an important factor as the distance to the shore.

Abstract

This report describes the effect of the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) on the environment to which they are introduced. Chinese mitten crab is an expert to adept to new environments and thus a problem when the crab is introduced with the ships ballast water. I have been studying reports from different parts of Europe and USA where the Chinese mitten crab has been found. The reports were used as a basis for comparison between Sweden and other countries to see the effects when the crab is introduced.

The likeliest place for the Chinese mitten crab to reproduce near Sweden is outside Gothenburg in Skagerrak. According to my calculations this is almost impossible, the temperature and the salinity are too low in the spring when the larvae are developing to juvenile crabs.

The Chinese mitten crab is still going to exist in the Swedish water. The crab is introduced trough the ballast water and given that the crab’s lifespan is three to five years result in many crabs living at the same place even though no reproduction is possible. In order to manage the problem with introduction of alien species to new environments through the ballast water, new techniques for filtering and control of the ships ballast water should be developed.

The loss of such great wetlands, which has arose in Sweden the last decades, has created a situation that threats both the function and the biological diversity within the wetlands. Many ecological niches can be found in the wetlands and it is one of the habitats where most different species exist. In the 17th Century people started to ditch damp environments, such as bogs, to create a productive cultivated ground. Further ditches were made when the forestry gave large economical profits. The wetlands were impoverished from both groundwater and nourishment, and this led to a great loss of species.

In a corporation with WWF and Skogsstyrelsen in Arvika, the University of Karlstad has participated in the Laskerudproject, a hydrological restoration-project in a forest landscape. The purpose of the project was to increase the groundwater level and to recreate the functions of the wetlands. The project has partly analysed the change in the vegetations composition during six years. The restoration took place in the year 2004 and the inventory of the wetland’s flora has been carried on between the years 2002 and 2007. The same 40 test-squares in Södra ängsmyren, which have been chosen at random, have been analysed every year in august; also 40 randomly chosen test-squares in Lenungen where looked at. The latter were used as a control area.

All occurring species have been analysed statistically with the parametric z- and t-test and the non-parametric Wilcoxon-test. This was made to analysed if the hypotheses that the number of alter species are more in Södra ängsmyren than in Lenungen. The hypothesis if the hydrophilic species have increased and the hydrophobic species have decreased in Södra ängsmyren was also analysed the same tests mentioned above.

The results of the analysed material showed a significant increase in two of the species in both Södra ängsmyren and Lenungen. The remainder species in Södra ängsmyren could show interesting trends, even though they were not significant. Some species in the wetlands have got a wider area of distribution, this has been visually observed. In comparison with similar studies this study shows the conclusion that more time is needed to prove the changes statistically. As a suggestion, three to five years of further data of the wetlands flora is needed to prove the changes statistically.

This research report describes a 10-year long monitoring project for assessments of recent downwearing rates on rock carvings in southern and central Sweden. The investigations have been made by repeated measurements on the same sites with a laser scanner, especially constructed for the purpose. The scanner records the microtopography of rock surfaces with a resolution of 0.025 mm. From the field data accurate micro maps of areas up to 40x40 cm can be made. Deterioration rates are calculated by computerised comparisons of micro maps from consecutive measurements. A total number of 26 sites have been followed from 1994 to 2003. There are large variations in downwearing rates between the investigated places. Averages are, however, similar to those that can be expected from crystalline rocks in general in Scandinavia. It has also been revealed that the micro weathering is episodic. This means that periods with fast breakdown alternate with periods when almost nothing happens. Furthermore the spatial variation within the laser scanned areas of where downwearing takes place could be studied. Usually deterioration at times only takes place on limited spots while most of the micro mapped area is left unaffected. After material losses have taken place from these spots weathering continues at other places.

Abstract

The sediment requirements for freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) recruitment, in 18 rivers in the counties of Västra Götaland, Örebro, Värmland and Västmanland in Sweden, were investigated. The top 4 cm of sediment in the rivers was analysed in terms of size, distribution and organic compound within the fine sediment. The aims of the study were to determine whether there is a relation between sediment particle size compound and freshwater pearl mussel recruitment as well as between organic compound in fine sediment and recruitment of mussels. The study shows that there is a significant difference in the amount of organic silt between non-recruitment and recruitment sites with a higher percentage of organic silt in recruitment sites. There is also a legible difference between the amounts of silt per sample between non-recruitment sites and recruitment sites where there was significantly more silt in sediment samples of non-recruitment sites. With the exception of fine sediment, no significant difference was found between non-recruitment and recruitment sites regarding size class distribution.

Presents a study which described how sun and shade leaves, example of an acclimation to light intensity, can be used as a stimulating vehicle for teaching plant ecophysiology to undergraduates. Methodology; Information on leaf morphology; Leaf characteristics; Results and discussion.