The species richness of settlements is mainly concentrated to parks and gardens, where there are also more natural species Human activities affect most of today’s communities. In Estonia, humans have only refrained from significantly interfering with the development of bogs, other primitive communities are extremely rare. Even some forests that appear to be primeval forests grow on sites that were...

More alien species are found in anthropogenic habitats than in natural habitats There are a wide variety of species in the anthropogenic habitats, from the first inhabitants of waste lands and landfills, many of whom are considered weeds (e.g. dandelion, plantains), to exotic plants planted in parks and arboretums. Anthropogenic terrestrial habitats can be broadly divided into two: purposefully...

The preliminary methodology for MAES of marine and inland water ecosystems was worked out during the project “Development of methods for assessment and mapping of ecosystem services of marine and inland waters” that was conducted in 2014–2015 in Estonia and was co-funded by the EEA and Norway Grants. In the framework of the Estonian maritime spatial planning process, different ecosystem-services...

The natural values of meadows, or heritage communities, can only be preserved by human intervention Heritage meadows, also called semi-natural communities or heritage communities, are grasslands that have traditionally been used as pastures or hayfields. The biota of the heritage meadows is natural – the heritage meadows have not been ploughed, fertilised, and no seeds of cultivated plants have...

There is probably no disease that people have not treated with plants Plants have been used to treat diseases for thousands of years. Reading folklore, it becomes clear that the old Estonians used medicinal plants to treat all kinds of diseases and conditions. The inner power of plants was expected to help with alcoholism, freckles, fright, epilepsy, nightmares, as well as cancer and smallpox [1]...

The landscape created by mining may no longer be suitable for the species that previously existed there; however, it may be suitable for new species Mines are divided into open-cast mines, i.e. quarries, and underground mines. During mining, mineral resources are taken from the earth’s crust for the purpose of using them, and after the mining is completed, the area is rehabilitated [1]. Quarries...

Estonia has had favourable conditions for the development of mires, and a great diversity of mires has developed here Mires are ecosystems where some of the organic matter created by living organisms at the expense of solar energy does not decompose and is deposited as peat, and the vegetation cover has no contact with mineral soils due to the peat. If a layer of peat has already formed in...

Peat is currently mined in Estonia on approximately 184 square kilometres The area of Estonian peatlands ranks third in Europe after Finland and Sweden. In Estonia, almost 22% of the country is covered with peatlands, and in most of these areas, the thickness of the peat layers is more than 30 cm. In the Earth’s Crust Act, mineral resources (including peat) are divided into economic and...

The biggest threat to Estonian mire biota is the impact of previous drainage The special environmental conditions create suitable habitats for many different species in the mires. 280 species of vascular plants and 153 species of moss grow in Estonian mires. Most plant species (230) grow in minerotrophic fens, 103 species in mixotrophic fens, and 45 species in bogs. More than 300 species of...