Authors: Larsson Ekström, Albin; Sjögren, Jörgen;Djupström, Line;Thor, Göran;Löfroth, Therese;

Intensive forestry has led to a decline of important substrates such as deadwood and its associated biodiversity. Deadwood dependent lichens are of great conservation concern due to their dependency of deadwood as well as poor dispersal ability. In a field experiment in central Sweden, we studied deadwood dependent lichens for 8 years, their association to different types of deadwood and their response to environmental change caused by variable retention forestry, deadwood creation and prescribed burning. We found that red-listed species were completely dependent on old, hard deadwood. Deadwood that was created in the experiment was only colonised by common species. Prescribed burning had a negative effect on deadwood dependant lichens throughout the study period. Conservation action should focus on high quality deadwood that can persist for a very long time. The type of deadwood inhabited by red-listed lichens is rare and takes very long to create. When planning for prescribed burning, special concern should be taken to the risk of causing local extinctions of e.g. deadwood dependent lichens.