INTRO: Biodiversity conservation is demanding because of intensive use of natural resources. At the same time there is lack of political and social will to enhance the amount of conservation areas. Therefore, novel methods for biodiversity conservation are welcomed.
MERITS: It is valuable that Nerea Abrego has studied both of these issues presented in the references. She provides a wide context where to introduce the inoculation method.
CRITIQUE: The abstract has no weaknesses.
DISCUSSION: Strenghtening the protected area network by enlargening the size of protected areas, carefully considering their locations and enhancing their biological quality (e.g. increasing the amount of dead wood) should be the first priority in conservation planning. However, this is often challenging and therefore it is valuable to create and evaluete new conservation methods, such as reintroduction of species to suitable locations.
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INTRO: Judging by the abstract, the talk is planned based on two studies published 2-3 years ago. Collectively they address the absences of wood-inhabiting fungi either at site scale (reserves suitable but not inhabited) or tree trunk scale (trunks where the fungi could be artificially inoculated).
MERITS: Obviously high-quality research since it has been published in a leading conservation journal.
CRITIQUE: The abstract does not indicate what the new contribution compared with the published papers is. The only sentence on this suggests that it will be a discussion or interpretation, rather than new information. I also missed a systematic view on conservation options to understand the relative importance of the particular techniques analysed. The management suggestions provided (e.g., "to increase the volume of dead wood in the managed forests") should be made more specific and preferably linked with supporting evidence.
DISCUSSION: Knowledge-based conservation of wood-inhabiting fungi is certainly a desirable path ahead but I wonder whether this path really can be imagined without attention on social, economic and political contexts. For example, general forest cover and forest ownership patterns are likely to severely restrict the options for actual conservation planning on the landscape.
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INTRO: The author will discuss how low species diversity of polypores in forests sites, compared to what they potentially could hold with no dispersal limitation, can be mitigated. Either by increasing connectivity between sites by land management och by translocating species.
MERITS: The issue is interesting and important to discuss.
CRITIQUE: It is not a new question. However, as it is very complex, especially when social aspects are included, there is a opportunities to find new aspects of this question. From the abstract it is unfortunately not possible to see what new aspect or insights that will be presented.
DISCUSSION: There are no conlcusions/discussion presented in the abstract. They will be presented orally I assume.
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INTRO: The conservation challenges when dealing with wood decaying rare fungi will be discussed in this presentation. This in itself would be of paramount importance because to the community as a whole, i think this is unclear.
MERITS: Inoculation as a restoration method is very interesting in itself but taunted by the dangers of it. Do we actually know what we are doing, when inoculating with these fungi? This i think will be covered by the presentation, so a gap in current knowledge will be overcome. I belive the author of this study will provide a sound basis for the research conducted.
CRITIQUE: Whether or not these rare wood decaying fungi have any merits or traits that other fungi in the same nieche space dont have is a big question a non specialist might conjure. I hope this will be well covered in the presentation, because from the abstract it is unclear if there is any ecological nieche that other fungi could not fill. Of course this is a provocative question, but a valid one no the least,.
DISCUSSION: As said before, i think the author will consider discussing the wider frame of context in this study. Why are the red-listed species somehow important for the ecosystem other than just providing one more taxon at a certain given space at a time. Of-course we need to consider species rarity as a factor, but policy makers also need strong incentive to carry out conservational measures. Therefore, a connection with ecosystem processes otherwise not provided will have to be made.
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INTRO: The study addresses problems associated with the conservation of wood-inhabiting fungi by the present protection area network, and discusses about the advantages and disadvantages of various methods to improve the conservation of these species.
MERITS: A novel approach (inoculation) to the conservation of threatened wood-inhabiting fungi is presented. The issues discussed are topical in the effective protection of saprotrophic fungi.
CRITIQUE: It remains rather unclear if the abstract is about a review article of the problems and advantages of various practices aiming to improve the conservation of wood-inhabiting fungi. This (research vs. review article) could be stated in a more straightforward manner. The methods used to address the topic are not presented - is the discussion based on the present literature, or is original data also utilized?
DISCUSSION: A comprehensive view of the various methods to protect wood-inhabiting fungi is necessary and topical in effective conservation of the species.
