Walter and Andrée De Nottbeck Foundation Scientific Reports

HELSINKI 2005 2 This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to by their Roman numerals: I Munsterhjelm, R. 1997: The aquatic macrophyte vegetation of flads and gloes, S coast of Finland. – Acta Bot. Fennica 157: 1–68. II Munsterhjelm, R.: What does the vegetation map tell us? – A methodological study and a visual analysis of the macroscopic water vegetation of shallow brackish water bays in SW Finland. (Submitted to Memoranda Societatis pro Fauna et Flora Fennica.) The decline of a charophyte – occurrence dynamics of Chara tomentosa L. at the southern coast of Finland. There are two ancient statements that well illustrate the problems involved in our attempts to develop a configuration of reality, in particular when approaching it from an ecological point of view. One is Chinese: " in nature and in life, everything depends on everything ". This illustrates the difficulty for the researcher confronted with the complexity of nature at the stage when he first chooses the subject of his research. The other statement is Greek. It illustrates the insight a field researcher achieves having faced the variability of nature and finally is forced to submit to " the only unalterable principle of nature " , a principle according to which everything is involved in a process of moving or floating around: " panta rhei " (Heracleitus c. 540 – c. 480 B.C.). We must believe in these expressions if we truly are the logical thinkers we consider ourselves to be. This also means that the aspects of the nature we study and the methods we use are products of our own highly selective choices, which are dependent on our educational background and individual sub-jectivity. Logically, our understanding of the environment is subject to limitations, and the real reasons for study are always questionable. Our choices are only defendable from a practical and organisational point of view. Facing these restrictions and the uncertainty considering the research theme I was given in 1978 by my professor in botany Hans Luther, I decided to use a purely descriptive, phenomenological approach. I was supposed to investigate the flora and vegetation of the flads, shallow and sheltered brackish water environments on the border between sea and land. My initial grasp on the theme was natural because these habitats were almost completely unclassified. Only a few ecological descriptors are usually used for understanding the function of ecosystems, …