Muddus (; ) is a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

in northern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It is situated in the province Lapland, with its largest part in the Gällivare Municipality. Furthermore, it belongs to the largely untouched

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage classified Laponian area. Natural scenes include the

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

with large trees, large

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

gy grounds, and deep

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

s in between the rocks. Sweden's oldest known

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

tree is also located here. It has been estimated to be at least 710 years old, as it was found to have withstood a forest fire in 1413.

Wildfires

Forest fires in Muddus National Park have left traces on sample plots. There are fire scars on living or dead trees or charcoal fragments in the humus layer. The park was investigated on 75 separate sample plots. Some of the major fire years in the Muddus area coincide with forest fires in other parts of northern Sweden, in the

taiga Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...

of western Russia, and in central Siberia. There is constant regeneration happening in the wildlife in the National Park. Forest fires were shown to have occurred in the five different types of forest. The fires that were most frequently occurring of fires in the pine forests occurred with within the span of 81–90 years, while the mean frequency was 110 years. The interval of time elapsed since the last forest fire occurred in the pine forests was 144 years. Some of the major fire years in the Muddus area coincide with forest fires in other parts of northern Sweden, in the taiga of western Russia, and in central Siberia.

Mires

In 1940 a range of mires were found in the Muddus National Park. The park also went under investigation for its mires and

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s. The mires consisted from

ombrotrophic Ombrotrophic ("cloud-fed"), from Ancient Greek ὄμβρος (''ómvros'') meaning "rain" and τροφή (''trofí'') meaning "food"), refers to Soil, soils or vegetation which receive all of their water and nutrients from precipitation, rather ...

s to rich fens. They are found to be very rich in

bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...

s. There are 66 species and you can find them in dry habitats as well.

Geography

It is known for its waterfalls, deep ravines, low mountain and forest where the trees have seen many generations of people pass by.

Wildlife

Birds

Due to a large-scale forestry landscape structure; the structure and composition of boreal bird communities are in North Sweden. Birds control the effects of patch size, forest age and tree species compositions. The most common birds that live in the park are Capercaillie. These birds are black grouse and hazel hen. They are constantly being reproduced in the forest year-round. The second most common bird that is found here is the Siberian jay and Siberian tit. These birds are intensely present mostly during the summer time. Other animals that reside in the park are whooper swans, bean geese and black-throated loons appear on the lakes. Located at the

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

es of the park, cranes, sandpipers and snipes are present

Deer

Reindeer are in the Muddus National park are present in the area year-around. Although rare, there are also brown bears, lynx and wolverines in the park. It is common, to encounter reindeer, elk or some of the forests’ and marshes’ many birds.

Flora

The Muddus National Park trees show how large non-systematic variations are there. This is due to climatic changes because of

industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...

in Sweden through the years. There are an abundance of spiders that have been found in the Muddus National Park. In particular, There has been four species of different genital characters of

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s have been found. This is due to the abundance of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

forest, and shallow lakes in the northern taiga zone. There was 157 spiders collected from the southern park of the park.

References

External links

Sweden's National Parks: Muddus/Muottos National Park
from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency {{authority control National parks of Sweden Geography of Norrbotten County Protected areas established in 1942 1942 establishments in Sweden Tourist attractions in Norrbotten County Lapland (Sweden) Gällivare Municipality 20th-century establishments in Norrbotten County