scholarly journals Mitigating post-fire regeneration failure in boreal landscapes with reforestation and variable retention harvesting: At what cost?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Cyr ◽  
Tadeusz Bartek Splawinski ◽  
Jesus Pascual Puigdevall ◽  
Osvaldo Valeria ◽  
Alain Leduc ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Spruce ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Regeneration Failure ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Variable Retention ◽  
Variable Retention Harvesting

Successive disturbances such as fire can affect post-disturbance regeneration density, with documented adverse effects on subsequent stand productivity. We conducted a simulation study to assess the potential of reactive (reforestation) and proactive (variable retention harvesting) post-fire regeneration failure mitigation strategies in a 1.37-Mha fire-prone boreal landscape dominated by black spruce and jack pine. We quantified their respective capacity to maintain landscape productivity and post-fire resilience, as well as their associated financial returns under current and projected (RCP 8.5) fire regimes. While post-fire reforestation with jack pine revealed to be the most effective strategy to maintain potential production, associated costs quickly became prohibitive when applied over extensive areas. Proactive strategies such as an extensive use of variable retention harvesting, combined with replanting of fire-adapted jack pine only in easily accessible areas, appeared as a more promising approach. Despite this, our results suggest an inevitable erosion of forest productivity due to post-fire regeneration failure events, highlighting the importance to integrate fire a priori in strategic forest management planning as well as its effects on long-term regeneration dynamics.

Relative competitiveness of nine early-successional boreal forest species associated with planted jack pine and black spruce seedlings

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 790-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Wayne Bell ◽  
Michael T Ter-Mikaelian ◽  
Robert G Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Pinus Banksiana ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Initial Density ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Stem Diameter ◽  
Herbaceous Species

Differences in yield-density models derived from an additive experimental design were used to compare the relative competitiveness of nine early-successional boreal forest plants (aster, grass, fireweed, fern, raspberry, willow, alder, birch, and aspen) on jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP). A randomized complete block split-split-plot design with three replications blocked on soil type was used. Initial density gradients were 0-4 plants/m2 for woody and 0-8 plants/m2 for herbaceous species. An a priori analytical approach that compared a full model (using linear regression analysis of 4th-year stem diameter of conifers under increasing cover and height of competitors) to various reduced models was used to assess competition. Increasing cover and (or) height of all competitors (except fern) significantly (P < 0.05) decreased conifer stem diameter. The final regression model (based on visual estimates of cover and differences in initial conifer size) accounted for 89% of the variation in stem diameter. During the years studied, both conifers responded similarly to competition, and herbaceous species were on average 28.9% more competitive than woody species. Under different growing conditions (e.g., a natural forest) the relative competitiveness of herbaceous and woody species may vary from these results.

scholarly journals Allometric Equations for Estimating Biomass and Carbon Stocks in Afforested Open Woodlands with Black Spruce and Jack Pine, in the Eastern Canadian Boreal Forest

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Olivier Fradette ◽  
Charles Marty ◽  
Pascal Tremblay ◽  
Daniel Lord ◽  
Jean-François Boucher
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Tree Height ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Allometric Equations ◽  
C Stocks ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest

Allometric equations use easily measurable biometric variables to determine the aboveground and belowground biomasses of trees. Equations produced for estimating the biomass within Canadian forests at a large scale have not yet been validated for eastern Canadian boreal open woodlands (OWs), where trees experience particular environmental conditions. In this study, we harvested 167 trees from seven boreal OWs in Quebec, Canada for biomass and allometric measurements. These data show that Canadian national equations accurately predict the whole aboveground biomass for both black spruce and jack pine trees, but underestimated branches biomass, possibly owing to a particular tree morphology in OWs relative to closed-canopy stands. We therefore developed ad hoc allometric equations based on three power models including diameter at breast height (DBH) alone or in combination with tree height (H) as allometric variables. Our results show that although the inclusion of H in the model yields better fits for most tree compartments in both species, the difference is minor and does not markedly affect biomass C stocks at the stand level. Using these newly developed equations, we found that carbon stocks in afforested OWs varied markedly among sites owing to differences in tree growth and species. Nine years after afforestation, jack pine plantations had accumulated about five times more carbon than black spruce plantations (0.14 vs. 0.80 t C·ha−1), highlighting the much larger potential of jack pine for OW afforestation projects in this environment.

Forest management strategies for dealing with fire-related uncertainty when managing two forest seral stages

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Savage ◽  
David L. Martell ◽  
B. Mike Wotton
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Simulation Model ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Planning Model ◽  
Minimum Area ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Planning Models

Ecological values are an important aspect of sustainable forest management, but little attention has been paid to maintaining these values when using traditional linear programming (LP) forest management planning models in uncertain planning environments. We embedded an LP planning model that specifies when and how much to harvest in a simulation model of a “managed” flammable forest landscape. The simulation model was used to evaluate two strategies for dealing with fire-related uncertainty when managing mature and old forest areas. The two seral stage areas were constrained in the LP planning model to a minimum of 10% of the total forest area and the strategies were evaluated under four representative fire regimes. We also developed a risk analysis tool that can be used by forest managers that wish to incorporate fire-related uncertainty in their decision-making. We found that use of the LP model would reduce the areas of the mature and old forest to their lower bound and fire would further reduce the seral areas below those levels, particularly when the mean annual burn fraction exceeds 0.45% per annum. Increasing the minimum area required (i.e., the right-hand side of the constraint) would increase the likelihood of satisfying the minimum area requirements.

Developing and Implementing Multiple-Use Forest Management Planning in Turkey

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emin Zeki Baskent ◽  
Salih Terzioğlu ◽  
Şağdan Başkaya
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Forest Management Planning

Low-site class black spruce and jack pine nutrient removals after full-tree and tree-length logging

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1030-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. F. Weetman ◽  
D. Algar
Keyword(s):  
Black Spruce ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Coarse Sand ◽  
Nutrient Inputs ◽  
Site Class ◽  
Mg Deficiency ◽  
N Supply ◽  
Tree Length ◽  
Potentially Mineralizable N ◽  
Range Of Values

An old, merchantable, low-site class black spruce (Piceamariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) stand growing on a Lithic Humo-Ferric Podzol overlying a granite bedrock, and a younger but merchantable low-site class jack pine (Pinusbanksiana Lamb.) stand growing on a Ferro-Humic Podzol overlying a deep coarse sand near Baie Comeau, P.Q., were analysed for stand biomass and macronutrient contents of both stand and soil. The magnitude of the depletions of macronutrients from the site, in full-tree and tree-length methods of logging, are compared with their available and total quantities in the soil. The range of values from the literature for nutrient inputs are presented and discussed in relation to logging losses. The results suggest that full-tree logging in the dry jack pine stand could cause a severe loss of potentially mineralizable N supply; P, K, and Mg deficiency problems owing to export are not apparent, but a Ca balance problem is apparent. The implication is that full-tree logging should be avoided on such sites.

Clonal and nonclonal genetic structure of subarctic black spruce (Picea mariana) populations in Yukon territory

Botany ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marios Viktora ◽  
Rodney A. Savidge ◽  
Om P. Rajora
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Picea Mariana ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Nuclear Genome ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Clone Size ◽  
Flat Terrain ◽  
Individual Trees

Black spruce (Picea mariana) reproduces sexually from seeds and asexually by layering. There is a prevalent concept that clonal reproduction maintains populations of this species in the subarctic and arctic regions. We used microsatellite DNA markers of the nuclear genome to investigate the genetic structure of montane and subalpine black spruce populations from the Western Yukon Plateau in relation to this concept. Sixty individual trees at a minimum distance of 4 m from each other were sampled from each of four populations and individual trees were genotyped for eight microsatellite loci. Each of the 60 individuals from three montane pure black spruce populations growing on flat terrain at relatively low elevations had unique multilocus genotypes, indicating an absence of clonal structure in those populations. However, in an anthropologically undisturbed climax white spruce-dominated subalpine black spruce population on a northwest slope near Mount Nansen, the majority of the sampled individuals belonged to eight genetically distinct clones (genets). Clone size differed by altitude, the dominant genet being nearest the timberline–tundra ecotone. The results indicate that black spruce reproduction is variable and adaptive, being primarily sexual in flat-terrain montane populations previously subjected to fire disturbance, but mixed vegetative–sexual in the anthropogenically undisturbed subalpine population. This study is the first to employ molecular markers a priori to examine the mode of reproduction in natural black spruce populations.

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