scholarly journals Incorporating Insect and Wind Disturbances in a Natural Disturbance-Based Management Framework for the Boreal Forest

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis De Grandpré ◽  
Kaysandra Waldron ◽  
Mathieu Bouchard ◽  
Sylvie Gauthier ◽  
Marilou Beaudet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Growth Stages ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Management Framework ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Biological Legacies

Natural disturbances are fundamental to forest ecosystem dynamics and have been used for two decades to improve forest management, notably in the boreal forest. Initially based on fire regimes, there is now a need to extend the concept to include other types of disturbances as they can greatly contribute to forest dynamics in some regions of the boreal zone. Here we review the main descriptors—that is, the severity, specificity, spatial and temporal descriptors and legacies, of windthrow and spruce bud worm outbreak disturbance regimes in boreal forests—in order to facilitate incorporating them into a natural disturbance-based forest management framework. We also describe the biological legacies that are generated by these disturbances. Temporal and spatial descriptors characterising both disturbance types are generally variable in time and space. This makes them difficult to reproduce in an ecosystem management framework. However, severity and specificity descriptors may provide a template upon which policies for maintaining post harvesting and salvage logging biological legacies can be based. In a context in which management mainly targets mature and old-growth stages, integrating insect and wind disturbances in a management framework is an important goal, as these disturbances contribute to creating heterogeneity in mature and old-growth forest characteristics.

scholarly journals Forest management has reduced the structural diversity of residual boreal old-growth forest landscapes in Eastern Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 458 ◽  
pp. 117765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxence Martin ◽  
Yan Boucher ◽  
Nicole J. Fenton ◽  
Philippe Marchand ◽  
Hubert Morin
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Old Growth Forest

scholarly journals Old-growth forest values: A narrative study of six Canadian forest leaders

2010 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne M Moyer ◽  
Peter N Duinker ◽  
Fay G Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Forest Sector ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Narrative Study ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Forest Values ◽  
Depth Interviews

Old-growth forest is the subject of widespread conflict. Understanding associated values and attitudes in society is necessary for its sustainable management. We investigated old-growth values through a narrative study employing in-depth interviews with six leaders in Canada’s forest sector. Old-growth forest was valued for its natural ecological systems, biotic components, and experiential aspects. The study highlights the importance of value discourse within the forest sector. Key words: old-growth forest, values, Canada, forest management

Is regulated even-aged management the right strategy for the Canadian boreal forest?

2004 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 458-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Bergeron
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Age Distribution ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Stand Age ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Old Growth Forests ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in the development of forest management approaches that are based on an understanding of historical natural disturbance dynamics. The rationale for such an approach is that management to favour landscape compositions and stand structures similar to those of natural ecosystems should also maintain biological diversity and essential ecological functions. In fire-dominated landscapes, this approach is possible only if current and future fire frequencies are sufficiently low, in comparison to pre-industrial fire frequency, that we can substitute fire with forest management. I address this question by comparing current and future fire frequency to historical reconstruction of fire frequency from studies in the Canadian boreal forest. Current and simulated future fire frequencies using 2× and 3×CO2 scenarios are lower than the historical fire frequency for most sites, suggesting that forest management could potentially be used to recreate the forest age structure of fire-controlled pre-industrial landscapes. Current even-aged management, however, tends to reduce forest variability: for example, fully regulated, even-aged management will tend to truncate the natural forest stand age distribution and eliminate overmature and old-growth forests from the landscape. The development of silvicultural techniques that maintain a spectrum of forest compositions and structures at different scales in the landscape is one avenue to maintain this variability. Key words: boreal forest, even aged management, fire regime, old-growth forests, climate change, partial cutting

scholarly journals STAND STRUCTURE OF A CALABRIAN PINE OLD-GROWTH FOREST: INDICATIONS FOR FOREST MANAGEMENT AND LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION

2010 ◽  
pp. 529-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orazio Ciancio ◽  
Francesco Iovino ◽  
Giuliano Menguzzato ◽  
Antonino Nicolaci ◽  
Antonella Veltri
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Stand Structure ◽  
Landscape Conservation ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Calabrian Pine

Using spatially explicit simulations to explore size distribution and spacing of regenerating areas produced by wildfires: recommendations for designing harvest agglomerations for the Canadian boreal forest

2007 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Belleau ◽  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Alain Leduc ◽  
Sylvie Gauthier ◽  
Andrew Fall
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest

It is now recognized that in the Canadian boreal forest, timber harvesting activities have replaced wildfires as the main stand-replacing disturbance. Differences in landscape patterns derived from these two sources of disturbance have, however, raised concerns that the way forest harvesting has been dispersed is potentially shifting patterns away from the natural range. In the context of natural disturbance-based management, we used a spatially explicit model designed to capture general fire regimes in order to quantify temporal variability associated with regenerating areas (burnt areas of 25 years or younger), and to develop strategic objectives for harvest agglomeration sizes and dispersion. We first evaluated temporal variability in the proportion of stands younger than 100 years (assumed to be even-aged stands) for various fire regimes (seven fire cycles: 50 to 400 years, and three mean fires sizes: 3000, 15 000 and 60 000 ha). Secondly, we quantified the size distribution and dispersion of regenerating areas for each fire regime. As expected by theoretical fire frequencies and size distributions, the importance of even-aged stands at the forest management unit level was found to decrease with longer fire cycles. However, the temporal variability associated with these proportions is shown to increase with mean fire size. It was also observed that the size distribution and dispersion of regenerating areas was primarily influenced by mean fire size. Based on these observations, natural disturbance-based management objectives were formulated, providing guidelines on harvest agglomeration size and dispersion. Key words: temporal variability, boreal forest, fire regime, forest management, age distribution, fire size distribution, clearcut agglomeration size distribution

scholarly journals Natural disturbance dynamics in an old-growth forest: from tree to landscape

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 365-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Lingua ◽  
Matteo Garbarino ◽  
Enrico Borgogno Mondino ◽  
Renzo Motta
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Disturbance Dynamics ◽  
Old Growth Forest

Structure, composition, and diversity of old-growth black spruce boreal forest of the Clay Belt region in Quebec and Ontario

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (S1) ◽  
pp. S79-S98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Harper ◽  
Catherine Boudreault ◽  
Louis DeGrandpré ◽  
Pierre Drapeau ◽  
Sylvie Gauthier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Picea Mariana ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structural Development ◽  
Spruce Forest ◽  
Forest Stands ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Old Growth Forests

Old-growth black spruce (Picea mariana) boreal forest in the Clay Belt region of Ontario and Quebec is an open forest with a low canopy, quite different from what many consider to be "old growth". Here, we provide an overview of the characteristics of old-growth black spruce forest for three different site types on organic, clay, and coarse deposits. Our objectives were (1) to identify the extent of older forests; (2) to describe the structure, composition, and diversity in different age classes; and (3) to identify key processes in old-growth black spruce forest. We sampled canopy composition, deadwood abundance, understorey composition, and nonvascular plant species in 91 forest stands along a chronosequence that extended from 20 to more than 250 years after fire. We used a peak in tree basal area, which occurred at 100 years on clay and coarse sites and at 200 years on organic sites, as a process-based means of defining the start of old-growth forest. Old-growth forests are extensive in the Clay Belt, covering 30–50% of the forested landscape. Black spruce was dominant on all organic sites, and in all older stands. Although there were fewer understorey species and none exclusive to old-growth, these forests were structurally diverse and had greater abundance of Sphagnum, epiphytic lichens, and ericaceous species. Paludification, a process characteristic of old-growth forest stands on clay deposits in this region, causes decreases in tree and deadwood abundance. Old-growth black spruce forests, therefore, lack the large trees and snags that are characteristic of other old-growth forests. Small-scale disturbances such as spruce budworm and windthrow are common, creating numerous gaps. Landscape and stand level management strategies could minimize structural changes caused by harvesting, but unmanaged forest in all stages of development must be preserved in order to conserve all the attributes of old-growth black spruce forest. Key words: boreal forest, old growth, paludification, Picea mariana, structural development, succession.

scholarly journals Modelling Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) lek sites distribution and their limiting factors in a central Norwegian managed forest landscape

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Gustav Thingstad ◽  
Marc Daverdin ◽  
James D. M. Speed
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Tetrao Urogallus ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Managed Forest ◽  
Distribution Modelling ◽  
Clear Cutting ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Mature Stands

Forest management has substantially altered Fennoscandian forests through clear-cutting practices started during the 1950s. Impacts on the natural biodiversity in mature boreal forest have been inevitable. The Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is often regarded as an indicator species for natural old growth forest, displaying on traditional lek sites during spring. In a heterogeneous forest landscape of two adjoining municipalities in central Norway we studied whether forest management or other environmental factors can have influenced the lek distribution. We identified 15 active leks and 12 recently abandoned leks. The maximum entropy distribution modelling (MaxEnt) was used to investigate factors associated with lek distribution at two different scales, where the scale reflecting the lek site areas gave the most adequate result. Active leks were predominantly associated with mature stands of forest. In 65% of the study area the habitat suitability for lekking was most influenced by forest management. Furthermore, the recently abandoned leks were found less frequently in low productive and mature forests than the still active ones, implying that previous leks in productive forest stands may have been lost through logging. Based on our data we have developed models for the predicted distribution and the current limiting factors, showing that altered forest management could improve lek site suitability in large parts of this boreal forest.

Properties of stumps that promote the growth and survival of Japanese cedar saplings in a natural old-growth forest

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1976-1982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takayuki Ota ◽  
Takashi Masaki ◽  
Hisashi Sugita ◽  
Tatsuo Kanazashi ◽  
Hisashi Abe
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Japanese Cedar ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Light Conditions ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Coniferous Species ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Species Taxon ◽  
Root Location

In a natural forest that has experienced logging and lacks large fallen logs, cut stumps are expected to become a suitable substrate for regeneration. We investigated the properties of stumps that promoted the natural regeneration of coniferous species in a natural old-growth forest dominated by Cryptomeria japonica (L.f.) D. Don. A comparison of C. japonica saplings growing in three microsites (ground, stumps, and fallen logs) revealed that sapling density was highest on the stumps; 75% of saplings were distributed on stumps, which occupied only 3% of the projected forest area. The mortality of saplings during the 3-year study period did not differ significantly among the three microsites. Six properties of stumps were quantified: height, diameter at ground level, decay class, species taxon, type (i.e., cause of occurrence: logging or natural disturbance), and light conditions. Of these properties, the type of stump was the most influential. The density of saplings was significantly greater on stumps produced by logging than on naturally broken stumps. Taller stumps exhibited a significantly higher density of saplings; indeed, there were no saplings on stumps less than 60 cm in height. Saplings on stumps were concentrated in higher positions on the stump, and survivorship tended to be greater when their root location was higher. We concluded that the height of the microsite was an important factor for regeneration of C. japonica at this research site, where saplings were under competition with dense undergrowth vegetation. Most of the fallen logs were less than 60 cm in height and it appeared unlikely that they would function as regeneration sites for C. japonica.

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