scholarly journals Amount and diversity of coarse woody debris within a boreal forest landscape dominated by Pinus sylvestris in Vienansalo wilderness, eastern Fennoscandia

Silva Fennica ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leena Karjalainen ◽  
Timo Kuuluvainen
2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
pp. 2168-2178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Martin Schroeder ◽  
Thomas Ranius ◽  
Barbara Ekbom ◽  
Stig Larsson

The active creation of coarse woody debris (CWD) has been suggested as a measure to preserve and restore biodiversity in managed forests. A common practice in Sweden is to create high stumps at final cutting. We evaluated the importance of high stumps for saproxylic (wood-dependent) beetles in a boreal forest landscape in central Sweden. The number of high stumps created on clearcuts was recorded and the beetle fauna under the bark of high stumps of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) was sampled. High stumps yielded only 0.13% of CWD volume and bark area in the landscape. Out of the 29 beetle species most frequently found in the landscape, high stumps were the major source of recruitment at the landscape level for only one, Hadreule elongatula (Gyllenhal). For the remaining 28 beetle species, less than 1% of the landscape's population occurred in high stumps on clearcuts. The abundance of H. elongatula increased with the area of the surrounding forest land that was covered by clearcuts within a radius of 1000 m. This is the first example of a saproxylic species associated with clearcuts, in contemporary forest landscapes, for which such an occurrence pattern has been documented.


2015 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Arnstadt ◽  
Björn Hoppe ◽  
Tiemo Kahl ◽  
Harald Kellner ◽  
Dirk Krüger ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Praveen Kumar ◽  
Han Y.H. Chen ◽  
Sean C. Thomas ◽  
Chander Shahi

Although the importance of coarse woody debris (CWD) to understory species diversity has been recognized, the combined effects of CWD decay and substrate species on abundance and species diversity of epixylic vegetation have received little attention. We sampled a wide range of CWD substrate species and decay classes, as well as forest floors in fire-origin boreal forest stands. Percent cover, species richness, and evenness of epixylic vegetation differed significantly with both CWD decay class and substrate species. Trends in cover, species richness, and evenness differed significantly between nonvascular and vascular taxa. Cover, species richness, and species evenness of nonvascular species were higher on CWD, whereas those of vascular plants were higher on the forest floor. Epixylic species composition also varied significantly with stand ages, overstory compositions, decay classes, substrate species, and their interactions. Our findings highlight strong interactive influences of decay class and substrate species on epixylic plant communities and suggest that conservation of epixylic diversity would require forest managers to maintain a diverse range of CWD decay classes and substrate species. Because stand development and overstory compositions influence CWD decay classes and substrate species, as well as colonization time and environmental conditions in the understory, our results indicate that managed boreal landscapes should consist of a mosaic of different successional stages and a broad suite of overstory types to support diverse understory plant communities.


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 1770-1780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Boulanger ◽  
Luc Sirois

In this study, postfire coarse woody debris (CWD) dynamics in northern Quebec, Canada, were assessed using a 29-year chronosequence. Postfire woody-debris storage, decomposition rates, and variation of nitrogen and carbon contents of black spruce CWD (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP) are estimated. The decomposition rate for postfire snags is exceptionally slow (k = 0.00), while the decomposition rate for logs (k = 0.019–0.021) is within previously recorded values for the boreal forest. The low decomposition rate for snags could be related to low moisture content associated with the position of debris and fast bark shedding. Given the low CWD decomposition rates and CWD storage (21.3–66.8 m3·ha–1), carbon losses from postfire CWD are relatively low, varying between 35.5 and 128.8 kg·ha–1·year–1 at the study sites. The nitrogen content in CWD drops quickly between living trees and snags and increases slightly with time since fire in logs. Nitrogen content is not related to wood density or to moisture content of deadwood. Rapid loss of nitrogen is associated with fast decomposition of subcortical tissues, leaching, and insect comminution. The increase in nitrogen content at the oldest site could result from asymbiotic nitrogen fixation, although a longer time span in the chronosequence would probably have revealed a greater nitrogen gain in increasingly decayed CWD.


2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 2184-2200 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Rouvinen ◽  
T Kuuluvainen ◽  
L Karjalainen

Coarse woody debris (CWD) was studied in old Pinus sylvestris L. dominated forests in three geographic regions in the middle boreal vegetation zone: (i) in Häme in southwestern Finland, characterized by a long history of forest utilization, (ii) in Kuhmo in northeastern Finland, with a more recent history of forest utilization, and (iii) in the Vienansalo wilderness area in northwestern Russia, characterized by large areas of almost natural forest. Within the geographic regions the measured 0.2-ha plots were divided into three stand types according to the degree of human impact: (i) natural stands, (ii) selectively logged stands, and (iii) managed stands. The results showed that compared with natural forests, forest management has strongly reduced both the amount and diversity of CWD. The highest total CWD volumes were found in the natural stands in Häme (mean 67 m3·ha–1) and Kuhmo (92 m3·ha–1) and in the selective logged stands in Vienansalo (80 m3·ha–1), while the lowest CWD volumes were found in the managed stands in Häme (7 m3·ha–1) and Kuhmo (22 m3·ha–1). The duration of forest utilization also plays a role, as forests with short management histories (Kuhmo region) still carried structural legacies from earlier more natural stages of the forest. In addition to lower total CWD volumes, managed stands also largely lacked certain dead wood characteristics, particularly large dead trees and standing dead trees with structural diversity characteristics (such as stem breakage, leaning stems, and fire scars) when compared with natural and selectively logged stands. The CWD characteristics of stands selectively logged in the past were often comparable with those of natural stands, suggesting that old selectively logged stands can be of high value from the nature conservation point of view.


2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 674-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Hély ◽  
Y Bergeron ◽  
M D Flannigan

Quantities and structural characteristics of coarse woody debris (CWD) (logs and snags) were examined in relation to stand age and composition in the Canadian mixedwood boreal forest. Forty-eight stands originating after fire (from 32 to 236 years) were sampled on mesic clay deposits. The point-centered quadrant method was used to record canopy composition and structure (living trees and snags). The line-intersect method was used to sample logs of all diameters. Total log load, mean snag density, and volume per stand were similar to other boreal stands. Linear and nonlinear regressions showed that time since fire and canopy composition were significant descriptors for log load changes, whereas time since fire was the only significant factor for snag changes. Coarse woody debris accumulation models through time since fire were different from the U-shaped model because the first initial decrease from residual pre-disturbance debris was missing, the involved species had rapid decay rates with no long-term accumulation, and the succession occurred from species replacement through time.


Ecosystems ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1078-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian W. Brassard ◽  
Han Y. H. Chen

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