scholarly journals Fire regime and old-growth boreal forests in central Quebec, Canada: an ecosystem management perspective

Silva Fennica ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Bélisle ◽  
Sylvie Gauthier ◽  
Dominic Cyr ◽  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Hubert Morin
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Management Perspective

scholarly journals Ecosystem Management of Eastern Canadian Boreal Forests: Potential Impacts on Wind Damage

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 578
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Ruel
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Wind Damage ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Partial Cutting ◽  
Tree Retention ◽  
Green Tree Retention ◽  
The Impact

Research Highlights: Windthrow can interfere significantly with ecosystem management practices. In some cases, their goal could still be reached but this may prove more complex in other cases, like the partial cutting of old-growth stands. In situations where windthrow is common without any human intervention, the use of partial cutting to maintain some stand structures may lead to a feedback loop leading to additional windthrow. Background and Objectives: Forest ecosystem management using natural disturbances as a template has become the management paradigm in many regions. Most of the time, the focus is on fire regime and effects. However, windthrow can be common in some places or can interfere with practices implemented in an ecosystem management strategy. This paper looks at interactions between ecosystem management and windthrow. Materials and Methods: The paper builds on three case studies looking at various elements that could be part of ecosystem management strategies. The first one looks at the impact of green tree retention, while the second one looks at the impact of reducing the size and dispersing clearcuts, and the last one examines the impact of a range of cutting practices in irregular old-growth stands. Results: Green tree retention leads to increased windthrow, especially when applied within mature even-aged stands. Reducing the size of clearcuts and dispersing them over the landscape also involves substantial windthrow along edges. Partial cutting in old-growth stands can lead to relatively high mortality, but part of it is not necessarily related to wind since it occurs as standing dead trees. Differences in the amount of damage with tree size and species have been found and could be used to reduce wind damage. Conclusions: Approaches to minimize wind damage in ecosystem management can be designed using existing knowledge. However, using windthrow as a template to design management strategies would prove more complex.

Is the END (emulation of natural disturbance) a new beginning? A critical analysis of the use of fire regimes as the basis of forest ecosystem management with examples from the Canadian western Cordillera

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stockdale ◽  
Mike Flannigan ◽  
Ellen Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Disturbance Regime ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Management Actions

As our view of disturbances such as wildfire has shifted from prevention to recognizing their ecological necessity, so too forest management has evolved from timber-focused even-aged management to more holistic paradigms like ecosystem-based management. Emulation of natural disturbance (END) is a variant of ecosystem management that recognizes the importance of disturbance for maintaining ecological integrity. For END to be a successful model for forest management we need to describe disturbance regimes and implement management actions that emulate them, in turn achieving our objectives for forest structure and function. We review the different components of fire regimes (cause, frequency, extent, timing, and magnitude), we describe low-, mixed-, and high-severity fire regimes, and we discuss key issues related to describing these regimes. When characterizing fire regimes, different methods and spatial and temporal extents result in wide variation of estimates for different fire regime components. Comparing studies is difficult as few measure the same components; some methods are based on the assumption of a high-severity fire regime and are not suited to detecting mixed- or low-severity regimes, which are critical to END management, as this would affect retention in harvested areas. We outline some difficulties with using fire regimes as coarse filters for forest management, including (i) not fully understanding the interactions between fire and other disturbance agents, (ii) assuming that fire is strictly an exogenous disturbance agent that exerts top-down control of forest structure while ignoring numerous endogenous and bottom-up feedbacks on fire effects, and (iii) assuming by only replicating natural disturbance patterns we preserve ecological processes and vital ecosystem components. Even with a good understanding of a fire regime, we would still be challenged with choosing the temporal and spatial scope for the disturbance regime we are trying to emulate. We cannot yet define forest conditions that will arise from variations in disturbance regime; this then limits our ability to implement management actions that will achieve those conditions. We end by highlighting some important knowledge gaps about fire regimes and how the END model could be strengthened to achieve a more sustainable form of forest management.

Habitat Complexity of Tropical Coastal Ecosystems: An Ecosystem Management Perspective

2018 ◽  
pp. 263-286
Author(s):  
Chandrashekher U. Rivonker ◽  
Vinay P. Padate ◽  
Mahabaleshwar R. Hegde ◽  
Dinesh T. Velip
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Habitat Complexity ◽  
Coastal Ecosystems ◽  
Management Perspective

scholarly journals Compared to Wildfire, Management Practices Reduced Old-Growth Forest Diversity and Functionality in Primary Boreal Landscapes of Eastern Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxence Martin ◽  
Pierre Grondin ◽  
Marie-Claude Lambert ◽  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Hubert Morin
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Industrial Scale ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Ecosystem Based Management ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Old Growth Forests ◽  
Boreal Landscapes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Primary Forests

Large primary forest residuals can still be found in boreal landscapes. Their areas are however shrinking rapidly due to anthropogenic activities, in particular industrial-scale forestry. The impacts of logging activities on primary boreal forests may also strongly differ from those of wildfires, the dominant stand-replacing natural disturbance in these forests. Since industrial-scale forestry is driven by economic motives, there is a risk that stands of higher economic value will be primarily harvested, thus threatening habitats, and functions related to these forests. Hence, the objective of this study was to identify the main attributes differentiating burned and logged stands prior to disturbance in boreal forests. The study territory lies in the coniferous and closed-canopy boreal forest in Québec, Canada, where industrial-scale logging and wildfire are the two main stand-replacing disturbances. Based on Québec government inventories of primary forests, we identified 427 transects containing about 5.5 circular field plots/transect that were burned or logged shortly after being surveyed, between 1985 and 2016. Comparative analysis of the main structural and environmental attributes of these transects highlighted the strong divergence in the impact of fire and harvesting on primary boreal forests. Overall, logging activities mainly harvested forests with the highest economic value, while most burned stands were low to moderately productive or recently disturbed. These results raise concerns about the resistance and resilience of remnant primary forests within managed areas, particularly in a context of disturbance amplification due to climate change. Moreover, the majority of the stands studied were old-growth forests, characterized by a high ecological value but also highly threatened by anthropogenic disturbances. A loss in the diversity and functionality of primary forests, and particularly the old-growth forests, therefore adds to the current issues related to these ecosystems. Since 2013, the study area is under ecosystem-based management, which implies that there have been marked changes in forestry practices. Complementary research will be necessary to assess the capacity of ecosystem-based management to address the challenges identified in our study.

Old-growth, disturbance, and ecosystem management: Reply

1996 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-511
Author(s):  
E. A. Johnson ◽  
K. Miyanishi ◽  
J. M. H. Weir
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Growth Disturbance

Epiphyte Flora and Diversity on Basal Trunks of Six Old-Growth Forest Tree Species in Southern and Middle Boreal Finland

1996 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 443-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Kuusinen
Keyword(s):  
Tree Species ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Forest Tree ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Epiphytic Lichen ◽  
Generalist Species ◽  
Salix Caprea ◽  
Forest Tree Species ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Habitat Generalist

AbstractEpiphytic lichen and bryophyte species composition, richness and diversity were surveyed on basal trunks of six common old-growth forest tree species, Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Betula pendula, Alnus incana, Salix caprea and Populus tremula, in two old-growth forest areas, one in southern and one in middle boreal Finland. The average species numbers per tree ranged from 18 (Picea) to 27 (Salix) in the southern and from 20 (Populus) to 31 (Salix) in the middle boreal area. A few widespread habitat-generalist species, such as the foliose lichens Hypogymnia physodes and Platismatia glauca, were most abundant on all the tree species, except Populus. Most other epiphyte species showed at least a slight preference for one or two tree species. Populus proved to have the most distinct flora characterized by the abundance of certain, rather specialized crustose lichens and bryophytes. The number of species that occurred on only one tree species was highest on Populus (9) in the southern and on Alnus (18) in the middle boreal area. Differences in bark acidity and structure were the most likely explanations for the differences between tree species in the epiphytic flora and diversity. Salix and Populus were the most important of the tree species studied for the conservation of epiphyte diversity in the boreal forests of Finland.

Recent fire activity in the boreal forests of central western Siberia is unprecedented in the past 5000 years: palaeoenvironmental evidence contextualises a burning issue

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelica Feurdean ◽  
Andrei Cosmin Diaconu ◽  
Gabriela Florescu ◽  
Mariusz Galka ◽  
Simon M. Hutchinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Vegetation Composition ◽  
The Past ◽  
Invader Species

<p>Although wildfire events in Siberia have increased in frequency and intensity over recent decades, in the absence of long-term records, it is not clear how far this trend deviates from baseline conditions. Short-term datasets categorise the forest fire regime in Siberia as one of surface, litter fires alternating withdevastating crown fires, although there is significant variability within this region likely reflecting vegetation composition. However, a comprehensive understanding of how vegetation composition and properties determine fire regimes remains lacking. To address this question we used two peat records spanning the last 2500 yr and a 5000 yr, respectively of charcoal morphologies-derived fire regime, pollen-based vegetation dynamics and stable isotope and testate amoebae-based climate reconstructions from boreal forests in central western Siberia, combined with fire-related functional traits of key boreal tree species. Compared to the trend over the 5000 yr period (mean fire return interval=FRI of 400 yr), our reconstructed mean FRI of 145 yr for the last five centuries is notably the shortest in the record. Most fires in this area tend to be surface, litter fires, although over the last centuries surface fires show an increased trend towards crowning. Frequent fires between 5000 and 4000 cal yr BP and 1500 cal yr BP to the present were concurrent with the dominance of invader species (primarily Betula) and fire endurer (mainly herbs) with prevalence of resisters (Pinus sylvestris, Pinus sibirica). Longer fire return intervals (up to 500 yr) between 4000 and 1500 cal yr BP were associated with the dominance of fire resisters with a considerable proportion of fire avoiders (Abies sibirica and Picea obovata). The rising number of fire episodes and the intensification of fire events over the past 1500 years have likely promoted fire-adapted plant communities (invaders and endurers) that can rapidly reach maturity, contributing to the reduction of avoider and resister species. This trend demonstrates that fire avoider species particularly fail to regenerate if the intervals between fire episodes are too short and thatan increasing number of fire episodes can drive land cover towards more fire-adapted plant communities. Our long-term perspective shows that the current fire regime lies significantly outside baseline conditions, which may drive future change in forest composition towards an increased prevalence of invader species. This study also contributes to an understanding of disturbance regimes in Pinus-Betula forests and considers the potential of tree species to adapt to new fire regimes.</p><p> </p>

Alaska’s changing fire regime — implications for the vulnerability of its boreal forestsThis article is one of a selection of papers from The Dynamics of Change in Alaska’s Boreal Forests: Resilience and Vulnerability in Response to Climate Warming.

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 1313-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric S. Kasischke ◽  
David L. Verbyla ◽  
T. Scott Rupp ◽  
A. David McGuire ◽  
Karen A. Murphy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Fire Policy ◽  
Organic Layers ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
The Past ◽  
Previous Decade ◽  
In Fire

A synthesis was carried out to examine Alaska’s boreal forest fire regime. During the 2000s, an average of 767 000 ha·year–1 burned, 50% higher than in any previous decade since the 1940s. Over the past 60 years, there was a decrease in the number of lightning-ignited fires, an increase in extreme lightning-ignited fire events, an increase in human-ignited fires, and a decrease in the number of extreme human-ignited fire events. The fraction of area burned from human-ignited fires fell from 26% for the 1950s and 1960s to 5% for the 1990s and 2000s, a result from the change in fire policy that gave the highest suppression priorities to fire events that occurred near human settlements. The amount of area burned during late-season fires increased over the past two decades. Deeper burning of surface organic layers in black spruce ( Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP) forests occurred during late-growing-season fires and on more well-drained sites. These trends all point to black spruce forests becoming increasingly vulnerable to the combined changes of key characteristics of Alaska’s fire regime, except on poorly drained sites, which are resistant to deep burning. The implications of these fire regime changes to the vulnerability and resilience of Alaska’s boreal forests and land and fire management are discussed.

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