Journal
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
Volume 370, Issue -, Pages 45-55Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2016.03.055
Keywords
Understory; Sub-boreal forest; Biodiversity; Plantation; Commercial thinning; Functional group
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI)
- University of New Brunswick, Saint John
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Plantation forestry is increasing in frequency and extent across the landscape, but can negatively impact biodiversity by promoting stand homogeneity and early-seral species dominance. Modifying silvicultural prescriptions in plantations, particularly with respect to creating or retaining more coarse woody debris (CWD), may improve their ability to support biodiversity, by mimicking some aspects of natural disturbance. We used a modified before-after-control-impact design to examine the response of understory vascular plants to four treatments in 25-year-old white spruce plantations of northwestern New Brunswick. Treatments included commercial thinning (CT) with enhanced, moderate, or no debris, as well as an unthinned control. Understory composition was analyzed using complementary methods that summarize biological communities at different resolutions: indicator species analysis, functional group responses, ordination, and biodiversity indices. Understory plants increased in overall richness and abundance after thinning, particularly in no-debris treatments. This was driven by (1) expansion of preestablished clonal forest herbs and (2) invasion of graminoids and long-distance dispersers. Several disturbance-sensitive species were significantly more abundant in unthinned controls. Few compositional differences were observed between the moderate and enhanced debris treatments, perhaps because the effects of CWD creation require longer to detect than those of thinning and ground-layer disturbance (from debris-removal). We recommend (1) continued monitoring of changes in moderate and enhanced treatments to determine the effects of debris-modification and (2) avoiding silvicultural prescriptions that remove branches, tree-tops, and other non-merchantable wood, which appear to facilitate early-seral species, and negatively impact disturbance-sensitive species. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier By. All rights reserved.
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