Are Current Seedling Demographics Poised to Regenerate Northern US Forests?

Vickers, Lance A.; McWilliams, William H.; Knapp, Benjamin O.; D’Amato, Anthony W.; Dey, Daniel C.; Dickinson, Yvette L.; Kabrick, John M.; Kenefic, Laura S.; Kern, Christel C.; Larsen, David R.; Royo, Alejandro A.; Saunders, Michael R.; Shifley, Stephen R.; Westfall, James A.

doi:10.1093/jofore/fvz046

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…This discordance between canopy and seedling layers within red pine forests has been documented throughout the species range and creates a high potential for stand transitions to dominance by other species (Vickers et al. 2019). This result alone suggests that current conditions will lead to a long‐term decline in the presence of red pine in the BWCAW assuming a business‐as‐usual scenario.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Human augmentation of historical red pine fire regimes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

et al. 2021

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The Border Lakes Region of Minnesota and Ontario has long been viewed as a firedependent ecosystem. High-severity fire in the region's near-boreal forests has been a focus of ecological research and public fascination. However, the surface fire history within this transnational wilderness landscape has received more limited attention. We used an interdisciplinary, dendroecological approach to characterize the surface fire history of the region, assess potential drivers of historical surface fires, and document the ecological legacies of frequent fires within the red pine forests of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota. We used tree-ring and fire atlas data to reconstruct multi-century surface fire records for 101 sites and document age structure and composition at 32 sites across the BWCAW. Stratification of these sites relative to their proximity to a primary travel and trade corridor used first by Indigenous groups and later by Euro-American fur traders through the late 1800s provided strong evidence of human augmentation of fires. The patterns of fire activity, fire-climate relationships, and forest development indicate that traditional landuse by Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) increased rates of local surface fire and played an important role in shaping the landscape. The decline of traditional subsistence practices by the Border Lakes Anishinaabeg coincided with a sharp decline in surface fires and a period of abundant tree establishment. In the absence of repeat surface fires, many red pine sites have shifted in composition, increased in stem density, and grown vulnerable to forest-type conversion through future high-severity fire. These results highlight the need for active fire reintroduction to red pine forests of the Great Lakes Region and underscore the importance of collaboration and guidance from Indigenous Knowledge Keepers in this process. A blended knowledge approach to fire restoration that directly engages with Indigenous perspectives and cultural practices can perpetuate the distinctive character of the largest remaining tracts of long-lived pine forest in the Great Lakes Region. Carefully developed fire restoration practices would enhance the visitor use experience within one of the most frequently visited wilderness areas in the United States while re-engaging directly with Indigenous knowledge and traditional cultural practices.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Human augmentation of historical red pine fire regimes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

et al. 2021

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“…Seedlings of limiting softwoods typically grow more slowly than hardwood sprouts, with competitive disadvantage exacerbated by site richness (Goodlet 1960;Seymour 1992). In several regions, selective herbivory of softwoods further constrains regeneration success (Vickers et al 2019). Despite these challenges, the limiting softwoods have some advantages over competing vegetation.…”

Section: Common Features and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixedwood silviculture in North America: the science and art of managing for complex, multi-species temperate forests

et al. 2021

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Temperate mixedwoods (hardwood – softwood mixtures) in central and eastern U.S. and Canada can be classified into two overarching categories: those with shade-tolerant softwoods maintained by light to moderate disturbances and those with shade-intolerant to mid-tolerant softwoods maintained by moderate to severe disturbances. The former includes red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.), balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.), or eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.) in mixture with northern hardwood species; the latter includes pine (Pinus) – oak (Quercus) mixtures. Such forests have desirable socio-economic values, wildlife habitat potential, and/or adaptive capacity, but management is challenging because one or more softwood species in each can be limited by depleted seed sources, narrow regeneration requirements, or poor competitive ability. Appropriate silvicultural systems vary among mixedwood compositions depending on shade tolerance and severity of disturbance associated with the limiting softwoods, site quality, and level of herbivory. Sustainability of mixedwood composition requires that stand structure and composition be managed at each entry to maintain vigorous trees of species with different growth rates and longevities and to encourage development of advance reproduction or seed-producing trees of desired species. Regardless of silvicultural system, maintaining seed sources of limiting softwoods, providing suitable germination substrates, and controlling competition are critical. Here, we describe commonalities among temperate mixedwoods in central and eastern North America, and present a framework for managing them.

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“…We did it by extracting topographic and bioclimatic variables for every sampled plot from European datasets, such as the Forest and Buildings removed Copernicus DEM (FABDEM, Hawker & Neal 2021) and the Downscaled bioclimatic indicators for selected regions from 1979 to 2018 derived from reanalysis (Wouters et al 2021). We also standardized regeneration densities by assigning a weight to each tree individual according to its height, following the approach of Vickers et al (2019). We are planning to analyze regeneration density drivers, including disturbance agent, topography (elevation, aspect, topographic wetness index), bioclimate (growing degree days, aridity index), and management before and after the disturbance (managed vs. unmanaged, post-disturbance planting vs. no planting, post-disturbance logging vs. no logging), using a series of mixed-effects models.…”

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confidence: 99%

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2022

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Are Current Seedling Demographics Poised to Regenerate Northern US Forests?

Cited by 19 publications

References 66 publications

Human augmentation of historical red pine fire regimes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Human augmentation of historical red pine fire regimes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Mixedwood silviculture in North America: the science and art of managing for complex, multi-species temperate forests

Gozd in les v času in prostoru

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