Ecological importance of intermediate windstorms rivals large, infrequent disturbances in the northern Great Lakes

Stueve, Kirk M.; Perry, Charles H.; Nelson, Mark D.; Healey, Sean P.; Hill, A.D.; Moisen, Gretchen G.; Cohen, Warren B.; Gormanson, Dale D.; Huang, Chengquan

doi:10.1890/es10-00062.1

Cited by 50 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…) and is often the predominant disturbance in mesic forests of tropical, temperate, and boreal regions (Everham and Brokaw , Stueve et al. ). Despite being controversial, salvage logging typically occurs after disturbance (Haymond et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the ecological impacts of salvage logging: can natural and anthropogenic disturbances promote coexistence?

Royo

Peterson

Stanovick

et al. 2016

Ecology

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Salvage logging following windthrow is common throughout forests worldwide even though the practice is often considered inimical to forest recovery. Because salvaging removes trees, crushes seedlings, and compacts soils, many warn this practice may delay succession, suppress diversity, and alter composition. Here, over 8 yr following windthrow, we experimentally evaluate how salvaging affects tree succession across 11 gaps in Eastern deciduous forests of Pennsylvania, wherein each gap was divided into salvaged and control (unsalvaged) halves. Our gaps vary in size and windthrow severity, and we explicitly account for this variation as well as variation in soil disturbance (i.e., scarification) resulting from salvaging so that our results would be generalizable. Salvage logging had modest and ephemeral impacts on tree succession. Seedling richness and density declined similarly over time in both salvaged and unsalvaged areas as individuals grew into saplings. The primary impact of salvaging on succession occurred where salvaging scarified soils. Here, salvaging caused 41 to 82% declines in sapling abundance, richness, and diversity, but these differences largely disappeared within 5 yr. Additionally, we documented interactions between windthrow severity and scarification. Specifically, low-severity windthrow and scarification combined reinforced dominance by shade-tolerant and browse-tolerant species (Acer pensylvanicum, Fagus grandifolia). In contrast, high windthrow severity and scarification together reduced the density of a fast-growing pioneer tree (Prunus pensylvanica) and non-tree vegetation cover by 75% and 26%, respectively. This reduction enhanced the recruitment of two mid-successional tree species, Acer rubrum and Prunus serotina, by 2 and 3-fold, respectively. Thus, our findings demonstrate that salvaging creates novel microsites and mitigates competing vegetation, thereby enhancing establishment of important hardwoods and promoting tree species coexistence. Our results, coupled with an assessment of 27 published post-windthrow salvage studies, suggest short-term studies may overestimate the impact of salvaging on regeneration. We conclude that the ecological costs and benefits of salvaging depend upon the variation in canopy and soil disturbance severity as well as the timescale at which effects are evaluated. Thus, our findings are inconsistent with the view that salvaging inexorably undermines plant diversity; rather we suggest salvaging can promote tree species coexistence within various contexts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the ecological impacts of salvage logging: can natural and anthropogenic disturbances promote coexistence?

Royo

Peterson

Stanovick

et al. 2016

Ecology

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“…More recent studies suggest that such characterizations may have under‐represented the importance of intermediate‐severity blowdowns (Hanson and Lorimer , North and Keeton ), which can strongly influence stand‐ and landscape‐scale distributions of tree age, size, and species (Woods , Martin and Ogden , Stueve et al. , Cowden et al. , Janda et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), as well as the potential pervasiveness of partial canopy disturbances like intermediate blowdown (Stueve et al. ), a clearer understanding of disturbance effects on carbon storage at all points along the severity gradient is essential for forest policy and management (Running ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intermediate‐severity wind disturbance in mature temperate forests: legacy structure, carbon storage, and stand dynamics

Meigs

Keeton

2018

Ecological Applications

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Wind is one of the most important natural disturbances influencing forest structure, ecosystem function, and successional processes worldwide. This study quantifies the stand-scale effects of intermediate-severity windstorms (i.e., blowdowns) on (1) live and dead legacy structure, (2) aboveground carbon storage, and (3) tree regeneration and associated stand dynamics at four mature, mixed hardwood-conifer forest sites in the northeastern United States. We compare wind-affected forests to adjacent reference conditions (i.e., undisturbed portions of the same stands) 0-8 yr post-blowdown using parametric (ANOVA) and nonparametric (NMS ordination) analyses. We supplement inventory plots and downed coarse woody detritus (DCWD) transects with hemispherical photography to capture spatial variation in the light environment. Although recent blowdowns transferred a substantial proportion of live overstory trees to DCWD, residual live tree basal area was high (19-59% of reference areas). On average, the initial post-blowdown ratio of DCWD carbon to standing live tree carbon was 2.72 in blowdown stands and 0.18 in reference stands, indicating a large carbon transfer from live to dead pools. Despite these dramatic changes, structural complexity remained high in blowdown areas, as indicated by the size and species distributions of overstory trees, abundance of sound and rotten downed wood, spatial patterns of light availability, and variability of understory vegetation. Furthermore, tree species composition was similar between blowdown and reference areas at each site, with generally shade-tolerant species dominating across multiple canopy strata. Community response to intermediate-severity blowdown at these sites suggests a dynamic in which disturbance maintains late-successional species composition rather than providing a regeneration opportunity for shade-intolerant, pioneer species. Our findings suggest that intermediate-severity wind disturbances can contribute to stand-scale structural complexity as well as development toward late-successional species composition, at least when shade-tolerant regeneration is present pre-blowdown. Advance regeneration thus enhances structural and compositional resilience to this type of disturbance. This study provides a baseline for multi-cohort silvicultural systems designed to restore heterogeneity associated with natural disturbance dynamics.

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“…Logging injury from felling and skidding operations greatly increase the risk of fungal infection (Benzie et al 1963) and subsequent tree death. These results also highlight the need to further quantify tree mortality during cutting, as suggested by Tatsumi et al (2014).…”

Section: Influence Of Tree-and Stand-level Variablesmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…It is possible that the geography of the lowest elevations favoured the development of intense convective storms during the summer. These storms can sometimes generate damaging wind downbursts as reported in the Great Lakes region (Stueve et al 2011). Temperature also follows an east-west (low-high) gradient over the study area, which results in higher mortality risks in the warmer, western part of the study area.…”

Section: Influence Of Geographic and Climatic Variablesmentioning

confidence: 72%

Partitioning risks of tree mortality by modes of death in managed and unmanaged northern hardwoods and mixedwoods

GuillemetteFrançois

Gauthier

Ouimet

2017

The Forestry Chronicle

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We used a permanent sample plot network established to monitor the effects of forest management practiced in mature northern hardwood and mixedwood stands in Québec, Canada to address two important questions related to tree mortality: (1) How does partial cutting affect tree mortality? (2) Which variables best explain tree mortality by different modes of death (standing death, uprooting or stem breakage)? Decennial tree deaths were lower after partial cutting than in unharvested plots, but the annual proportion of tree death was similar (1.25%·year -1 ). At the tree level, a risk-product classification demonstrated the strongest evidence on influencing total mortality, followed by species, the presence of a logging injury, and tree size. Annual temperature was the only climatic variable explaining variations in total risk of tree mortality, and always among the first three variables explaining differences among the three modes of death. The risk of standing death also increased with increasing annual precipitation, while the risk of stem breakage and, to a lesser extent, of being uprooted, decreased with increasing precipitation. Additionally, we found strong evidence to support the effect of the potassium/magnesium ratio of the humus layer on the risk of being uprooted. This information is critical to better understand tree mortality processes.Key words: selection cutting, partial cutting, mortality, deadwood, stand dynamics. RÉSUMÉNous avons utilisé les données de placettes permanentes établies pour suivre les effets de l'aménagement forestier dans des peuplements matures à dominance feuillue au Québec (Canada) dans le but de répondre à deux questions relatives à la mortalité des arbres : (1) Comment la coupe partielle affecte-t-elle le taux de mortalité des arbres? (2) Quelles variables expliquent le mieux la mortalité des arbres feuillus selon qu'ils sont morts sur pied, déracinés ou ont un tronc rompu? La mortalité décennale était moindre après une coupe partielle que dans les placettes non traitées, mais la proportion annuelle d'arbres morts était la même dans les deux (1,25 %·année -1 ). Parmi les variable étudiées, la classe de risque et de produit potentiel de l'arbre feuillu influençait le plus la probabilité globale de mortalité; elle était suivie par l' espèce, la présence d'une blessure de coupe, puis la dimension de l'arbre. La température annuelle était la seule variable climatique permettant d' expliquer la probabilité globale de mortalité des arbres, et l'une des trois variables les plus importantes pour les trois types de mort. Le risque de mourir sur pied augmentait aussi avec l'augmentation des précipitations annuelles, tandis que celui de rupture du tronc et, dans une moindre mesure, celui d' être déraciné diminuaient avec l'augmentation des précipitations. Finalement, nous avons observé que le risque de déracinement d'un arbre était influencé par le rapport potassium/magnésium dans la couche d'humus du sol. Ces informations sont importantes pour mieux comprendre les processus de mor...

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Ecological importance of intermediate windstorms rivals large, infrequent disturbances in the northern Great Lakes

Cited by 50 publications

References 63 publications

Evaluating the ecological impacts of salvage logging: can natural and anthropogenic disturbances promote coexistence?

Evaluating the ecological impacts of salvage logging: can natural and anthropogenic disturbances promote coexistence?

Intermediate‐severity wind disturbance in mature temperate forests: legacy structure, carbon storage, and stand dynamics

Partitioning risks of tree mortality by modes of death in managed and unmanaged northern hardwoods and mixedwoods

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