Effects of topography and thickness of organic layer on productivity of black spruce boreal forests of the Canadian Clay Belt region

Laamrani, Ahmed; Valeria, Osvaldo; Bergeron, Yves; Fenton, Nicole J.; Cheng, Li Zhen; Anyomi, Kenneth A.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2014.07.013

Cited by 56 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In this study, no significant effect of tree anchoring substrate on the structure of residual patches and continuous forest stands was found. This inconsistency in our results with previous studies [62,74,75] could possibly be explained by the small range of variation in the mean thickness of the organic layer among our identified structural types ( Table 1).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Can Retention Harvest Maintain Natural Structural Complexity? A Comparison of Post-Harvest and Post-Fire Residual Patches in Boreal Forest

Moussaoui

Fenton

Leduc

et al. 2016

Forests

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Variable retention harvest promotes biodiversity conservation in managed boreal forests by ensuring forest continuity and structural complexity. However, do post-harvest and post-fire patches maintain the same structural complexity? This study compares post-harvest and post-fire residual patches and proposes retention modalities that can maintain the same structural complexity as in natural forests, here considering both continuous forest stands and post-fire residual patches. In boreal black spruce forests, 41 post-fire residual patches, and 45 post-harvest retention patches of varying size and ages (exposure time to disturbed matrix) and 37 continuous forest stands were classified into six diameter structure types. Types 1 (inverted-J) and 2 (trunked-unimodal) characterized stands dominated by small trees. The abundance of small trees decreased and the abundance of large trees increased from Type 1 to Type 6. Type 6 had the most irregular structure with a wide range of diameters. This study indicates that: (1) old post-harvest residual retentions maintained the range of structural complexity found in natural stands; (2) Types 1 and 2 were generally associated with young post-fire patches and post-harvest retention clumps; (3) the structure of residual patches containing only small trees was usually younger (in terms of the age of the original forest from which residual patches were formed) than those with larger trees. To avoid the risk of simplifying the structure, retention patches should be intentionally oriented towards Types 3-6, dominated by intermediate and large trees.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Can Retention Harvest Maintain Natural Structural Complexity? A Comparison of Post-Harvest and Post-Fire Residual Patches in Boreal Forest

Moussaoui

Fenton

Leduc

et al. 2016

Forests

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Such results were obtained e.g. for organic layer thickness modelling, when 20 m resolution performed best over a range of 5, 10, 15 and 20 meter raster [53]. …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Influence of Elevation Data Resolution on Spatial Prediction of Colluvial Soils in a Luvisol Region

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The development of a soil cover is a dynamic process. Soil cover can be altered within a few decades, which requires updating of the legacy soil maps. Soil erosion is one of the most important processes quickly altering soil cover on agriculture land. Colluvial soils develop in concave parts of the landscape as a consequence of sedimentation of eroded material. Colluvial soils are recognised as important soil units because they are a vast sink of soil organic carbon. Terrain derivatives became an important tool in digital soil mapping and are among the most popular auxiliary data used for quantitative spatial prediction. Prediction success rates are often directly dependent on raster resolution. In our study, we tested how raster resolution (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 meters) influences spatial prediction of colluvial soils. Terrain derivatives (altitude, slope, plane curvature, topographic position index, LS factor and convergence index) were calculated for the given raster resolutions. Four models were applied (boosted tree, neural network, random forest and Classification/Regression Tree) to spatially predict the soil cover over a 77 ha large study plot. Models training and validation was based on 111 soil profiles surveyed on a regular sampling grid. Moreover, the predicted real extent and shape of the colluvial soil area was examined. In general, no clear trend in the accuracy prediction was found without the given raster resolution range. Higher maximum prediction accuracy for colluvial soil, compared to prediction accuracy of total soil cover of the study plot, can be explained by the choice of terrain derivatives that were best for Colluvial soils differentiation from other soil units. Regarding the character of the predicted Colluvial soils area, maps of 2 to 10 m resolution provided reasonable delineation of the colluvial soil as part of the cover over the study area.

show abstract

“…Grant [26] found that slope positions had a higher net primary productivity than flatter basin areas as a result of lower soil water contents, higher soil temperatures, and more rapid oxygen uptake which accelerated nutrient mineralization and uptake. Furthermore, Laamrani et al [27] found a positive correlation between slope and site index across spatial resolutions from 5 to 20 metres in black spruce boreal forest in Canada. In our 10 municipalities, there was a weak but consistent positive correlation between slope and site index (mean: r = 0.20).…”

Section: Environmental Factorsmentioning

confidence: 97%

History and Productivity Determine the Spatial Distribution of Key Habitats for Biodiversity in Norwegian Forest Landscapes

Sætersdal

Gjerde

Heegaard

et al. 2016

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Retention forestry, including the retention of woodland key habitats (WKH) at the forest stand scale, has become an essential management practice in boreal forests. Here, we investigate the spatial distribution of 9470 habitat patches, mapped according to the Complementary Habitat Inventory method (CHI habitats), as potential WKHs in 10 sample areas in Norway. We ask whether there are parts of the forest landscapes that have consistently low or high density of CHI habitats compared to the surveyed landscape as a whole, and therefore have a low or high degree of conflict with harvesting, respectively. We found that there was a general pattern of clumped distribution of CHI habitats at distances up to a few kilometres. Furthermore, results showed that most types of CHI habitats were approximately two to three times as common in the 25% steepest slopes, lowest altitudes and highest site indices. CHI habitats that are most common in old-growth forests were found at longer distances from roads, whereas habitats rich in deciduous trees were found at shorter distances from roads than expected. Both environmental factors and the history of human impact are needed to explain the spatial distribution of CHI habitats. The overrepresentation of WKHs in parts of the forest landscapes represents a good starting point to develop more efficient inventory methods.

show abstract

Effects of topography and thickness of organic layer on productivity of black spruce boreal forests of the Canadian Clay Belt region

Cited by 56 publications

References 53 publications

Can Retention Harvest Maintain Natural Structural Complexity? A Comparison of Post-Harvest and Post-Fire Residual Patches in Boreal Forest

Can Retention Harvest Maintain Natural Structural Complexity? A Comparison of Post-Harvest and Post-Fire Residual Patches in Boreal Forest

Influence of Elevation Data Resolution on Spatial Prediction of Colluvial Soils in a Luvisol Region

History and Productivity Determine the Spatial Distribution of Key Habitats for Biodiversity in Norwegian Forest Landscapes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About