Harvesting Intensity at Clear‐Felling in the Boreal Forest

Thiffault, Évelyne; Paré, David; Bélanger, Nicolas; Munson, Alison D.; Marquis, François

doi:10.2136/sssaj2005.0155

Cited by 84 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The long-term importance of FWD for biodiversity should be more carefully considered in future studies, especially when investigating the effects of forest fuel harvesting. It has been shown that FWD forms an important nutrient source on the clear-cuts after the needles, which are a nutrient-rich but short lasting resource, have decayed (Hyvönen et al 2000, Thiffault et al 2006. In some conditions, the removal of logging waste seems to negatively affect the growth of the next tree generation (Egnell andLejon 1997, Jacobson et al 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The volume and composition of dead wood on traditional and forest fuel harvested clear-cuts

Eräjää¹,

Halme²,

Kotiaho³

et al. 2010

Silva Fenn.

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Logging residue and cut stumps are increasingly used as a renewable energy source known as forest fuel. Forest fuel harvesting obviously reduces the volume of dead wood and is likely to alter the dead wood composition, but the magnitude of the change is not known. Such information is important for the evaluation of the effects of forest fuel harvesting on biodiversity because a large proportion of forest dwelling species are directly dependent on dead wood. We measured the volume and characteristics of all dead wood units with a minimum diameter of 2 cm and a minimum length of 20 cm on 10 forest-fuel harvested and 10 traditional (control) clear-cuts. The total volume of dead wood at forest fuel harvested and control clear-cuts was 26.0 and 42.3 m 3 /ha, respectively. The volumes were much greater than expected suggesting that the volume of dead wood on clear-cuts has been underestimated in previous studies. Forest fuel harvested clear-cuts had 42% less branches and 81% less cut stumps than control clear-cuts but there were no differences in the volume of logs and pieces of logs, snags or roots. The volume of fine woody debris was negatively affected by forest fuel harvesting. We conclude that fine woody debris and cut stumps form a considerable resource on clear-cuts that is reduced by forest fuel harvesting. These components of dead wood have potential to be of importance in managed forests and thus deserve more attention in future biodiversity studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The volume and composition of dead wood on traditional and forest fuel harvested clear-cuts

Eräjää¹,

Halme²,

Kotiaho³

et al. 2010

Silva Fenn.

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“…Residue extraction constraints are based on Canadian provincial natural resource ministry guidelines that regulate the extraction of forest residues [56] to protect forest ecosystems [57] and preserve nutrient balance in forest soils [58]. The guidelines restrict the amount of biomass removed from the harvest site to retain a portion of the organic matter produced on site for natural decay [59] and prescribe that the portion of harvest residues that must remain on site should be equivalent to the amount of residual biomass typically present in forest under normal growth conditions [57].…”

Section: Case Study Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An additional constraint accounts for technical limitations of residue extraction [55,58,61,62]. These technical constraints limit the quantity of residue available for extraction and increase supply costs.…”

Section: Case Study Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Renewable Energy from Forest Residues—How Greenhouse Gas Emission Offsets Can Make Fossil Fuel Substitution More Attractive

Yemshanov

McKenney

Hope

et al. 2018

Forests

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Burning forest biomass from renewable sources has been suggested as a viable strategy to help offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the energy generation sector. Energy facilities can, in principle, be retrofitted to produce a portion of their energy from biomass. However, supply uncertainties affect costs, and are an important impediment to widespread and sustained adoption of this strategy. In this paper, we describe a general approach to assess the cost of offsetting GHG emissions at co-generation facilities by replacing two common fossil fuels, coal and natural gas, with forest harvest residue biomass for heat and electricity production. We apply the approach to a Canadian case study that identifies the price of GHG offsets that could make the use of forest residue biomass feedstock attractive. Biomass supply costs were based on a geographical assessment of industrial harvest operations in Canadian forests, biomass extraction and transportation costs, and included representation of basic ecological sustainability and technical accessibility constraints. Sensitivity analyses suggest that biomass extraction costs have the largest impact on the costs of GHG emission offsets, followed by fossil fuel prices. In the context of other evaluations of mitigation strategies in the energy generation sector, such as afforestation or industrial carbon capture, this analysis suggests that the substitution of fossil fuels by forest residue biomass could be a viable and reasonably substantive short-term alternative under appropriate GHG emission pricing schemes.

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“…While we are unaware of studies showing such a relationship between total Ca and tree growth, a few studies with sugar maple indicated the benefits of total Ca-rich soils on growth variables, notably seedling survival and positive correlations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Kobe et al 1995;Juice et al 2006). Our results suggest that total chemistry of the soil, which is not a common soil analysis, can be a reliable indicator of tree growth, possibly providing different information than the most commonly tested exchangeable cations (Thiffault et al 2006). …”

Section: Soil Chemical Compositionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Effects of edaphic conditions on site quality for Salix purpurea ‘Hotel’ plantations across a large climatic gradient in Canada

Ens¹,

Farrell²,

Bélanger

2013

New Forests

Self Cite

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Willow has been identified as a possible species for supplying large quantities of biomass for bioenergy and wood fibers in Canada. However, before site selection occurs, there is a need to know how the soils and climate of the prairies and central regions affect willow productivity.Soil, foliar, and climatic variables were therefore measured along with yields at nine "first rotation" Salix purpurea 'Hotel' plantations from central Alberta to southern Ontario.Correlation analysis was used to identify those parameters having the most influence on yields.Relationships between soil and climate and growth were established by regression analysis. The acid-base status of the soil as dictated by bulk elemental composition, in particular the presence of Ca, was found to be the dominant factor affecting productivity (r 2 = 0.967, P < 0.001 total Ca vs. yields) despite large regional differences in climate. From a nutritional standpoint, total soil N (r = 0.743, P < 0.048) and foliar K (r 2 = 0.938, P < 0.009 for sites with adequate moisture)were positively correlated with growth. S. purpurea 'Hotel' yields were found to be primarily limited by water availability at the two lowest productivity prairie sites. Soil total Ca concentration, pH and total organic C concentration were all generally correlated with higher yields. Additional deficiencies appeared in the following order of importance: water > N and K > Mg. As a whole, soil properties were the dominant predictors of 'Hotel' growth in this study, which suggests that, even at the regional scale, growth was governed in large part by the capacity of soils to retain water and/or nutrients. Climate played a lesser role, except perhaps at two sites which appeared to receive inadequate moisture.

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Harvesting Intensity at Clear‐Felling in the Boreal Forest

Cited by 84 publications

References 46 publications

The volume and composition of dead wood on traditional and forest fuel harvested clear-cuts

The volume and composition of dead wood on traditional and forest fuel harvested clear-cuts

Renewable Energy from Forest Residues—How Greenhouse Gas Emission Offsets Can Make Fossil Fuel Substitution More Attractive

Effects of edaphic conditions on site quality for Salix purpurea ‘Hotel’ plantations across a large climatic gradient in Canada

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