Just a Ditch in Forest? Reconsidering Draining in the Context of Sustainable Forest Management

Lõhmus, Asko; Remm, Liina; Rannap, Riinu

doi:10.1093/biosci/biv136

Cited by 49 publications

(33 citation statements)

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“…At times, these plantations have been established on soils too wet for productive agriculture, and were thus accompanied by drainage to improve timber production or in the case of afforestation, taking advantage of previous drainage for agriculture (Lõhmus et al. ). In addition to the direct effects on soil aeration, moisture retention, peat decomposition, and subsidence, drainage impacts biodiversity (Laasimer ) especially of ground‐layer flora, with increased risk of windthrow, fire, and pest outbreaks (Lõhmus et al.…”

Section: Ecosystem Legaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hemiboreal forest: natural disturbances and the importance of ecosystem legacies to management

et al. 2017

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Abstract. The condition of forest ecosystems depends on the temporal and spatial pattern of management interventions and natural disturbances. Remnants of previous conditions persisting after disturbances, or ecosystem legacies, collectively comprise ecosystem memory. Ecosystem memory in turn contributes to resilience and possibilities of ecosystem reorganization following further disturbance. Understanding the role of disturbance and legacies is a prerequisite for maintaining resilience in the face of global change. Several legacy concepts discussed in the peer-reviewed literature, including disturbance, biological, soil, land-use, and silvicultural legacies, overlap in complex ways. Here, we review these established legacy concepts and propose that the new terms "material legacy" (individuals or matter, e.g., survivors, coarse woody debris, nutrients left after disturbance) and "information legacy" (adaptations to historical disturbance regimes) cut across these previous concepts and lead to a new classification of legacies. This includes six categories: material legacies with above-and belowground, and biotic and abiotic categories, and information legacies with above-and belowground categories. These six legacies are influenced by differential patterns of editing and conditioning by "legacy syndromes" that result from natural or human-manipulated disturbance regimes that can be arranged along a gradient of naturalness. This scheme is applied to a case study of hemiboreal forests in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, where natural disturbance, traditional clearcut silviculture, and afforestation of abandoned agricultural lands constitute the three main legacy syndromes. These legacy syndromes in turn influence forest response to management actions and constrain resilience, leading to a mosaic of natural, manipulated, and artificial (novel) ecosystems across the landscape, depending on how the legacies in each syndrome affect ecological memory.

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Section: Ecosystem Legaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to the direct effects on soil aeration, moisture retention, peat decomposition, and subsidence, drainage impacts biodiversity (Laasimer ) especially of ground‐layer flora, with increased risk of windthrow, fire, and pest outbreaks (Lõhmus et al. ).…”

Section: Ecosystem Legaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hemiboreal forest: natural disturbances and the importance of ecosystem legacies to management

et al. 2017

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“…For example, fertilization under drought may do harm to plantation forests and increase vulnerability to drought [35,36]. The traditional practices of ditching to grow trees in coastal lowlands may need to be revisited under sea level rise to maximize economic and ecological benefits of intensively managed plantation forests [37,38]. At the large watershed scale, climate change impacts may be masked by management effects.…”

Section: Rapid and Complex Environmental Changes Are Difficult To Undmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Management Challenges for Sustaining Water Resources in the Anthropocene

Sun

Vose

2016

Forests

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Abstract:The Earth has entered the Anthropocene epoch that is dominated by humans who demand unprecedented quantities of goods and services from forests. The science of forest hydrology and watershed management generated during the past century provides a basic understanding of relationships among forests and water and offers management principles that maximize the benefits of forests for people while sustaining watershed ecosystems. However, the rapid pace of changes in climate, disturbance regimes, invasive species, human population growth, and land use expected in the 21st century is likely to create substantial challenges for watershed management that may require new approaches, models, and best management practices. These challenges are likely to be complex and large scale, involving a combination of direct and indirect biophysical watershed responses, as well as socioeconomic impacts and feedbacks. We discuss the complex relationships between forests and water in a rapidly changing environment, examine the trade-offs and conflicts between water and other resources, and propose new management approaches for sustaining water resources in the Anthropocene.

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“…Notably, the map contains only a handful of studies that examine hydrological interventions, although we had included "ditch*" and "flood*" as search terms to find studies on forests that had been drained but then restored. Environmental issues related to forest drainage are complex [60], and there is a clear need for experimental research on terrestrial biota in forested wetlands. The obvious lack of such research is largely due to the fact that efforts to restore wetlands so far have focused on open mires rather than forested areas (e.g.…”

Section: Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the impact of active management on biodiversity in boreal and temperate forests set aside for conservation or restoration? A systematic map

et al. 2015

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Background:The biodiversity of forests set aside from forestry is often considered best preserved by non-intervention. In many protected forests, however, remaining biodiversity values are legacies of past disturbances, e.g. recurring fires, grazing or small-scale felling. These forests may need active management to keep the characteristics that were the reason for setting them aside. Such management can be particularly relevant where lost ecological values need to be restored. In this review, we identified studies on a variety of interventions that could be useful for conserving or restoring any aspect of forest biodiversity in boreal and temperate regions. Since the review is based on Swedish initiatives, we have focused on forest types that are represented in Sweden, but such forests exist in many parts of the world. The wide scope of the review means that the set of studies is quite heterogeneous. As a first step towards a more complete synthesis, therefore, we have compiled a systematic map. Such a map gives an overview of the evidence base by providing a database with descriptions of relevant studies, but it does not synthesise reported results.Methods: Searches for literature were made using online publication databases, search engines, specialist websites and literature reviews. Search terms were developed in English, Finnish, French, German, Russian and Swedish. We searched not only for studies of interventions in actual forest set-asides, but also for appropriate evidence from commercially managed forests, since some practices applied there may be useful for conservation or restoration purposes too. Identified articles were screened for relevance using criteria set out in an a priori protocol. Descriptions of included studies are available in an Excel file, and also in an interactive GIS application that can be accessed at an external website.Results: Our searches identified nearly 17,000 articles. The 798 articles that remained after screening for relevance described 812 individual studies. Almost two-thirds of the included studies were conducted in North America, whereas most of the rest were performed in Europe. Of the European studies, 58 % were conducted in Finland or Sweden. The interventions most commonly studied were partial harvesting, prescribed burning, thinning, and grazing or exclusion from grazing. The outcomes most frequently reported were effects of interventions on trees, other vascular plants, dead wood, vertical stand structure and birds. Outcome metrics included e.g. abundance, richness of species (or genera), diversity indices, and community composition based on ordinations. Conclusions:This systematic map identifies a wealth of evidence on the impact of active management practices that could be utilised to conserve or restore biodiversity in forest set-asides. As such it should be of value to e.g.

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Just a Ditch in Forest? Reconsidering Draining in the Context of Sustainable Forest Management

Cited by 49 publications

References 50 publications

Hemiboreal forest: natural disturbances and the importance of ecosystem legacies to management

Hemiboreal forest: natural disturbances and the importance of ecosystem legacies to management

Forest Management Challenges for Sustaining Water Resources in the Anthropocene

What is the impact of active management on biodiversity in boreal and temperate forests set aside for conservation or restoration? A systematic map

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