Over and understory controls on red pine establishment and seedling survival in the largest remaining old-growth red pine forest

Dietrich, Rachel; Gore, Steven D.; Hossain, Shaik Md. Yousuf; Anand, Madhur

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2016.11.021

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Remnant pine woodlands and forests that established prior to widespread Euro-American colonization demonstrate a range of historical stand structures and species compositions (Fraver and Palik 2012) shaped by relatively frequent low-to-mixed severity fire (Schantz- Hansen 1931). Many of these mixed-age pine forest types lack natural regeneration of red pine today (Dietrich et al 2017). A primary factor implicated in the diminished presence of naturally regenerated red pine forests across the region is a dramatic reduction of fire over the 20th century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of these mixed‐age pine forest types lack natural regeneration of red pine today (Dietrich et al. 2017). A primary factor implicated in the diminished presence of naturally regenerated red pine forests across the region is a dramatic reduction of fire over the 20th century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We attribute the massive recruitment of these deciduous species to resprouting, and believe that it was disturbance mediated, likely by the VRH. It is likely that the sprouts exerted significant pressure on resources during the initial years, placing red pine at a greater competitive disadvantage (Dietrich et al 2017). Ordination analysis also revealed significant negative influence of oak and maple on red pine, which supports the suggested impact of these species on red pine recruitment.…”

Section: Dynamics Of Resource Competitionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Regeneration patterns of key pine species in a mixed-pine forest indicate a positive effect of variable retention harvesting and an increase in recruitment with time

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Many fire-dependent forests have experienced significant declines in species, structural, and functional diversity. These changes are attributed in part to traditional management approaches that were dominated by even-aged regeneration methods such as clearcutting. Variable retention harvesting (VRH) is an ecologically based forestry practice that involves retention of some mature overstory trees and other biological structures in the postharvest stand to emulate the effects of natural disturbance events. In this study, we examined the effect of a VRH treatment on recruitment of historically dominant pine species and understory vegetation twoand six years after its implementation in a naturally regenerated mixed pine forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA. Results: We found greater regeneration of red pine (Pinus resinosa L.) and eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) in VRH stands compared to the unharvested controls. Although red pine recruitment was very low during the first 2 years, both species increased significantly from year two to year six. Recruitment responses for the two species did not differ significantly between the aggregated and dispersed retention treatments. We also found high recruitment of deciduous tree species, consisting primarily of sprouts, and red pine exhibited a negative correlation with these sprouts. Treatment, time, and the interaction of treatment and time were significant factors in red pine recruitment. Time had a strong effect on the understory vegetation, with significant decreases in shrubs and ferns over time. Conclusions:The results suggest that VRH enhanced recruitment of red pine and eastern white pine and that this recruitment increased with time. We identify competition from sprouts and unfavorable seedbed conditions as the main factors that limited recruitment of red pine during the first 2 years. To reduce competing vegetation and improve seedbed conditions, we suggest following the VRH with a prescribed fire, mechanically removing sprouts, and implementing herbicide treatments. At a time when changes in global climate exacerbates the effects of traditional drivers of forest degradation, and with the need to maintain biodiversity, new ecologically based forest practices such VRH have the potential to facilitate regeneration of native trees and enhance the resilience of many fire-dependent forests.

show abstract

“…In the montane forest, Bolivia, Gallegos et al (2015) found that bracken (P. arachnoideum) can facilitate the seedling recruitment of Clusia and potentially other shade-tolerant tree species. Both of these studies were carried out in more open forests including a coniferous forest or disturbed forest (Gallegos et al, 2015;Dietrich et al, 2017;Ssali et al, 2019), thus the response of tree seedlings to the recalcitrant understory fern layer in closed forest is still unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previously, many studies have found that the recalcitrant fern layer can inhibit or alter seedling regeneration by changing the biotic and abiotic environment (e.g. George and Bazzaz, 1999a ; George and Bazzaz, 1999b ; Gallegos et al., 2015 ; Dietrich et al., 2017 ; Brock et al., 2018 ; Ssali et al., 2019 ). However, how does the effect of recalcitrant understory ferns on seedlings change with growth is still far from clear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of tree seedlings to understory filtering by the recalcitrant fern layer in a subtropical forest

Liu

Liang²,

Yang

et al. 2022

Front. Plant Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The recalcitrant understory fern layer is an important ecological filter for seedling regeneration, yet how the fern layer influences seedling regeneration dynamics remains unclear. Here we transplanted 576 seedlings of four dominant tree species, Castanopsis fargesii, Lithocarpus glaber, Schima superba and Hovenia acerba, to the treatments of Diplopterygium glaucum retention and removal under an evergreen broad-leaved forest in eastern China. We monitored the survival, growth and biomass data of these seedlings for 28 months, and then used generalized linear mixed models to evaluate the treatment effects on seedling survival, growth, biomass and root-shoot ratio. Our results showed that fern retention significantly inhibited the seedling establishment of all four species. During the seedling development stage, the seedling relative growth rate of L. glaber decreased under fern retention, which was not the case for the other three species. Root-shoot ratio of C. fargesii and L. glaber increased significantly under fern retention. Our findings provide new evidence of the filtering effect of a recalcitrant fern understory. Notably, we observed that the response of tree seedlings to the recalcitrant fern understory was more sensitive in the establishment stage. Finally, our work highlights that the filtering effect of the recalcitrant fern understory changes depending on the regeneration stages, and that shade-tolerant species, C. fargesii and L. glaber were even more affected by fern disturbed habitats, suggesting that effective management should attempt to curb forest fern outbreaks, thus unblocking forest recruitment.

show abstract

Over and understory controls on red pine establishment and seedling survival in the largest remaining old-growth red pine forest

Cited by 7 publications

References 44 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

Regeneration patterns of key pine species in a mixed-pine forest indicate a positive effect of variable retention harvesting and an increase in recruitment with time

Responses of tree seedlings to understory filtering by the recalcitrant fern layer in a subtropical forest

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About