Salvage logging affects early post-fire tree composition in Canadian boreal forest

Boucher, Douglas H.; Gauthier, Sylvie; Noël, Josée; Greene, David F.; Bergeron, Yves

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2014.04.002

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Changes in species assemblage related to post-fire salvage logging has also been observed in other forests types and for other groups of organisms, for example, in birds [2,20,21,72,73], mammals [74], vascular plants [75,76], gastropods [77], and insects [35,78] (see also [13] for a recent review). Overall, a main driver of the changes in species composition is the removal of the logs (salvage logging) through the effect that this has upon resources or habitat and microhabitat characteristics [4,13,14,20,[79][80][81].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Post-Fire Salvage Logging Imposes a New Disturbance that Retards Succession: The Case of Bryophyte Communities in a Macaronesian Laurel Forest

Hernández-Hernández

Castro

Arco-Aguilar

et al. 2017

Forests

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Post-fire salvage logging (SL) is a common management action that involves the harvesting of burnt trees. As a consequence, a large amount of biological legacies in the form of logs and other coarse woody debris are removed from the post-fire habitat, creating a more simplified landscape. Therefore, SL could act as an additional disturbance over that produced by fire. In this study, we seek to determine the effect of SL on the regeneration of the bryophyte community of a laurel forest from the Canary Islands (Spain). We hypothesized that SL will act as an additional disturbance and, consequently, salvaged areas will have a higher difference in community composition with respect to a reference ecosystem (RE). Mosses and liverworts were sampled 22 months after the salvage operations in salvaged plots, non-salvaged, and in an RE represented by areas of the original forest. Species richness did not differ between salvage and non-salvaged treatments. However, multivariate analysis and species-indicator analysis showed that non-salvaged plots had a composition closer to that of the RE, with a higher proportion of closed-canopy, perennial, and long-lived species, as well as some epiphytes. By contrast, salvaged plots were dominated by early-successional terrestrial species and species preferring open habitats. We conclude that post-fire SL represents an additional disturbance that further delays succession, a result that is consistent with previous studies using other taxonomic groups. SL should therefore be avoided or, if implemented, the possibility of leaving part of the post-fire biological legacies in situ should be considered.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Post-Fire Salvage Logging Imposes a New Disturbance that Retards Succession: The Case of Bryophyte Communities in a Macaronesian Laurel Forest

Hernández-Hernández

Castro

Arco-Aguilar

et al. 2017

Forests

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“…Salvage logging in some ecosystems has had positive (Boucher et al. ) or negative effects (Lindenmayer and Ough , Lindenmayer et al. , Thorn et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite a long history of use in forested ecosystems, there is much debate surrounding clearcut and salvage logging practices (Lindenmayer and Ough 2006, Thompson et al 2007, Lindenmayer et al 2008, Parro et al 2015, Blair et al 2016. Salvage logging in some ecosystems has had positive (Boucher et al 2014) or negative effects (Lindenmayer and Ough 2006, Lindenmayer et al 2008) on long-term forest recovery. In our study, plant composition and abundance differed the most in sites salvage logged and those burned twice and clearcut in comparison to similarly aged unlogged/burned sites.…”

Section: Clearcut Logging and Plant Community Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Logging and fire regimes alter plant communities

Bowd

Lindenmayer

Banks

et al. 2018

Ecological Applications

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Disturbances are key drivers of plant community composition, structure, and function. Plant functional traits, including life forms and reproductive strategies are critical to the resilience and resistance of plant communities in the event of disturbance. Climate change and increasing anthropogenic disturbance are altering natural disturbance regimes globally. When these regimes shift beyond the adaptive resilience of plant functional traits, local populations and ecosystem functions can become compromised. We tested the influence of multiple disturbances, of varying intensity and frequency, on the composition and abundance of vascular plant communities and their respective functional traits (life forms and reproductive strategies) in the wet sclerophyll, Mountain Ash Eucalyptus regnans forests of southeastern Australia. Specifically, we quantified the effect of the type and number of disturbances (including fires, clearcut logging, and salvage logging) on plant community composition. We found that clearcut and salvage logging and the number of fires significantly influenced plant community composition and functional traits. Specifically, multiple fires resulted in lower populations of species that depend on on-site seeding for persistence. This includes the common tree species Eucalyptus regnans, Pomaderris aspera, and Acacia dealbata. In contrast, clearcut and salvage logged sites supported abundant on-site seeder species. However, species that depend on resprouting by surviving individuals, such as common and keystone "tree ferns" Dicksonia antarctica and Cyathea australis, declined significantly. Our data have important implications for understanding the relationship between altered disturbance regimes and plant communities and the respective effects on ecosystem function. In a period of rapid global environmental change, with disturbances predicted to increase and intensify, it is critical to address the impact of altered disturbance regimes on biodiversity.

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“…Treatments such as burn‐out operations of dead fuels and fire skips to avoid new spot fires during a fire or postfire salvage logging reduce habitat quality, with road building, soil compaction, and removal of residual living and dead tree biomass (Lindenmayer, Burton, & Franklin, ; Peterson et al., ). Salvage logging slows and alters tree regeneration in the immediate years postfire, as well as removing existing vegetation that might act as habitat or cover for some species (Boucher, Gauthier, Noel, Greene, & Bergeron, ; Donato et al., ). Because fire skips are important habitat constituents for lynx after fires, lynx conservation would be aided by preventing burn‐outs, reducing postfire salvage logging, and ensuring that trees that survived the fire are protected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Canada lynx use of burned areas: Conservation implications of changing fire regimes

Vanbianchi

Murphy

Hodges

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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A fundamental problem in ecology is forecasting how species will react to major disturbances. As the climate warms, large, frequent, and severe fires are restructuring forested landscapes at large spatial scales, with unknown impacts on imperilled predators. We use the United States federally Threatened Canada lynx as a case study to examine how predators navigate recent large burns, with particular focus on habitat features and the spatial configuration (e.g., distance to edge) that enabled lynx use of these transformed landscapes. We coupled GPS location data of lynx in Washington in an area with several recent large fires and a number of GIS layers of habitat data to develop models of lynx habitat selection in recent burns. Random Forest habitat models showed lynx‐selected islands of forest skipped by large fires, residual vegetation, and areas where some trees survived to use newly burned areas. Lynx used burned areas as early as 1 year postfire, which is much earlier than the 2–4 decades postfire previously thought for this predator. These findings are encouraging for predator persistence in the face of fires, but increasingly severe fires or management that reduces postfire residual trees or slow regeneration will likely jeopardize lynx and other predators. Fire management should change to ensure heterogeneity is retained within the footprint of large fires to enable viable predator populations as fire regimes worsen with climate change.

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Salvage logging affects early post-fire tree composition in Canadian boreal forest

Cited by 26 publications

References 48 publications

Post-Fire Salvage Logging Imposes a New Disturbance that Retards Succession: The Case of Bryophyte Communities in a Macaronesian Laurel Forest

Post-Fire Salvage Logging Imposes a New Disturbance that Retards Succession: The Case of Bryophyte Communities in a Macaronesian Laurel Forest

Logging and fire regimes alter plant communities

Canada lynx use of burned areas: Conservation implications of changing fire regimes

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