Snags and Cavity-Nesting Birds within Intensively Managed Pine Stands in Eastern North Carolina, USA

Homyack, Jessica A.; Paxton, B J; Wilson, Michael D.; Watts, Bryan D.; Miller, Darren A.

doi:10.1093/sjaf/35.3.148

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The density of snags was negatively affected by thinning in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menzesii Franco.) in Oregon (Hagar et al 1996), mixed-species forests of Maine (Garber et al 2005), and young pine stands (< 35 years) in North Carolina (Homyack et al 2011). Edworthy and Martin (2013) found reductions in post-harvest snag persistence in aspen forests in British Columbia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are prescribed fire and thinning dominant processes affecting snag occurrence at a landscape scale?

Zarnoch

Blake

Parresol

2014

Forest Ecology and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Snags are standing dead trees that are an important component in the nesting habitat of birds and other species. Although snag availability is believed to limit populations in managed and non-managed forests, little data are available to evaluate the relative effect of stand conditions and management on snag occurrence. We analyzed point sample data from an intensive forest inventory within an 80,000 hectare landscape for four major forest types to support the hypotheses that routine low-intensity prescribed fire would increase, and thinning would decrease, snag occurrence. We employed path analysis to define a priori causal relationships to determine the direct and indirect effects of site quality, age, relative stand density index and fire for all forest types and thinning effects for loblolly pine and longleaf pine. Stand age was an important direct effect for loblolly pine, mixed pine-hardwoods and hardwoods, but not for longleaf pine. Snag occurrence in loblolly pine was increased by prescribed fire and decreased by thinning which confirmed our initial hypotheses. Although fire was not important in mixed pine-hardwoods, it was for hardwoods but the relationship depended on site quality. For longleaf pine the relative stand density index was the dominant variable affecting snag occurrence, which increased as the density index decreased. Site quality, age and thinning had significant indirect effects on snag occurrence in longleaf pine through their effects on the density index. Although age is an important condition affecting snag occurrence for most forest types, path analysis revealed that fire and density management practices within certain forest types can also have major beneficial effects, particularly in stands less than 60 years old.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are prescribed fire and thinning dominant processes affecting snag occurrence at a landscape scale?

Zarnoch

Blake

Parresol

2014

Forest Ecology and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Less information is available on snag dynamics or effects of management on snags in forests of the southeastern US. Research in other regions suggest single-tree selection and thinning reduces the number of snags (McComb and Noble 1980;Graves et al 2000;Doyon et al 2005;Wisdom and Bate 2008), although commercial-thinning entries may create snags via unintentional damage to trees during thinning (Homyack et al 2011). Unthinned mature stands may have substantially greater numbers of snags than partially harvested (seed tree or shelterwood) stands (Doyon et al 2005;Wisdom and Bate 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In northern hardwood forests, 65-to 75-year-old, second-growth, even-aged stands may have a substantially greater density of snags than single-tree selection stands (Goodburn and Lorimer 1998). However, few studies have compared residual snag densities resulting from a variety of regeneration methods (e.g., Homyack et al 2011). Therefore, we compared snag densities in clearcuts, unharvested controls, and stands under three partial harvest treatments the second, fourth, and sixth years after harvest in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas and Oklahoma.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of snag densities among regeneration treatments in mixed pine–hardwood forests

Perry

Thill

2013

Can. J. For. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Standing dead trees (snags) are an important component of forest ecosystems, providing foraging, nesting, and roosting substrate for a variety of vertebrates. We examined the effects of four forest regeneration treatments on residual snag density and compared those with densities found in unharvested, naturally regenerated forests (controls) during the second, fourth, and sixth year after timber harvest in mixed pine–hardwood forests of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Regeneration treatments were clearcut with snag creation, shelterwood, single-tree selection, and group selection. Density of large snags (≥25.0 cm DBH) differed only during the sixth year after harvest, with shelterwoods having a lower density of large snags (1.0 snags/ha) than the control or group selection stands (4.0 and 4.2 snags/ha, respectively). Density of small snags (10.0–24.9 cm DBH) mirrored residual basal area, with controls and group-selection stands having the greatest snag densities. Creation of snags in clearcuts by injection with herbicides caused initial snag density in these areas to be greater than other treatments, but density in clearcuts declined sharply by 6 years after harvest. In the absence of snag creation, treatments such as shelterwoods that remove most trees may have snag densities below that required to address some management objectives without additional snag creation.

show abstract

“…First, we predicted that residue removal in clearcuts would result in lower occurrence rates of bats, because we hypothesized this would lead to a loss of substrate that could support insect prey (Ulyshen and Hanula 2010, Riffell et al 2011 a , Seibold et al 2015). Second, we predicted that short‐rotation plantations would result in lower occurrence rates of bats, because we hypothesized this land use would result in a scarcity of structures preferred by many species for roosting (i.e., large‐diameter snags and cavity trees) and the absence of herbaceous groundcover to support insect prey (Miller et al 2009, Homyack et al 2011). Third, we predicted that thinning would be associated with increased bat occurrence, because we hypothesized thinning would lead to a greater volume of airspace beneath the canopy where bats could forage and an abundance of herbaceous groundcover to support insect prey (Blakey et al 2016, Loeb and Waldrop 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat community response to intensification of biomass production for bioenergy across the southeastern United States

Ober

Jones

Gottlieb

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human demand for food, fiber, and space is accelerating the rate of change of land cover and land use. Much of the world now consists of a matrix of natural forests, managed forests, agricultural cropland, and urbanized plots. Expansion of domestic energy production efforts in the United States is one driver predicted to influence future land-use and land management practices across large spatial scales. Favorable growing conditions make the southeastern United States an ideal location for producing a large portion of the country's renewable bioenergy. We investigated patterns of bat occurrence in two bioenergy feedstocks commonly grown in this region (corn, Zea mays, and pine, Pinus taeda and P. elliottii). We also evaluated potential impacts of the three major pathways of woody biomass extraction (residue removal following clearcut harvest, short-rotation energy plantations, and mid-rotation forest thinning) to bat occurrence through a priori land-use contrasts. We acoustically sampled bat vocalizations at 84 sites in the Southeastern Plains and Southern Coastal Plains of the southeastern United States across three years. We found that mid-rotation thinning resulted in positive effects on bat occurrence, and potential conversion of unmanaged (reference) forest to managed forest for timber and/or bioenergy harvest resulted in negative effects on bat occurrence when effects were averaged across all species. The effects of short-rotation energy plantations, removal of logging residues from plantation clearcuts, and corn were equivocal for all bat species examined. Our results suggest that accelerated production of biomass for energy production through either corn or intensively managed pine forests is not likely to have an adverse effect on bat communities, so long as existing older unmanaged forests are not converted to managed bioenergy or timber plantations. Beyond bioenergy crop production, mid-rotation thinning of even-aged pine stands intended for timber production, increases to the duration of plantation rotations to promote older forest stands, arranging forest stands and crop fields to maximize edge habitat, and maintaining unmanaged forests could benefit bat communities by augmenting roosting and foraging opportunities.

show abstract

Snags and Cavity-Nesting Birds within Intensively Managed Pine Stands in Eastern North Carolina, USA

Cited by 18 publications

References 21 publications

Are prescribed fire and thinning dominant processes affecting snag occurrence at a landscape scale?

Are prescribed fire and thinning dominant processes affecting snag occurrence at a landscape scale?

Comparison of snag densities among regeneration treatments in mixed pine–hardwood forests

Bat community response to intensification of biomass production for bioenergy across the southeastern United States

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About