The natural northern European boreal forests: unifying the concepts, terminologies, and their application

Rouvinen, Seppo; Kouki, Jari

doi:10.14214/sf.270

Cited by 24 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 106 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…A high probability of finding such specific species and their communities remains the main context of recognising "(natural) old (growth) forests" even when other types of practical shortcuts are preferred (e.g. Kneeshaw andGauthier 2003, Rouvinen andKouki 2008). There are two main ecological causes of why species' association with old forest can emerge: slow development of their habitat (including both abiotic and biotic conditions; for example, microclimate, certain hosts or prey) or populations (via dispersal and establishment; Nordén and Appelqvist 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Old-forest species: the importance of specific substrata vs. stand continuity in the case of calicioid fungi

Lõhmus¹,

Lõhmus²

2011

Silva Fenn.

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Appropriate conservation management of old-forest species depends on the causes of their oldforest affinity, which, however, are insufficiently known. Calicioid fungi are often considered old-forest dependent because of their special requirements for microhabitat, microclimate, and stand continuity for at least two tree generations. We demonstrate that, for several methodological or interpretational problems, published studies do not provide unequivocal evidence for such mechanisms and even for old-forest dependency of calicioids in general. We then analyse a large Estonian dataset (ca. 2300 records of 32 species) representing various management types and site types to answer whether old forests have more calicioid species, and any specific species, than could be expected for the substratum availability observed. Although old growth had more species and records than mature managed stands or cutover sites, those substratum types that occurred at roughly similar abundances also hosted comparable numbers of species in different management types. The characteristic substrata adding extra species to old growth were snags and root-plates of treefall mounds; wood surfaces in general comprised more than half of all calicioid records. Although substratum abundance did not fully explain the species-richness contrast between old growth and mature stands, additional evidence suggested that the unexplained variance is rather due to small-scale habitat characteristics than stand-scale continuity or microclimate. Finally, we review the evidence for old-forest affinity of calicioid species and distinguish a set of threatened species. We conclude that the availability of specific substrata is the main limiting factor for calicioid fungi in forests, and its quantitative and stochastic nature explains the large random and region-specific variation in the published lists of 'old-forest species'.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Old-forest species: the importance of specific substrata vs. stand continuity in the case of calicioid fungi

Lõhmus¹,

Lõhmus²

2011

Silva Fenn.

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“…Natural forest: "A forest that has evolved and reproduced itself naturally from organisms previously established, and that has not been significantly altered by human activity" (Rouvinen & Kouki 2008).…”

Section: Terminologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, it is difficult -and very likely impossible -to make exact, long-term predictions on their functioning and development (Landres 1999;Kuuluvainen 2002;Messier et al 2013). It follows that all definitions that describe nature-based management are vague and cannot be used without due consideration of the disturbance dynamics that affect the system behavior in a given space (Rouvinen & Kouki 2008;Kuuluvainen & Grenfell 2012;Gauthier et al 2015). …”

Section: Disturbance Dynamics Of Natural Forests As a Reference In Fomentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological effects of disturbance-based restoration in boreal forests

Pasanen¹

2017

Diss. For.

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The degradation and disappearance of natural ecosystems and habitats -including forestsis one of the most important factors behind the current global decline in biological diversity. Since most of terrestrial biodiversity is found in forests, restoration of these ecosystems or their natural characteristics has been proposed as one of the main strategies to counteract global species loss.In this thesis, I examined the ecological effects of forest restoration in disturbancedriven boreal conditions. The applied restoration methods (prescribed burning; creation of canopy gaps; dead wood restoration) used natural forest disturbances as the reference point. Specifically, I focused on the effects that restoration has on tree species composition, ageclass structure, and the amount and diversity of dead wood in forest ecosystems. In addition to examining the changes in these structural attributes, I investigated dead-wood-associated fungal communities in the restored substrates, and assessed whether dead wood restoration could be used to conserve rare and threatened fungal species.Of the examined restoration treatments, the combination of prescribed burning and the creation of canopy gaps was found to be the most promising measure for the restoration of age-class structure and tree species composition in pine-dominated forests. Dead wood restoration -by artificially creating standing and fallen large-diameter dead trees -clearly enhanced the amount of dead wood in both pine and spruce dominated forests. Although dead wood restoration increased the abundance of fungal species in the examined forests, all aspects of the qualitative variation in dead wood was found to be difficult to restore in the short-term, since the restored dead wood was mainly in the initial stage of decomposition. The use of various restoration treatments (e.g. the creation of both standing and fallen dead wood) can compensate for some of the missing variation in fungal communities in the restored substrates.Based on my results, disturbance-based restoration produces promising results by the rapid re-introduction of some of the most important structural attributes that have been lost from forests previously managed for timber production. Although the findings in this thesis show the clear positive effects that restoration has on the re-creation of naturally occurring forest characteristics, it appears difficult to restore all the inherent variability of natural forests. A particular challenge originates from the extended time scale of the natural processes, which have created and maintained the full array of ecological structures in forests, including the generally slow processes of stand succession and wood decomposition. To build a more comprehensive understanding of the potential of forest restoration for the conservation of endangered forest-associated species, a substantially longer monitoring period of restored forests would be useful in future studies.

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“…The available literature contains a suite of definitions and concepts of natural forests (see a review by Rouvinen and Kouki 2008). In general, virgin and primeval forests are considered as unaffected by man (Peterken 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest naturalness in northern Europe: perspectives on processes, structures and species diversity

Brūmelis¹,

Jonsson²,

Kouki³

et al. 2011

Silva Fenn.

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Saving the remaining natural forests in northern Europe has been one of the main goals to halt the ongoing decline of forest biodiversity. To facilitate the recognition, mapping and efficient conservation of natural forests, there is an urgent need for a general formulation, based on ecological patterns and processes, of the concept of "forest naturalness". However, complexity, structural idiosyncracy and dynamical features of unmanaged forest ecosystems at various spatio-temporal scales pose major challenges for such a formulation. The definitions hitherto used for the concept of forest naturalness can be fruitfully grouped into three dimensions: 1) structure-based concepts of natural forest, 2) species-based concepts of natural forest and 3) process-based concepts of natural forest. We propose that explicit and simultaneous consideration of all these three dimensions of naturalness can better cope with the natural variability of forest states and also aid in developing strategies for forest conservation and management in different situations. To become operational, criteria and indicators of forest naturalness need to integrate the three dimensions by combining species (e.g. red-listed-, indicator-and umbrella species) with stand and landscape level structural features that are indicative of disturbance and succession processes.

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The natural northern European boreal forests: unifying the concepts, terminologies, and their application

Cited by 24 publications

References 106 publications

Old-forest species: the importance of specific substrata vs. stand continuity in the case of calicioid fungi

Old-forest species: the importance of specific substrata vs. stand continuity in the case of calicioid fungi

Ecological effects of disturbance-based restoration in boreal forests

Forest naturalness in northern Europe: perspectives on processes, structures and species diversity

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