Use of a spatially explicit individual-tree model (SORTIE/BC) to explore the implications of patchiness in structurally complex forests

Coates, K. David; Canham, Charles D.; Beaudet, Marilou; Sachs, Donald L.; Messier, Christian

doi:10.1016/s0378-1127(03)00301-3

Cited by 138 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Individual-based simulation models are useful for studying the effects of individual-scale mechanisms on the global properties of a system, even when analytical theory of the system is intractable (Grimm et al 2005). Computer simulations of forest disturbance are convenient because they provide faster results than physical experiments (Coates et al 2003;Pearson and Dawson 2005;Uriarte et al 2009). …”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reserve Size and Fragmentation Alter Community Assembly, Diversity, and Dynamics

Lasky¹,

Keitt²

2013

The American Naturalist

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. abstract: Researchers have disputed whether a single large habitat reserve will support more species than many small reserves. However, relatively little is known from a theoretical perspective about how reserve size affects competitive communities structured by spatial abiotic gradients. We investigate how reserve size affects theoretical communities whose assembly is governed by dispersal limitation, abiotic niche differentiation, and source-sink dynamics. Simulations were conducted with varying scales of dispersal across landscapes with variable environmental spatial autocorrelation. Landscapes were inhabited by simulated trees with seedling and adult stages. For a fixed total area in reserves, we found that small reserve systems increased the distance between environments dominated by different species, diminishing the effects of source-sink dynamics. As reserve size decreased, environmental limitations to community assembly became stronger, a species richness decreased, and g richness increased. When dispersal occurred across short distances, a large reserve strategy caused greater stochastic community variation, greater a richness, and lower g richness than in small reserve systems. We found that reserve size variation trades off between preserving different aspects of natural communities, including a diversity versus g diversity. Optimal reserve size will depend on the importance of source-sink dynamics and the value placed on different characteristics of natural communities. Anthropogenic changes to the size and separation of remnant habitats can have far-reaching effects on community structure and assembly.

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Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reserve Size and Fragmentation Alter Community Assembly, Diversity, and Dynamics

Lasky¹,

Keitt²

2013

The American Naturalist

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“…A complementary approach is to use model simulations to evaluate and compare the effects of various silvicultural treatments on post-harvest light regimes (Coates et al, 2003;Sprugel et al, 2009). Numerous light models have been developed over the years (reviewed in Lieffers et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In comparison, the amount of input data required by the SORTIE-ND light model is remarkably small (Canham et al, 1999). Nevertheless, the model can accurately predict microsite-level light conditions in gaps and under various levels of overstory retention, and track how mean stand-level light availability varies as a function of species composition and stand basal area (BA) (Canham et al, 1994(Canham et al, , 1999Beaudet et al, 2002;Coates et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing understory light conditions in boreal mixedwoods through variation in the intensity and spatial pattern of harvest: A modelling approach

Beaudet

Harvey

Messier

et al. 2011

Forest Ecology and Management

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a b s t r a c tIn the context of partial harvesting, adequately managing post-harvest light conditions are essential to obtain a desired composition of tree species regeneration. The objective of this study was to determine how varying the intensity and spatial pattern of harvest would affect understory light conditions in boreal mixedwood stands of northwestern Quebec using the spatially explicit SORTIE-ND light model. The model was evaluated based on comparisons of observed and predicted light levels in both mapped and un-mapped plots. In mapped plots, reasonably accurate predictions of the overall variation in light levels were obtained, but predictions tended to lack spatial precision. In un-mapped plots, SORTIE-ND accurately predicted stand-level mean GLI (Gap Light Index) under a range of harvest intensities. The model was then used to simulate nine silvicultural treatments based on combinations of three intensities of overstory removal (30%, 45% and 60% of basal area) and three harvest patterns (uniform, narrow strips, large gaps). Simulations showed that increasing overstory removal had less impact on light conditions with uniform harvests, and a more marked effect with more aggregated harvest patterns. Whatever the harvest intensity, uniform cuts almost never created high light conditions (GLI > 50%). Gap cuts, on the other hand, resulted in up to 40% of microsites receiving GLI > 50%. Our results suggest that either a 30% strip or gap cut or a 45-60% uniform partial harvest could be used to accelerate the transition from an aspen dominated composition to a mixedwood stand because both types of cut generate the greatest proportion of moderately low light levels (e.g., 15-40% GLI). These light levels tend to favour an accelerated growth response among shade-tolerant conifers, while preventing excessive recruitment of shade-intolerant species. A better understanding of how spatial patterns of harvest interact with tree removal intensity to affect understory light conditions can provide opportunities for designing silvicultural prescriptions that are tailored to species' traits and better suited to meet a variety of management objectives.

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“…At local scales, complex, spatially explicit, individual-based simulation models (hereafter referred to as virtual forest models) have been developed that successfully reproduce observed dynamics. For example, forest gap models [JABOWA-FORET (7,8) and its derivatives (9,10)] have reproduced the species composition of old-growth, seminatural forests and are widely used to guide forest management (11)(12)(13). Also, the tree and stand simulator (TASS) model and its derivatives (14,15) can accurately predict the dynamics of size distributions and wood volume and, hence, carbon in even-aged plantation monocultures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting and understanding forest dynamics using a simple tractable model

Purves

Lichstein²,

Strigul³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

228

203

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The perfect-plasticity approximation (PPA) is an analytically tractable model of forest dynamics, defined in terms of parameters for individual trees, including allometry, growth, and mortality. We estimated these parameters for the eight most common species on each of four soil types in the US Lake states (Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) by using short-term (<15-year) inventory data from individual trees. We implemented 100-year PPA simulations given these parameters and compared these predictions to chronosequences of stand development. Predictions for the timing and magnitude of basal area dynamics and ecological succession on each soil were accurate, and predictions for the diameter distribution of 100-year-old stands were correct in form and slope. For a given species, the PPA provides analytical metrics for early-successional performance (H 20, height of a 20-year-old open-grown tree) and late-successional performance (Ẑ *, equilibrium canopy height in monoculture). These metrics predicted which species were early or late successional on each soil type. Decomposing Ẑ * showed that (i) succession is driven both by superior understory performance and superior canopy performance of late-successional species, and (ii) performance differences primarily reflect differences in mortality rather than growth. The predicted late-successional dominants matched chronosequences on xeromesic (Quercus rubra) and mesic (codominance by Acer rubrum and Acer saccharum) soil. On hydromesic and hydric soils, the literature reports that the current dominant species in old stands (Thuja occidentalis) is now failing to regenerate. Consistent with this, the PPA predicted that, on these soils, stands are now succeeding to dominance by other latesuccessional species (e.g., Fraxinus nigra, A. rubrum).climate change ͉ community ecology ͉ SORTIE ͉ TASS ͉ trade-offs

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Use of a spatially explicit individual-tree model (SORTIE/BC) to explore the implications of patchiness in structurally complex forests

Cited by 138 publications

References 40 publications

Reserve Size and Fragmentation Alter Community Assembly, Diversity, and Dynamics

Reserve Size and Fragmentation Alter Community Assembly, Diversity, and Dynamics

Managing understory light conditions in boreal mixedwoods through variation in the intensity and spatial pattern of harvest: A modelling approach

Predicting and understanding forest dynamics using a simple tractable model

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