A Literature Review of the Effects of Intensive Forestry on Forest Structure and Plant Community Composition at the Stand and Landscape Levels PDF Download
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Author: João Carlos Azevedo Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Changes in landscape pattern caused by changes in forest management, namely the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the implications of these structural changes on landscape processes were analyzed. Landscape structure was studied based upon the comparison of landscapes with different management histories. Ecological processes were analyzed based upon simulation of stand and landscape attributes of habitats for several vertebrate species and upon simulation of hydrological processes such as water and sediment yield. A methodology to integrate landscape and stand pattern and dynamics with landscape processes was developed for this work. It integrates a forest landscape structure model, several stand level growth and yield models, vertebrate habitat models, and a hydrological model. The comparisons among landscapes revealed that forest management has a strong influence on landscape structure. The SFI program increases fragmentation of the landscape indicated by the presence of more and smaller patches, more edges, more complex shapes, and less and smaller core areas. Traditional intensive and extensive management show comparable patterns characterized by high aggregation and connectivity. Landscapes managed according to the SFI program show higher Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) values for American woodcock, American beaver, wild turkey, fox squirrel, and gray squirrel. HSI is higher for pine warbler in the landscape not managed according to the SFI program. Downy woodpecker and barred owl present very reduced HSI values in either landscape. The SFI program induced fragmentation of the habitat of pine warbler and the establishment of narrow and elongated habitats in a network structure for the remaining species. Both patterns are determined by SMZs. The scenario representing management according to the SFI program presents higher sediment yield at the watershed level than the scenario representing management not according to the SFI program due to higher channel erosion related to the absence of buffer strips in the non-SFI scenario. In general, management according to the SFI program increases landscape diversity and evenness, habitat suitability for most species, potential vertebrate diversity, and provides habitat structure suitable for most species. This management also decreases sediment loss at the watershed level.
Author: W.J. Dyck Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9401112703 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 381
Book Description
The International Energy Agency Bioenergy Agreement was initiated as the Forestry Energy Agreement in 1978. It was expanded in 1986 to form the Bioenergy Agreement. Since that time the Agreement has thrived with some fifteen countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and the CEC) currently being signatories. The objective of the Agreement is to establish increased programme and project cooperation between the participants in the field of bioenergy. The environmental consequences of intensive forest harvesting have been the subject of intense interest for the Agreement from its initiation. This interest was formulated as a Cooperative Project under the Forestry Energy Agreement in 1984. It developed further under each of the subsequent three-year Tasks of the Bioenergy Agreement (Task III, Activity 3 "Nutritional consequences of intensive forest harvesting on site productivity", Task VI, Activity 6 "Environmental impacts of harvesting" and more recently Task IX, Activity 4 "Environmental impacts of intensive harvesting". The work has been supported by five main countries from within the Bioenergy Agreement: Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, and USA. The continued work has resulted in a significant network of scientists work ing together towards a common objective - that of generating a better under standing of the processes involved in nutrient cycling and the development of management regimes which will maintain or enhance long term site productivity.
Author: John A. Stanturf Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 1482211971 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 552
Book Description
Humans have influenced the landscapes and forests throughout the temperate and boreal zones for millennia. Restoration of Boreal and Temperate Forests, Second Edition focuses on the negative impact of human activity, and explains the importance of forest restoration as a way to repair habitat, restore forest structure and function, and counteract t
Author: James Arthur Rochelle Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9789004113886 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 340
Book Description
The book contains 15 chapters and provides an overview and synthesis of forest fragmentation and its influences on key ecological processes and vertebrate productivity. Land use practices and their effects on vertebrate populations and productivity are discussed and examples of several planning approaches to address landscape-level management effects are described.
Author: Raleigh Dean Ricart Publisher: ISBN: Category : Forest ecology Languages : en Pages : 221
Book Description
The drivers of plant diversity and community composition are often influenced by deterministic mechanisms, such as existing environmental conditions, including landscape-level topographic features. In addition, evidence suggests that stochastic mechanisms can also play a critical role in plant community assemblage. Therefore, I investigated how diversity and composition are distributed through space in a mid- successional mixed hardwood forest in northern lower Michigan, USA. This region has been heavily influenced by its glacial past, which resulted in geographically and abiotically distinct glacial landforms that have been shown to influence spatial dynamics of forest communities. Vegetation sampling plots (n=87) were established at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS). Vegetation data of the overstory (>9cm dbh), sapling (1.5-9cm dbh) and groundcover (% cover) layers were collected. Abiotic variables, including elevation, pH, and soil nutrients, were collected in a subset of plots (n=40). I conducted various multivariate statistical analyses to assess the difference in plant communities and abiotic condition, including ANOVA, Variation Partitioning, PERMANOVA, NMDS, and RDA. Variation Partitioning results demonstrated that both deterministic and stochastic mechanisms influenced the community composition of all vegetation layers, however the overstory was mostly influenced by stochastic mechanisms, while the sapling and groundcover layers were opposite. ANOVA results showed strong differences in diversity between glacial landforms. Additionally, PERMANOVA and Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) showed strong differences in community composition between the glacial landforms. Redundancy Analysis (RDA) revealed a strong influence of abiotic variables on composition, with the strongest effects coming from elevation and O horizon depth (O_depth). My findings indicate a large influence of glacial landforms on the production and maintenance of local plant diversity and community composition in this area. Plant diversity and composition are also strongly influenced by successional dynamics following a disturbance event. Moreover, spatial and temporal dynamics are interactive, and rates of successional advancement can be variable depending on underlying spatial gradients. I investigated how diversity and composition are distributed through time using the same system and vegetation data described above. However, vegetation sampling plots were censused in 1990 and again in 2015, which allowed for me to track compositional change over a 25-year-period. ANOVA results showed relatively stable levels of species diversity between census periods. In addition, PERMANOVA results revealed very little difference in community composition over the twenty-five-year period. Furthermore, we found no evidence of differences in successional rates between landforms. My findings suggest that successional dynamics may manifest themselves over much longer time periods in these northern biomes. Finally, I tested the effects of competition of Pteridium aquilinum (“bracken” fern) on the growth and survival of two prominent tree seedlings, Pinus strobus and Acer saccharum. Furthermore, I was interested in how above- and belowground competition from bracken varied across a fertility gradient. Twelve plots were established in four bracken-dominated stands at the UMBS. Seedlings of both species were subjected to one of the following treatments: aboveground competition removal, belowground competition removal, above- and belowground competition removal, and control. Each replicate was a split-plot design, where the soil fertility in half of the plot was altered using nitrogen fertilizer. Differences across collected variables were analyzed using ANOVA. Bracken had an overall negative effect on the growth of both seedlings, with significantly lower values for Relative Growth Rate in both shoot and root biomass under full bracken- competition treatments. There was no difference between fertility treatments, suggesting that competitive strategy does not change with increased availability of soil nitrogen. Finally, there was a significant difference between the overall performance of the two species, where P. strobus outperformed A. saccharum across most of the collected variables. This suggests a possible species-specific “filtering effect” of bracken that may have long-term consequences for the composition of future forests in the area.