0000000001324964
AUTHOR
Osmo Heikkala
Seven years of follow-up of continuous-cover forestry: responses of saproxylic beetles
Fennoscandian forest management has since 1950s been characterized by forest regeneration through clear cutting, with subsequent top-soil preparation, seeding or planting with conifers, and removals of legacy elements important for biodiversity, such as dead wood. According to national Red Lists, this structural simplification in most Fennoscandian forests has made hundreds of species threatened. One possible way to support these species is continuous-cover forestry, where at least half of a stand is covered by mature or near-mature trees throughout the logging rotation. Such forestry might secure both economic benefits and support specialized forest species, but empirical evidence is large…
Burning harvested sites enhances polypore diversity
Prescribed burning after clear-cut has been used as a silvicultural method, but it has also been found to support biodiversity. We asked what is the impact of fire on polypores that grow on stumps and slash left on clear-cut sites. Eighteen one-hectare study stands were cut with different levels of retention trees and nine of the sites were burned the following summer. The study sites are located in eastern Finland in forests that are dominated by Pinus sylvestris. We sampled stumps and slash for polypores ten years after cuttings and burnings. We sampled 14 235 stumps and 13 345 pieces of slash and counted 7 179 polypore records of 74 species on these. More polypores were found from burned…