Search results for "Logging"

The effect of buffer strip width and selective logging on riparian forest microclimate

2019

Riparian forests have cool and humid microclimates, and one aim of leaving forested buffer strips between clear-cut areas and streams is to conserve these microclimatic conditions. We used an experimental study set up of 35 streamside sites to study the impacts of buffer strip width (15 or 30 m) and selective logging within the buffer strips on summer-time air temperature, relative air humidity and canopy openness 12 years after logging. The buffer strip treatments were compared to unlogged control sites. We found that 15-meter buffer strips with or without selective logging and 30-meter buffer strips with selective logging were insufficient in maintaining temperature, relative humidity and…

Disturbance-grazer-vegetation interactions maintain habitat diversity in mountain pasture-woodlands

2017

Low-intensity livestock grazing is a widespread management tool in order to maintain habitat diversity in mountain pasture-woodlands for nature conservation purposes. Historical photographs indicate that forest disturbance significantly contributed to forest-grassland mosaic pattern formation. Disturbance grazer interactions are however poorly understood and the effects of logging or windthrow are rarely considered in management plans. Moreover, disturbance-grazer interactions are crucial for the maintenance of open habitats in the upcoming "rewilding" approach of nature conservation. We aimed to understand the effects of forest gap creation by the breakdown of senile trees or by single-tre…

Bryophyte Species Richness on Retention Aspens Recovers in Time but Community Structure Does Not

2014

Green-tree retention is a forest management method in which some living trees are left on a logged area. The aim is to offer ‘lifeboats’ to support species immediately after logging and to provide microhabitats during and after forest re-establishment. Several studies have shown immediate decline in bryophyte diversity after retention logging and thus questioned the effectiveness of this method, but longer term studies are lacking. Here we studied the epiphytic bryophytes on European aspen (Populus tremula L.) retention trees along a 30-year chronosequence. We compared the bryophyte flora of 102 ‘retention aspens’ on 14 differently aged retention sites with 102 ‘conservation aspens’ on 14 d…

2019

Abstract Salvage logging after disturbances in forests substantially modifies vegetation structure and dead wood availability, but empirical evidence on its impact on biodiversity, especially in European boreal forest, is sparse. In this study we investigated the short-term effect of post-fire salvage logging on species richness and abundance of birds in recently burned mixed coniferous forest. Using point counts we estimated local species composition at 49 salvaged sites and 55 non-intervention sites (burnt forest left for natural regeneration) that were not logged after a fire in south-central Sweden. Local species richness, abundance and Simpson's species diversity index were significant…

Vitality and growth of the threatened lichen Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm. in response to logging and implications for its conservation in mediterra…

2020

Forest logging can be detrimental for non-vascular epiphytes, determining the loss of key components for ecosystem functioning. Legal logging in a Mediterranean mixed oak forest (Tuscany, Central Italy) in 2016 heavily impacted sensitive non-vascular epiphytes, including a large population of the threatened forest lichen Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm. This event offered the background for this experiment, where the potential effects of logging in oak forests are simulated by means of L. pulmonaria micro-transplants (thallus fragments &lt

Impact of forest management on threatened epiphytic macrolichens: Evidence from a Mediterranean mixed oak forest (Italy)

2019

Abstract: Forest management practices may heavily affect epiphytic cryptogams. This study was conceived in March 2016, as soon as we were informed about an authorized logging for timber within a Mediterranean mixed oak forest in Tuscany (central Italy), which threatened a large population of the forest macrolichen Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm., composed of hundreds of fertile thalli. Lobaria pulmonaria is often used as an ecological indicator of high quality habitats hosting rare lichens, and in general, cryptogams worthy of conservation. The species has suffered a general decline throughout Europe as a consequence of air pollution and intensive forest management, and currently it is red-l…

Windthrow in streamside key habitats: Effects of buffer strip width and selective logging

2020

Abstract Streamside forests are preserved from clear-cut logging in production forests and protected with uncut buffer strips in many countries. However, buffer strips often remain narrow due to economic reasons and, therefore, provide weak protection against adverse edge effects of clear-cuts and are vulnerable to windthrow. Selective logging of buffer strips is sometimes allowed to reduce their costs, but the decreased tree density may expose the buffer to higher occurrence of windthrow. We used a replicated two-factor experiment to assess the effects of buffer width (15 m or 30 m) and selective logging (0% or 30% of the basal area removed) on the risk of windthrow in boreal streamside fo…

Corsican Pine (Pinus laricio Poiret) Stand Management: Medium and Long Lasting Effects of Thinning on Biomass Growth

2018

Originally published in Forests: Picchio R, Venanzi R, Latterini F, Marchi E, Laschi A, Lo Monaco A (2018). Corsican pine (Pinus laricio Poiret) stand management: medium and long lasting effects of thinning on biomass growth. Forests 9 (5), article number 257, p. 1-17 (open access) DOI: 10.3390/f9050257 This article can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/9/5/257 Abstract With the aim of acquiring better comprehension of the ecological and productive aspects of the management of pine forests, we monitored logging damage and evaluated the effects of thinning on stand growth 20 years after the treatment in a Pinus laricio Poiret stand in central Italy. The objectives of the p…

The arthropod community of boreal Norway spruce forests responds variably to stump harvesting

2016

Forest fuel harvesting increases the need to collect not just logging residues but also tree stumps from harvested stands. This biomass removal has raised concern over forest biodiversity. Here, the effects of stump harvesting on spiders, ants, harvestmen, ground beetles and epiedaphic springtails occupying boreal Norway spruce (Picea abies) forest floor were studied two and five years after harvesting by comparing pitfall trap samples from clear-cut sites with and without subsequent stump harvesting and from unharvested mature forests in central Finland. At harvested sites, traps were placed both on intact and exposed mineral soil surface. Open-habitat and generalist ground beetles benefit…

2019

Conflicts between biodiversity conservation and resource production can be mitigated by multi-objective management planning. Optimizing management for multiple objectives over larger land areas likely entails trading off the practicability of the process against the goodness of the solution. It is therefore worthwhile to resolve how large areas are required as management planning regions to reconcile conflicting objectives as effectively as possible. We aimed to reveal how the extent of forestry planning regions impacts the potential to mitigate a forestry-conservation conflict in Finland, represented as a trade-off between harvest income and deadwood availability. We used forecasted data f…