Search results for "forest ecology"
showing 10 items of 86 documents
Changes in soil fauna 10 years after forest harvestings: Comparison between clear felling and green-tree retention methods
2009
Abstract We studied the responses of soil decomposer animals to clear felling and alternative, green-tree retention harvesting methods (GRT) in Norway spruce forests in Finland. The study plots which were sampled for immediate treatment effects (up to three years) were resampled after 10 years. We hypothesized that responses of decomposers still depends on the level of GTR. The treatments, in addition to untreated controls (100% retained), were: (1) selection felling (70% dispersed tree retention), (2) and (3) gap felling with and without site preparation, respectively (three small gaps were felled in a 1-ha area and 50% of the stand volume was retained), (4) retention felling (10% of the s…
Community Turnover of Wood-Inhabiting Fungi across Hierarchical Spatial Scales
2014
For efficient use of conservation resources it is important to determine how species diversity changes across spatial scales. In many poorly known species groups little is known about at which spatial scales the conservation efforts should be focused. Here we examined how the community turnover of wood-inhabiting fungi is realised at three hierarchical levels, and how much of community variation is explained by variation in resource composition and spatial proximity. The hierarchical study design consisted of management type (fixed factor), forest site (random factor, nested within management type) and study plots (randomly placed plots within each study site). To examine how species richne…
Size matters in studies of dead wood and wood-inhabiting fungi
2011
Abstract Because biased biodiversity surveys may result in ineffective use of conservation or research resources it is important that measures for biodiversity are accurate. In forest ecosystems wood-inhabiting fungi are an ecologically important species group. We addressed the question whether or not the traditional methodology to survey only coarse woody debris provides accurate estimates of the assemblages of wood-inhabiting fungi or the dead wood itself. In this study, we included all dead wood pieces irrespective of the diameter. Our results showed that the chosen minimum size of studied dead wood pieces has crucial importance for species recordings of wood-inhabiting fungi and for rec…
Evaluation, Analysis and Perception of Sustainable Forest Management Through the Lens of the PEFC Forest Certification Using Two Case Studies in Sici…
2019
Sustainable forest management has reached a common understanding between scientific and technical definitions. A series of criteria and indicators have been implemented for monitoring the effectiveness of the management in functional and structural terms, and to evaluate its effects on ecosystem services of forests. Currently, Sicily has no forest areas with certification of sustainable forest management and in order to evaluate the diffusion of knowledge of certification schemes and their importance in SFM, a questionnaire survey was carried out during a foresters' workshop on the island. The possibility of applying the criteria and indicators of PEFC certification of sustainable forest ma…
Small Mammals in Forests of Romania: Habitat Type Use and Additive Diversity Partitioning
2021
Small mammals are key components of forest ecosystems, playing vital roles for numerous groups of forest organisms: they exert bottom-up and top-down regulatory effects on vertebrate and invertebrate populations, respectively
Evaluating the effects of forest tree species on rill detachment capacity in a semi-arid environment
2021
Abstract The beneficial effects of plant roots in decreasing soil detachment in forest ecosystems exposed to rill erosion are well known. However, these effects vary largely between different plant species. There has been lots of research into the relationship between root-soil systems and rill erodibility with a particular focus on grass species. Conversely, fewer studies are available for tree species, especially in forests of semi-arid or arid environments. Greater knowledge is therefore needed to identify the most effective tree species against rill erosion in these ecosystems, where water availability is the limiting factor for vegetation growth and afforestation is often the only solu…
Exploring the spatial relationship between airborne-derived red and far-red sun-induced fluorescence and process-based GPP estimates in a forest ecos…
2019
International audience; Terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP) plays an essential role in the global carbon cycle, but the quantification of the spatial and temporal variations in photosynthesis is still largely uncertain. Our work aimed to investigate the potential of remote sensing to provide new insights into plant photosynthesis at a fine spatial resolution. This goal was achieved by exploiting high-resolution images acquired with the FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) airborne demonstrator HyPlant. The sensor was flown over a mixed forest, and the images collected were elaborated to obtain two independent indicators of plant photosynthesis. First, maps of sun-induced chlorophyll fluore…
Sensitivity of soil processes in northern forest soils: are management practices a threat?
2000
Abstract There is evidence that forest management practices influence soil-decomposer communities. It is also established that changes in the trophic structure and composition of these communities can induce changes in soil-nutrient dynamics, thereby affecting plant growth. Whether forest productivity is affected by management-induced changes in, e.g. soil faunal structure, is, however, yet to be shown. The aim of this study was (1) to determine the resolution of the ecological hierarchy (e.g. species, functional groups, trophic levels) at which a change in soil fauna would alter biotically-controlled processes in soils, and (2) to examine the sensitivity of soil fauna of the boreal forest …
Plant-frugivore networks are less specialized and more robust at forest-farmland edges than in the interior of a tropical forest
2012
Forest fragmentation and local disturbance are prevailing threats to tropical forest ecosystems and affect frugivore communities and animal seed dispersal in different ways. However, very little is known about the effects of anthropogenic forest edges and of local disturbance on the structure and robustness of plant–frugivore networks. We carried out focal tree observations to record the frugivore species feeding on eight canopy tree species in the forest interior and at forest–farmland edges in a little and a highly disturbed part of a Kenyan rain forest. For each frugivore species, we recorded its body mass and its forest dependence. We examined how forest edge and local disturbance affec…
Past and Contemporary Changes in Forest Cover and Forest Continuity in Relation to Soils (Southern Latvia)
2014
A set of medium-scale historical maps was used to reconstruct changes in spatial patterns of forest area during the last 220 years in an agricultural matrix of northeastern Europe (Zemgale region, Latvia). Changes in total forest area by soils were determined, as well as the time period of continuous forest cover. Proportion of protected area for each soil trophic group was also calculated. Patterns of recent forest development differed between soil trophic groups. Afforestation occurred mainly on wet and poor soils in the 19th and 20th centuries, while the proportion of woodland area on fertile soils typical for nemoral forests was fairly stable. Only 1% of the fertile soil area has been c…