Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting

The boreal biome is one of the largest in the world and its forests have been widely exploited for centuries. Consequently, large areas have suffered ecological simplification and loss of biodiversity. Under the current circumstances passive conservation measures are no longer enough and active rest...

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Main Authors: Espinosa del Alba, Clara, Hjältén, Joakim, Sjögren, Jörgen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/
https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/1/espinosa_del_alba_c_et_al_210629.pdf
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spelling ftslunivuppsala:oai:pub.epsilon.slu.se:24751 2023-05-15T17:45:10+02:00 Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting Espinosa del Alba, Clara Hjältén, Joakim Sjögren, Jörgen 2021 application/pdf https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/ https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/1/espinosa_del_alba_c_et_al_210629.pdf en eng eng https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/1/espinosa_del_alba_c_et_al_210629.pdf Espinosa del Alba, Clara and Hjältén, Joakim and Sjögren, Jörgen (2021). Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting. Forest Ecology and Management. 494 , 119357 [Research article] Forest Science Research article NonPeerReviewed info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2021 ftslunivuppsala 2022-01-09T19:16:28Z The boreal biome is one of the largest in the world and its forests have been widely exploited for centuries. Consequently, large areas have suffered ecological simplification and loss of biodiversity. Under the current circumstances passive conservation measures are no longer enough and active restoration techniques need to be developed and assessed to preserve and recover the loss of biodiversity. We evaluated short- and long-term effects of two restoration methods aimed at mimicking natural disturbances on species richness, Shannon Diversity and community composition of vascular plants in the field layer and bryophytes in the ground layer. The experiment consisted of 18 forest stands in northern Sweden; each assigned to a different treatment: prescribed burning, gap cutting and untreated stands left as controls. A before-after control-impact (BACI) study design was applied and data was collected on three occasions: once prior to restoration (2010) and twice post restoration; one year (2012) and eight years after (2019). We analysed the differences in species richness and Shannon Diversity with linear mixed effect models and community composition changes with multivariate methods. Fire treatment caused an initial decline in diversity for both field and ground layer, but in the long-term, field layer surpassed the species richness and Shannon Diversity values found prior to restoration. Ground layer bryophytes species richness and Shannon Diversity remained lower than pre-treatment. Prescribed burning should, therefore, be used with caution in core areas for bryophyte diversity. Community composition in burned stands differed significantly between each time point as well as when compared to other treatments, for both layers. By contrast, we found no significant differences in diversity measures or community composition after gap cutting. The absence of effects from gap cutting suggests that minor changes in canopy cover does not affect the vegetation structure of forest stands. The organism group-specific responses, and temporal variability to restoration, highlight the importance of including more than one organism group, different restoration methodologies, and long-term studies in order to properly assess restoration outcomes at landscape level. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU): Epsilon Open Archive
institution Open Polar
collection Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU): Epsilon Open Archive
op_collection_id ftslunivuppsala
language English
topic Forest Science
spellingShingle Forest Science
Espinosa del Alba, Clara
Hjältén, Joakim
Sjögren, Jörgen
Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting
topic_facet Forest Science
description The boreal biome is one of the largest in the world and its forests have been widely exploited for centuries. Consequently, large areas have suffered ecological simplification and loss of biodiversity. Under the current circumstances passive conservation measures are no longer enough and active restoration techniques need to be developed and assessed to preserve and recover the loss of biodiversity. We evaluated short- and long-term effects of two restoration methods aimed at mimicking natural disturbances on species richness, Shannon Diversity and community composition of vascular plants in the field layer and bryophytes in the ground layer. The experiment consisted of 18 forest stands in northern Sweden; each assigned to a different treatment: prescribed burning, gap cutting and untreated stands left as controls. A before-after control-impact (BACI) study design was applied and data was collected on three occasions: once prior to restoration (2010) and twice post restoration; one year (2012) and eight years after (2019). We analysed the differences in species richness and Shannon Diversity with linear mixed effect models and community composition changes with multivariate methods. Fire treatment caused an initial decline in diversity for both field and ground layer, but in the long-term, field layer surpassed the species richness and Shannon Diversity values found prior to restoration. Ground layer bryophytes species richness and Shannon Diversity remained lower than pre-treatment. Prescribed burning should, therefore, be used with caution in core areas for bryophyte diversity. Community composition in burned stands differed significantly between each time point as well as when compared to other treatments, for both layers. By contrast, we found no significant differences in diversity measures or community composition after gap cutting. The absence of effects from gap cutting suggests that minor changes in canopy cover does not affect the vegetation structure of forest stands. The organism group-specific responses, and temporal variability to restoration, highlight the importance of including more than one organism group, different restoration methodologies, and long-term studies in order to properly assess restoration outcomes at landscape level.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Espinosa del Alba, Clara
Hjältén, Joakim
Sjögren, Jörgen
author_facet Espinosa del Alba, Clara
Hjältén, Joakim
Sjögren, Jörgen
author_sort Espinosa del Alba, Clara
title Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting
title_short Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting
title_full Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting
title_fullStr Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting
title_full_unstemmed Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting
title_sort restoration strategies in boreal forests: differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting
publishDate 2021
url https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/
https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/1/espinosa_del_alba_c_et_al_210629.pdf
genre Northern Sweden
genre_facet Northern Sweden
op_relation https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/24751/1/espinosa_del_alba_c_et_al_210629.pdf
Espinosa del Alba, Clara and Hjältén, Joakim and Sjögren, Jörgen (2021). Restoration strategies in boreal forests: Differing field and ground layer response to ecological restoration by burning and gap cutting. Forest Ecology and Management. 494 , 119357 [Research article]
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