Early Vegetation Responses to Canopy and Soil Disturbances
| Authors: | Claudia I Bartlick, Robert E. Froese, Christopher R. Webster, Yvette L. Dickinson |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Type: | Proceedings - Paper |
| Station: | Northern Research Station |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-P-211-paper7 |
| Source: | In: Kern, Christel C.; Dickinson, Yvette L., eds. Proceedings of the first biennial Northern Hardwood Conference 2021: Bridging science and management for the future. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-211. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 28–31. |
Abstract
Long-term implementation of uniform silvicultural systems can reduce species (Crow et al. 2002, Leak and Sendak 2002, Schulte et al. 2007) and structural (Angers et al. 2005, Hupperts et al. 2018, Montes et al. 2005) diversity. Diversity loss leads to less resilient forest ecosystems (Holling 1973), especially with increasing challenges due to climate change. Implementation of natural disturbance-based management could be beneficial for biodiversity by emulating natural stand conditions that prevailed before the species decline (Hupperts et al. 2018). Therefore, we sought to answer the question: Can artificial soil disturbance and the removal of canopy trees sufficiently emulate natural disturbances and create suitable seedbeds for declining tree species in a managed Great Lakes northern hardwood forest? To address this objective, an experiment was established with three different levels of soil disturbance nested within four different levels of residual canopy.