A critical review of successional dynamics in boreal forests of North America

Abstract

Forest succession is a dynamic process of progressive compositional development of ecological communities of species following natural or anthropogenic disturbance. Despite a rich history of conceptual frameworks, models, and empirical advances, the complex interactions among climatic conditions, disturbances, edaphic factors, and silvicultural treatments still challenge our ability to accurately predict forest succession, hindering application to forest management. Our goal was to improve understanding of forest succession in the managed boreal forests of North America by clarifying advances in knowledge and limitations in our understanding. We reviewed 152 peer reviewed papers to (i) document conceptual developments in forest succession; (ii) summarize drivers of North American boreal forest succession, including changes to forest composition and successional trajectories given climate change; and (iii) discuss the implications of the synthesized information for boreal forest management. While the element of stochasticity is expected to increase under climate change, successional dynamics are anticipated to remain predominantly deterministic. Southern boreal forests are at increased risk of mortality due to warming-driven drought and increased fires. Following disturbance, regeneration is likely to favour deciduous hardwoods. In boreal mixedwoods, increased fires would promote jack pine, and also black spruce on hydric and xeric sites. Dynamics of the northern boreal will depend on the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration. Forest management must carefully select prescriptions to promote forest regeneration and composition that considers the long-term effects of changing climate and disturbance regimes. For instance, combining retention cut with mechanical site preparation would maintain site productivity and reverse open black spruce stand development in northern boreal stands. Our work shows that multiple disturbances have compounding effects on forest development, but further work is needed to better define thresholds for synergistic and buffering interactions. Modelling of boreal forest succession can be improved by incorporating more of the influential factors, but this is often limited by the lack of data. This information will guide the development of forest management strategies by exploring combinations of prescribed fire and variable intensity selection cutting systems to reproduce the effects of multiple interacting natural disturbances under climate change on successional dynamics.

Adaptive Relationships in Hemi-Boreal Forests: Tree Species Responses to Competition, Stress, and Disturbance

“…Knowledge of successional processes can evolve with more in-depth assessments of the mechanisms of community assemblies, such as plant–environment adaptation, species performance strategies, and the niche complementarity hypothesis [ 37 ]. The recent idea of succession as a community assembly in progress has improved the applicability of this theory, which is one of the oldest ecological theories [ 38 ].…”

“…Forest succession is jointly determined by multiple factors pertaining to three dimensions—i.e., climatical, edaphical, and biotical [ 37 ]. Multidimensionality refers to the concept that, as a forest develops, it becomes more complex, diverse and integrated [ 41 ].…”

“…There is growing evidence that the genotypes of plants make compromises between the conflicting selection pressures resulting from particular combinations of competition, stress, and disturbance [ 30 , 49 , 50 ]. A group of ruderal species is best adapted to low stress and highly disturbed sites, a group of stress-tolerant species is best adapted to high stress and low levels of disturbance, and a group of competitive species is best adapted to low levels of both stress and disturbance [ 37 ] ( Table 2 ). Stress tolerance as a distinct strategy evolved in inherently unproductive habitats or in site conditions of extreme resource depletion induced by the plants themselves [ 30 ].…”

Diverse temperate riparian buffer types promote system-level carbon sequestration in southern Ontario, Canada

“…Annual precipitation ranges between 750 and 1000 mm, with an annual mean temperature of 7.2 °C (Lapen and Hayhoe 2003). The northern and southern ends of Huron County are within the Great Lakes -St. Lawrence Forest region in southern and central Ontario and the deciduous forest in southern Ontario, respectively (Rowe 1972;Anyomi et al 2022). A significant portion of Huron County soils are made up of the Stratford Till Plain, which has high natural soil fertility and is characterised by high agricultural productivity (Chapman and Putman 1984).…”

Assessing the Cumulative Impacts of Forest Management on Forest Age Structure Development and Woodland Caribou Habitat in Boreal Landscapes: A Case Study from Two Canadian Provinces

“…A major challenge in the boreal forest is accessing accurate information on and assessing the cumulative impacts of land use activities over vast extents of boreal forest landscapes. A further complicating factor is that the ecosystems of the boreal forest are subject to natural disturbance regimes, such as forest fires and insect outbreaks [11]. Hence, the distribution of younger, mature, and older seral stages across the landscape maybe the result of natural disturbance regimes, logging, or both.…”