Forest management and snag characteristics in Northern Iran lowland forests

Tavankar, Farzam; Picchio, Rodolfo; Monaco, Angela Lo; Bonyad, Amir Eslam

doi:10.17221/77/2014-jfs

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…These findings are in accordance with those reported by Tavankar et al (2014) in an unmanaged compartment of the Caspian Forest, but in contrast with those by Behjou et al (2014) who found differences due to forest management in the Guilan province forests.…”

Section: Single-tree Selection Cutting Effect On Cwd In Mixed Standssupporting

confidence: 93%

Long-term effects of single-tree selection cutting management on coarse woody debris in natural mixed beech stands in the Caspian forest (Iran)

Tavankar¹,

Nikooy²,

Picchio³

et al. 2017

iForest

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Coarse woody debris (CWD) has a wide range of ecological and conservation values such as maintaining biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Each forest management method can have a detrimental effect on stand structure and CWD. We analyzed the volume and density of live trees and CWD (snags and downed logs) over a long-term (30 years) selection-logging managed compartment (harvested), and compared these with values obtained from an unlogged compartment (control) in the Iranian Caspian forests. Results showed that the volume and density of live trees and CWD in the harvested area was significantly lower than in the control area, especially large size trees and CWD, very decayed CWD, and rare tree species. The ratio of snags volume to total standing volume (RSS) was significantly higher in the control (7.9%) than in the harvested area (5.2%), and the ratio of downed logs volume to trees volume (RDT) in the control area (6.3%) was significantly higher than in the harvested area (4.6%), while the ratio of downed logs volume to snags volume (RDS) was significantly higher in the harvested area (83.6%) than in the control (74%). Based on the obtained results, we recommend selection cutting forests to be managed based on CWD management plans, including appropriate cutting cycles (15-30 years) and retention of large-diameter (DBH > 75 cm) and cavity trees as a suitable habitat for many wildlife species.

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Section: Single-tree Selection Cutting Effect On Cwd In Mixed Standssupporting

confidence: 93%

Long-term effects of single-tree selection cutting management on coarse woody debris in natural mixed beech stands in the Caspian forest (Iran)

Tavankar¹,

Nikooy²,

Picchio³

et al. 2017

iForest

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“…This species, in terms of volume, mostly contributed to the CWD in the three accessibility classes. In general observations, CWD mirrored the species composition of the area, as also observed in lowland forests in Iran [20]. The results revealed that the volume of different botanical species of CWD is proportional to the different species of the standing trees.…”

Section: Species Of Cwdsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…In the lowland forest in Iran, similar results were found. Tavankar et al [20] observed that in open access forest, the snag number and volume were lower than in selectively-logged and in fully protected forest.…”

Section: Components Of Cwdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coarse Woody Debris Variability Due to Human Accessibility to Forest

Behjou

Monaco

Tavankar

et al. 2018

Forests

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Coarse woody debris (CWD) plays an important role in supporting biodiversity and assisting ecological processes. Sometimes local people intervene modifying the expected distribution of CWD components, harvested as fuel wood. The effect of the human accessibility (HA) on the volume and characteristics of CWD (snag, downed log and stump) was investigated in the natural uneven-age mixed hardwood stands of the Hyrcanian forests of Iran to quantify the impact on CWD. The HA was classified into three classes (easy, medium and difficult) on the basis of slope class, slope direction to the nearest road and road type. As expected, a negative relationship between the degree of accessibility was found with respect to the main qualitative and quantitative indices referring to CWD. The results showed that the volume of CWD decreased with an increase in human accessibility class (HAC), thus the mean volume of CWD in the difficult, medium and easy accessibility classes were 14.87 m 3 ha −1 , 8.84 m 3 ha −1 and 4.03 m 3 ha −1 , respectively. The decrease in CWD volume was more associated with the decreasing volume of small diameter of low decayed downed logs. The ratio of snag volume to standing volume, the ratio of downed log volume to the volume of trees and the ratio of CWD volume to standing volume increased with a decrease in HAC, while the ratio of downed log volume to snag volume decreased with a decrease in HAC. No selective behaviour on the botanical species of CWD was recorded. For ecological forest management, the effect of HAC on CWD should be considered. A constant supply of snags and downed logs must be preserved to assure a high level of biodiversity. To balance social needs and biodiversity requirements, an increased level of CWD retention might be needed in areas with easy accessibility. The obtained results may be useful when ecological and socio-economical needs have to be taken into consideration in future policy-making decisions.

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“…To account for edges and to minimize the bias in the calculation of the species mingling index (as in [34]), all trees within a certain distance of the edge of the plot may not be included in the computation of MDn; therefore, the species mingling index may be based on the following: (10) where Te = the set of trees in a stand that are inside the assumed edge buffer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Natural development of some forests in the absence of major disturbances can lead to increases in the species mingling index, and thus, the structural development of unmanaged forests might be used as a reference for planning [4]. While generally applied to live trees, the mingling concept has also been applied to the presence of snags (dead trees) in an assessment of the natural condition of forests [9] and would seem to complement other resource measurements regarding the ecological characteristics of forests [10] and to help assess forest biodiversity [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree-Level Harvest Optimization for Structure-Based Forest Management Based on the Species Mingling Index

Bettinger

Mengping

2015

Forests

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Abstract:This novel research investigated the use of a heuristic process to inform tree-level harvest decisions guided by the need to maximize the interspersion of tree species across a forest. In the heuristic process, a species mingling value for each tree was computed using both (1) neighbors that were simply of a different species than the reference tree and (2) neighbors that were uniquely different species from both the reference tree and other neighbors of the reference tree. The tree-level species mingling value was averaged for the stand, which was then subject to a maximization process. Constraints included residual tree density levels and minimum tree volume harvest levels. In two case studies, results suggest that the species mingling index at the stand level can be significantly increased over randomly allocated harvest decisions using the heuristic process described. In the case studies, we illustrate how this type of process can inform management decisions by suggesting the distance between residual trees of similar species given the initial stand structure and the objectives and constraints. The work represents a unique tree-level optimization approach that one day may be of value as new technologies are developed to map the location of individual trees in a timely and efficient manner. OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 1122

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Forest management and snag characteristics in Northern Iran lowland forests

Cited by 17 publications

References 73 publications

Long-term effects of single-tree selection cutting management on coarse woody debris in natural mixed beech stands in the Caspian forest (Iran)

Long-term effects of single-tree selection cutting management on coarse woody debris in natural mixed beech stands in the Caspian forest (Iran)

Coarse Woody Debris Variability Due to Human Accessibility to Forest

Tree-Level Harvest Optimization for Structure-Based Forest Management Based on the Species Mingling Index

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