Increase in dead wood, large living trees and tree diversity, yet decrease in understory vegetation cover: The effect of three decades of biodiversity-oriented forest policy in Swedish forests

Kyaschenko, Julia; Strengbom, Joachim; Felton, Adam; Aakala, Tuomas; Staland, Hanna; Ranius, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114993

Cited by 22 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…rocky outcrops or hilltops) and (iii) a stand on low‐productivity mire. We expected that these stand types would have different amounts of deadwood, since in unmanaged boreal forest, the amount of deadwood is typically lower in low‐productivity forests (Hämäläinen et al, 2018; Kyaschenko et al, 2022). The stands were all dominated by Scots pine (>60% of the basal area of living trees) and set aside from intensive forestry, although some indications of former human use (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective management for deadwood‐dependent lichen diversity requires landscape‐scale habitat protection

Hämäläinen

Fahrig

Strengbom

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Habitat loss is considered a major threat for biodiversity. However, the scales on which its effects occur are still insufficiently understood, namely, is the amount of available habitat important for species richness on both local and landscape scales? We studied the effects of local and landscape‐scale habitat amount on local‐scale species density of deadwood‐dependent lichens in Swedish boreal forests. Creation and retention of deadwood are common practices to benefit forest biodiversity, and recognizing the relevant scale is critical for them to be successful. We surveyed deadwood‐dependent lichens in 90 unmanaged forest stands that differed in the local and landscape habitat amount. The local habitat amount was measured as the amount of deadwood in the sampled stands (m2 deadwood ha−1), while six alternative proxies were used to estimate the landscape habitat amount, that is, the amount of deadwood in the surrounding landscapes. Lichen species density (number of species per standardized deadwood area of 3.7 m2) was modelled as a function of local and landscape habitat amount at multiple scales (300 m–5 km from the stands). Lichen species density increased with the landscape habitat amount. The proportion of old forests (>100 years, including newly clear‐cut stands that until recently were old forests) within 5 km from the stands explained species density better than the other proxies of landscape habitat amount. Local deadwood amount did not affect species density, and there was no interaction between the local and landscape habitat amount. Synthesis and applications: To promote the conservation of deadwood‐dependent lichens, the amount of old forests in managed forest landscapes should be maintained or increased. A certain amount of deadwood hosted more lichen species when situated in a landscape with more old forest, while there was no effect of the local deadwood amount. This suggests that management aimed at increasing the local species density of deadwood‐dwelling lichens should focus on creating and maintaining habitat in the surrounding landscape rather than only adding deadwood to that local site. In other words, effective management for deadwood‐dependent lichen diversity requires landscape‐scale habitat protection.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective management for deadwood‐dependent lichen diversity requires landscape‐scale habitat protection

Hämäläinen

Fahrig

Strengbom

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Studies have shown a clear increase in the number of retention objects in the Swedish forestry landscape since the 1990s (Kruys et al, 2013, Kyaschenko et al, 2022. Under ideal circumstances, retention forestry has the potential to create a network of smaller old-growth forest patches, as well as single older trees, which can complement larger set-aside forest areas and increase forest landscape connectivity (Angelstam et al, 2020).…”

Section: Biodiversity Management In Thinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since 1993, despite the amount of forest clear-cut and thinned every year, conservation values have been created over time through retention (Kruys et al, 2013, Kyaschenko et al, 2022. These stands include new features that will evolve together with the crop tree.…”

Section: Mapping Of Retention (Paper Iv)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Old trees in young forests : Biodiversity management in planted conifer forests in southern Sweden

Lariviere¹

2023

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sweden’s long history of intensive forest management has made conservation measures in the forest landscape necessary to counteract the loss of biodiversity. Retention forestry has been systematically practiced since 1993 and consists of the preservation of different structures and habitats to create and maintain suitable habitats for species that do not cope well with clear-cutting. Many of these stands are now entering thinning. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate how choices in forest management contribute to biodiversity with the example of tree retention in thinning or through the choice of rotation length. First, gap cutting around old oaks (Quercus robur) in a Norway spruce (Picea abies) forest was investigated as an example of retention management in southern Sweden (I + II). We found that oaks contributed to the diversity of the stand due to their specific associated species. The removal of Norway spruce next to the oaks at the time of thinning boosted oak vitality and increased the species richness and abundance of vascular plants and saproxylic beetles due to increased temperature and light exposure, especially oak-associated beetles. In another study, the effect of forest age was investigated on four taxa: birds, bryophytes, lichens, and vascular plants in Norway spruce and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) stands (III). The older stands, both of Norway spruce and Scots pine, had a distinct species community of understorey species and epiphytes. In Norway spruce stands, older stands typically had more deadwood, which could have favoured bryophytes and birds by providing specific habitats and resources. Older Scots pine stands had the highest lichen species richness, but the implementation of other understorey species was impaired by the dominance of a few competitive dominating species. Finally, we explored the potential of using a canopy height model (CHM) to find and map retention trees (IV). We concluded that this method is a cost-effective solution to map and characterise past retention efforts to facilitate forest management and ensure that old trees are kept throughout the present and subsequent rotations. Our results indicate that this method can discern retention areas to an accuracy of 66%. The findings in this thesis provide knowledge on how the management of retention trees and the choice of rotation length can support biodiversity and provide guidelines for forest management so that their positive effects on forest biodiversity can be maintained over time.

show abstract

“…Globally, some ericoid mycorrhizal fungal species have a very wide distribution range, while others are restricted to particular regions (Kohout 2018). In Sweden, plant understory coverage has been decreasing over the last decade in both productive forest land and formally protected areas (Kyaschenko et al 2022), so perhaps some ericoid mycorrhizal populations are in decline as well.…”

Section: Mycorrhizal Conservation Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In pine forest ecosystems, this could be a crucial interaction that is important for the decomposition and accumulation of soil organic matter. In the past decade there has been a decrease in shrub cover in production and protected coniferous forests across Sweden (Kyaschenko et al, 2022), which warrants further investigation into how that may affect carbon balances in boreal forest soils.…”

Section: Digging Deeper: the Mycorrhizal Guild Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Mycorrhizal guild functions and conservational values in boreal forests

Mielke¹

2022

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The immense diversity and biomass of ericoid-, ectomycorrhizal, and saprotrophic fungal guilds in boreal forest soils make them vital components of conservation and ecosystem processes, and in particular, many ectomycorrhizal fungi are considered species of conservation concern. However, amalgamated information on the functions and relationships of soil fungi to perceived forest conservation values, and how inter and intra-guild interactions affect the accretion and decomposition of soil organic matter is lacking. In a long-term factorial shrub removal and pine root exclusion experiment, I assessed guild contributions to soil respiration and decomposition of organic substrates guided by ecological theory. Then in the northern and southern boreal forest, I evaluated whether forest conservation values are aligned with the diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Overall, the ericoid guild makes a significant contribution to total soil respiration (11 ± 9%), and ericoid activities appeared to be more sensitive to periods of drought compared to ectomycorrhizal (43 ± 1%) and saprotrophic (53 ± 5%) guilds. Saprotrophic-ectomycorrhizal interactions during decomposition led to a modest, yet inconsistent Gadgil effect (10%) for early-stage litter decomposition. Ericoid and ectomycorrhizal guilds interactions were determined to be more important for late-stage organic matter balance in boreal forest soils. Ectomycorrhizal species richness was significantly higher in the southern boreal forest compared to the north. Furthermore, forest conservation values across the boreal forest were not adequately related to ectomycorrhizal diversity through DNA-metabarcoding. Instead, soil fertility, corresponding to tree species basal area, was the clearest indicator of ectomycorrhizal diversity and composition in both regions. Mycorrhizal guilds may be underappreciated and understudied in terms of conservation, but their functional roles in the accumulation and decomposition of organic matter in long-term soil carbon pools emphasizes the importance of evaluating the many dimensions of fungal conservation in boreal forests.

show abstract

Increase in dead wood, large living trees and tree diversity, yet decrease in understory vegetation cover: The effect of three decades of biodiversity-oriented forest policy in Swedish forests

Cited by 22 publications

References 51 publications

Effective management for deadwood‐dependent lichen diversity requires landscape‐scale habitat protection

Effective management for deadwood‐dependent lichen diversity requires landscape‐scale habitat protection

Old trees in young forests : Biodiversity management in planted conifer forests in southern Sweden

Mycorrhizal guild functions and conservational values in boreal forests

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About