Maintaining forest biodiversity - collaborating with industry to understand how the intensification of forest management will impact biodiversity

加拿大人拥有世界上近10%的森林。目前，加拿大大约四分之一的森林用于木材生产。对这种自然资源日益增加的需求要求加拿大在更少的土地上种植更多的木材纤维，这促使几个省考虑实施强化造林。加拿大人现在面临着一个关键的不确定性，那就是我们不了解森林管理实践的强化将如何影响森林生物多样性。该项目代表了森林工业、政府和大学之间的长期合作，利用适应性管理作为正式程序来处理在执行维持森林生物多样性的政策和管理实践方面的不确定性。为长期试验性NEBIE地块网络和集约化森林管理科学伙伴关系奠定了基础。本研究的主要目的是量化人工造林对安大略省北方针叶林和低海拔森林植物群落组成、结构和功能多样性的影响。这将利用NEBIE样地网络的数据来评估地上植物物种多样性和地下种子库多样性，使用DNA条形码协议对种子进行条形码编码并估计北方森林生态系统的种子库多样性。本项目将建立所有物种的功能性状矩阵，用于分析不同强度干扰下森林群落组合的模式。该项目的第二个目标是通过(1)使用NEBIE抽样设计监测生物多样性响应，这将提供可靠的信息，并将能够测试关于强化造林对北方和五大湖植物群落组成、结构和功能多样性影响的替代假设。(2)通过分析和评估数据来评估政策选择的影响；(3)利用得到的信息来修改目标和目的。

Canadians are responsible for nearly10% of the world's forest. Approximately¼ of Canada's forests are currentlymanaged for timber production. Increasing demand for this natural resource requires Canada to grow more wood fibre on less land, which has stimulated several provinces to consider implementing intensification of silviculture. Canadians are now faced with the keyuncertaintythat we do not understand how the intensification of forest management practices will affect forest biodiversity. This project represents a long-standing collaboration among Forest Industry, government and universities using adaptive management asa formal process to deal with uncertainties in implementing policies and management practices that maintain forest biodiversity. Industryand NSERC that have laid the foundation for the long term experimental NEBIE Plot Network and the Intensive Forest Management Science Partnership. The primarygoal of this proposed research is to quantifythe effects of intensification of silviculture on the compositional, structural, and functional diversityof plant communities within the boreal and GLSLforests of Ontario. This will be accomplished using data from the NEBIE plot network to assess above ground plant species diversityand below ground seed bank diversityusing DNA barcoding protocols for barcoding seeds and estimating seed bank diversityin northern forest ecosystems. We will build a functional trait matrix for all species in our project, which will be used in analyzing patterns in forest communityassemblage following disturbance of varying intensity. A secondarygoal of this project is to advance the adaptive management cycle by(1) Monitoring biodiversityresponses using the NEBIE sampling designs that will provide reliable information and will enable tests of alternative hypotheses about effects of intensification of silviculture on the compositional, structural, and functional diversityof plant communities within the boreal and Great Lakes -St. Lawrence (GLSL) forests of Ontario, (2) Evaluate the effects of policyoptions by analyzing and evaluating data, and (3) Revise goals and objectives using the resulting information.