Soil fauna indicators for evaluating and comparing the ecological status of recovered forest systems

林业是加拿大经济的重要资源产业，良好的森林管理始于理解和实施可持续森林采伐和造林最佳实践。开发一种有效的基线指标方法来评估森林系统中土壤生物多样性的干扰和恢复，具有环境和经济效益，可以在加拿大各地实现。人们日益认识到，完全砍伐（即全林分砍伐）对森林结构和功能造成重大和持久的改变。建议在不均匀龄管理中采用不太密集的做法，如部分采伐，作为一种替代办法。然而，很少有研究在两个时间尺度（即短期与长期）上比较部分砍伐和明确砍伐的影响。在曲海，像曲海集团这样的林业公司迫切需要这些信息，以便以更可持续的方式管理混交林。利用生态指标，特别是有助于凋落物分解和养分循环的土壤生物，可以改进这种评价。虽然土壤动物群落结构被森林采伐通过压实、土壤有机质损失和其他相关的土壤环境变化（如土壤覆盖、小气候和食物供应的改变）而改变，这是公认的，但加拿大森林的准确生态指示物种尚未被确定。此外，由于不同的地理位置可能包含不同的物种，因此识别表明干扰或恢复而不需要分类学评估的功能特征将特别有益。我们的分类学专业知识使我们能够评估物种水平的特征（例如，扩散、繁殖力、发育速度、体型），检查功能群落的变化，并确定与干扰影响（未砍伐、部分砍伐、完全砍伐）和群落恢复相关的一系列特征。由此产生的产品将使拉马贝克集团能够评估恢复的森林系统的生态状况，并对拉马贝克混交林提供更可持续的管理。********

Forestry is an important resource industry to Canada's economy and good forest stewardship begins with understanding and implementing sustainable forest harvesting and silviculture best practises. The development of a validated baseline indicator approach for assessing disturbance and recovery of soil biodiversity in forest systems has environmental as well as economic benefits that could be realised across Canada. It is increasingly recognized that clear-cut harvesting (i.e., full stand logging) creates significant and persistent modifications to forest structure and function. Less intensive practices such as partial-cutting within uneven-age management are proposed as an alternative. However, few studies have compared the effects of partial-cut and clear-cut practices at two temporal scales (i.e., short vs. long term). In Québec, forest industry companies such as Groupe Rémabec, urgently need this information to manage mixedwood forests in a more sustainable way. Such assessment could be improved by the use of ecological indicators and notably living organisms such as soil fauna that contribute to essential soil processes of litter decomposition and nutrient cycling. While it is well-established that soil faunal community structure is altered by forest harvesting through compaction, loss of soil organic matter, and other associated soil environmental changes (e.g., modified soil cover, microclimate, and food supply), accurate ecological indicator species have not been previously identified for Canadian forests. In addition, because different geographic locations may contain different species, the identification of functional traits that indicate disturbance or recovery and do not require taxonomic assessments would be particularly beneficial. Our taxonomic expertise allow us to assess species-level traits (e.g., dispersal, fecundity, development rate, body size), examine functional community shifts and identify suites of traits that are associated with disturbance impact (uncut, partial-cut, clear-cut) and community recovery in forests managed by Groupe Rémabec. The resulting product will allow Groupe Rémabec to evaluate the ecological status of recovered forest systems, and offer more sustainable management of Québec mixedwood forests.********