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方案。开发一种有效的基线指标方法，用于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，全林分采伐）对森林结构和功能造成重大和持久的改变。不太密集的做法，如部分切割不均匀的年龄管理作为一种替代办法。然而，很少有研究在两个时间尺度（即，短期与长期）。在魁北克省，Groupe Rémabec等林业公司迫切需要这些信息，以更可持续的方式管理混交林。可通过使用生态指标，特别是有助于凋落物分解和养分循环等基本土壤过程的土壤动物等生物体，改进这种评估。虽然人们已经确定，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（例如，改变的土壤覆盖、小气候和食物供应），以前没有为加拿大森林确定过准确的生态指标物种。此外，由于不同的地理位置可能包含不同的物种，因此，确定那些表明干扰或恢复而不需要分类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性状（例如，传播，繁殖力，发展速度，身体大小），检查功能社区的变化，并确定与干扰影响（未砍伐，部分砍伐，皆伐）和由Groupe Remabec管理的森林社区恢复相关的特征套件。由此产生的产品将使Groupe Rémabec能够评估恢复的森林系统的生态状况，并为魁北克混合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.********