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了解和实施可持续森林采伐和营林的最佳做法。为评估森林系统中土壤生物多样性的干扰和恢复，制定经过验证的基线指标办法具有环境效益和经济效益，加拿大各地都可以实现这一点。人们越来越认识到，砍伐(即全林采伐)会对森林结构和功能造成重大和持久的改变。另一种办法是采用不太密集的做法，如在不同年龄的管理中进行部分裁剪。然而，很少有研究在两个时间尺度(即短期和长期)上比较部分和明确练习的效果。在魁北克，Rémabec集团等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。这种评估可以通过使用生态指标，特别是土壤动物等有助于土壤中凋落物分解和养分循环这一基本土壤过程的生物来改进。虽然众所周知，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，改良的土壤覆盖、小气候和食物供应)改变了土壤动物群落结构，但以前还没有为加拿大森林确定准确的生态指示物种。此外，由于不同的地理位置可能包含不同的物种，识别表明干扰或恢复且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，分散度、繁殖力、发育速度、身体大小)，检查功能群落的变化，并确定与干扰影响(未砍伐、部分砍伐、皆伐)和Rémabec集团管理的森林中的群落恢复有关的一整套特征。由此产生的产品将使Rémabec集团能够评估恢复的森林系统的生态状况，并为魁北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.********