Long-term impacts of partial cutting and clearcutting on beetle biodiversity in the Haute-Mauricie region of Quebec

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Partial cutting has been widely advocated as a means to maintain biodiversity, satisfy environmental**certification like FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and assure sustainable wood production. Initial studies that**compared biodiversity impacts partial cutting and shelterwood harvests to clearcuts have shown that leaving**more retention often benefits biodiversity. However, it remains to be demonstrated whether any negative**effects of cutting persist in stands once forest canopies have re-established (>20 years post-harvest) and**whether stands originating from uneven-aged silviculture (partial cuts) or even-aged silviculture (clearcuts) are**more resilient over the long-term. This project is a new collaboration with Groupe REMABEC, a long-time**member of the forest industry in Canada with a strong environmental commitment, where we will compare**beetle biodiversity between replicated stands that have 1) regenerated following older partial cuts (1995) with a**subsequent recent second pass (2015), 2) regenerated after older single-pass partial cuts (1995), 3) regenerated**from older clearcuts (1995) 4) recent clearcuts (2015) and 5) uncut control stands. We will identify ground**beetles and saproxylic beetles sampled with pitfall and flight intercept traps to species and compare**assemblages using a combination of generalized linear mixed models and multivariate regression trees. As an**initial working hypothesis, we expect beetle assemblages in stands originating from single-pass partial cuts will**be indistinguishable from uncut forests, whereas beetle assemblages in stands originating from clearcuts or**partial cuts with a second pass harvest will be similar to one another. This project will provide REMABEC**with a high-resolution (>300 species) biodiversity database specific to their operating area which they can then**use to critically evaluate the ecological impacts of current harvesting operations and advance FSC certification**of operations. It can also be used to modify or develop harvesting practices that improve conservation value of**managed stands, cut costs by avoiding silvicultural strategies that are ineffective for maintaining biodiversity.