Noualhaguet, Marion, Hernández-Rodríguez, Enrique et Montoro Girona, Miguel 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6916-3639
(2025).
Drivers of understory vegetation 18 years after novel experimental partial-harvest treatments in Canadian boreal forests.
Forest Ecology and Management
, 594
.
Article 122949.
doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122949
Repéré dans Depositum à
https://depositum.uqat.ca/id/eprint/1786
Résumé
Partial harvesting has been proposed as a silvicultural strategy to promote forest sustainability in boreal regions. To succeed, this approach requires repeated assessments of post-harvest recovery by forest communities. To maintain stand-level biodiversity, a clear, long-term understanding of understory responses to harvesting is essential. We evaluated the understory diversity and composition in eastern Canadian boreal forests 18 years after experimental partial harvests. Six study blocks of mature even-aged black spruce (half young and half old) were subjected to three shelterwood harvest treatments: seed-tree harvest, clearcut, and untreated control. Path analyses were used to assess the indirect impacts of harvesting on understory diversity via the soil substrate, light conditions, and levels of living and dead wood. Analyses were run on the understory community greater than one year before and for 18 years after harvesting. Understory diversity responded poorly for one-year post-harvest but peaked 10 years later. Species richness increased by 2–3 times, depending on the harvesting intensity, before gradually resembling unharvested stands as the canopy regenerated. Species richness and diversity recovered after two decades, regardless of harvesting intensity, although species composition took longer to return to its pre-harvest state. Live and dead trees were the primary drivers of understory change during the first decade, while prior understory composition became more influential 10–18 years post-harvest. Partial harvesting can promote gradual canopy recovery, conserve habitats, and support the recovery of understory vegetation. These results underscore the dual roles of environmental factors and pre-existing understory composition in fostering stand recovery.
| Type de document: | Article |
|---|---|
| Informations complémentaires: | La version officielle de cet article a été publiée dans la revue Forest Ecology and Management en 2025. Le texte intégral de l’article est disponible en libre accès sur le site de la revue : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122949 |
| Mots-clés libres: | Biodiversity; Disturbance ecology; Forest management; Conservation; Partial harvest |
| Divisions: | Forêts |
| Date de dépôt: | 28 avr. 2026 13:55 |
| Dernière modification: | 28 avr. 2026 13:55 |
| URI: | https://depositum.uqat.ca/id/eprint/1786 |
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