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Forests
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Clear-Cutting in Modern Forestry: New Approaches and Latest Findings
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Clear-Cutting in Modern Forestry: New Approaches and Latest Findings

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (27 October 2023) | Viewed by 2901

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alexander Kryshen

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Guest Editor
Forest Research Institute of the Karelian Research Centre of the RAS, Petrozavodsk, Russia
Interests: biodiversity; conservation biology; vegetation; community ecology; forest ecology
Dr. Juri Kurhinen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Interests: biodiversity; conservation biology; community ecology; forest and landscape ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The complete destruction of the tree layer radically changes the ecosystem as a whole, affecting soil conditions and ground cover. Plant communities on clear-cuttings at the initial stages (i.e., before the formation of a closed tree canopy) can serve as good model objects for biodiversity and ecology studies, at least, due to the dynamic patterns of their formation. However, the natural restoration of forest communities can take hundreds of years. To restore the forest stand as soon as possible, it is necessary to plant high-quality seedlings of a certain type and provide sufficient care to them in order to limit the negative impact of undesirable herbaceous and woody vegetation. All of these operations are quite labor-intensive and expensive. The issues of artificial reforestation remain relevant worldwide, and as result, the experience exchange in this framework seems to be quite useful for many stakeholders. Although the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of undergrowth adaptation to changing local environmental conditions as well as to modern cutting approaches remain poorly studied, this field has a high innovative potential.

Thus, this Special Issue is aimed at synthesizing research materials in the plant communities after continuous deforestation, including their formation patterns, a comparative analysis of the biodiversity of deforestation plots and forest stands at different stages of restoration, as well as the methods of artificial reforestation and promotion of natural forest regeneration. The aspects of changes in the structure and properties of soils and the adaptation mechanisms of young woody plants in the main forest-forming species in clear-cutting are of special importance.

Dr. Alexander Kryshen
Dr. Juri Kurhinen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • clear-cutting
  • forest soils
  • biodiversity
  • plant communities of clear-cutting areas
  • plant and animal species associated with logging
  • young trees’ adaptation for logging
  • reforestation methods, natural reforestation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 6016 KiB  
Article
Changes in the Number of Vascular Plant Species during Reforestation of Clearcut Forests
by Alexander Kryshen and Nadezhda Genikova
Forests 2023, 14(12), 2395; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14122395 - 08 Dec 2023
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Abstract
The article aims to describe the patterns of changes in the number of vascular plant species in communities at different stages of forest regeneration after clearcutting using the space-for-time substitution method. Large-scale logging in boreal forests leads to a simplification of the territory’s [...] Read more.
The article aims to describe the patterns of changes in the number of vascular plant species in communities at different stages of forest regeneration after clearcutting using the space-for-time substitution method. Large-scale logging in boreal forests leads to a simplification of the territory’s forest cover (the formation of even-aged stands), which in turn leads to a decrease in the diversity of forest communities and species diversity. These tendencies have been confirmed for many groups of organisms, especially those associated with old trees and dead wood; however, this is not so clear for vascular plants. We investigated plant communities at different stages of regeneration. We used the so-called space-for-time substitution (chronosequence) method of building dynamic series for four forest ecotopes, where industrial clearcuts are most actively carried out. We showed that the fertility of forest ecotopes determines the species pool—the richer the conditions, the more species that can potentially inhabit the community. At the same time, the structure of the tree stand significantly affects the composition and number of species in the community. The lowest species richness was in old-growth forests characterized by the dominance of one species in the tree stand and one or two vascular plant species in the ground cover. With insignificant fluctuations in the average number of species between stages of forest regeneration after logging, some communities at clearcuts in bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and spruce (Picea abies (L.) H.Karst.) forests have high species diversity due to the occupation of the site by species of open habitats. These clearcuts are located not far from settlements and close to roads. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clear-Cutting in Modern Forestry: New Approaches and Latest Findings)
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16 pages, 4995 KiB  
Article
Microhabitat Conditions Influencing Ground Vegetation Dominants in an Ecotone between a Spruce (Picea abies (L.) H.Karst.) Forest and Clear-Cut Site during Ten Post-Logging Years
by Nadezhda Genikova and Viktor Mamontov
Forests 2023, 14(11), 2125; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14112125 - 25 Oct 2023
Viewed by 939
Abstract
The logging of mature tree stands, where part of the forest is clear-cut, results in the formation of an ecotone complex (EC) consisting of the forest (F), a transition from forest to a clear-cut site under canopy cover (forest edge—FE), a transition from [...] Read more.
The logging of mature tree stands, where part of the forest is clear-cut, results in the formation of an ecotone complex (EC) consisting of the forest (F), a transition from forest to a clear-cut site under canopy cover (forest edge—FE), a transition from forest to a clear-cut site outside of canopy cover (clear-cutting edge—CE), and the clear-cut site per se (C). Ground vegetation descriptions (percentage cover of dominants and height of subshrubs) were carried out on the sampling subplots along the transects running from spruce forest into the clear-cut site. We studied the effects of the time since logging and some microhabitat factors (aspect, coniferous and deciduous regeneration, downed deadwood, microrelief, and the abundance of subshrubs, grasses, and forbs) on the abundance of the main ground vegetation dominants of the bilberry-type spruce stands and the clear-cut sites: Vaccinium myrtillus, V. vitis-idaea, Deschampsia flexuosa, and Epilobium angustifolium, in different EC zones. The factor found to have the greatest modifying effect on the abundance of all the species in the CE and C zones was the time since clear-cutting. The clear-cutting pioneer species Deschampsia flexuosa and Epilobium angustifolium preferred open areas in the clear-cut site, whereas the abundance of V. myrtillus and V. vitis-idaea positively correlated with the amount of coniferous and deciduous regeneration. Some factors (downed deadwood, microrelief, coniferous regeneration) were found to act similarly on subshrubs both under the tree canopy (F and FE) and in clear-cut microhabitats (CE and C). The shoot height of subshrubs as well as its percentage cover varied depending on the time since clear-cutting and the microhabitat conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clear-Cutting in Modern Forestry: New Approaches and Latest Findings)
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17 pages, 2652 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Logging Equipment on the Content, Stock and Stratification Coefficient of Elements of the Mineral Nutrition of Plants in the Soils of the Taiga Zone of Karelia
by Maria Vladimirovna Medvedeva and Vladimir Ananyev
Forests 2023, 14(7), 1424; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14071424 - 12 Jul 2023
Viewed by 814
Abstract
This study was carried out in the territories of Northern Europe, in the middle taiga subzone of Karelia. The paper presents the results of a study of an experiment on logging to study the impact of controlled logging using supervised logging with controlling [...] Read more.
This study was carried out in the territories of Northern Europe, in the middle taiga subzone of Karelia. The paper presents the results of a study of an experiment on logging to study the impact of controlled logging using supervised logging with controlling cutting (SLCC) and conventional logging (CL) on the properties of soils (horizons O, E and BF) in a spruce forest 15 years after logging. Virgin forest (VF) was used as a control. The volume weight of soils, the contents of carbon, nitrogen and potassium in different soil layers (layers O, E and BF), as well as reserves of C, N and K and their stratification coefficients SRs (SR1 [O:E], SR2 [O:BF] and SR3 [E:BF]) were studied. The results showed a tendency to increase the volume weight of soils of anthropogenically disturbed (CL and SLCC) areas can be measured. The obtained data demonstrated that there was no sharp change in the contents or stocks of the studied elements between the anthropogenically disturbed (CL and SLCC) and undisturbed areas (VF). The largest reserves of carbon, nitrogen and potassium were noted in the upper horizons of the soils of all sites, averaging 35.6, 1.27 and 0.073 t/ha, respectively. In the lower horizons of the studied soils, the values were lower. The values of the stratification coefficients in the studied soils were arranged in decreasing order as SR2 > SR1 > SR3. At the same time, the general trend of unidirectional changes in the SR values for carbon and potassium in soils was noted; the data for nitrogen were somewhat different. The results showed a marked decrease in SOC concentration with an increase in soil depth. Higher rates of cellulose decomposition were observed in anthropogenically disturbed areas (CL—69.0 ± 3.6%; SLCC—57.4 ± 3.5%) compared with virgin forest (VF) (53.7 ± 3.1%), which is consistent with the results of other studies in the taiga zone. The data obtained indicate the importance of a more accurate assessment of the contents and stocks of elements, as well as the need to use tests for soil biological activity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clear-Cutting in Modern Forestry: New Approaches and Latest Findings)
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