Landscape-Scale Thresholds of Early Successional Habitat Reconciling Biodiversity, Public Perception, and Timber Yield in Managed Forests Susan Loeb, Beverly Collins, Laura DeWald, Jeremy Hyman, Thomas Straka, Elizabeth Baldwin, Jonathan Brooks, Thomas Green
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Landscape-Scale Thresholds Of Early Successional Habitat: Reconciling Biodiversity, Public Perception, And Timber Yield In Managed Forests
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Landscape-Scale Thresholds of Early
Successional Habitat Reconciling Biodiversity, Public Perception, and
Timber Yield in Managed Forests
Susan Loeb, Beverly Collins, Laura DeWald, Jeremy Hyman, Thomas Straka, Elizabeth Baldwin, Jonathan Brooks, Thomas Green
Early Successional Habitat
• Recently disturbed sites • Sparse canopy• Dominated by grasses, forbs, and shrubs • Contain unique communities
Trani et al. 2001
Trani et al. 2001
Decline of ES•Farm abandonment •Urban/Suburban Development •Suppression of natural disturbances
• Fire • Beaver activity• Flooding
Dettmers 2003
How can we best restore early successional (ES) habitat?
Questions1) Does opening size affect use, abundance, or ecological relationships of early successional species?
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Questions2) Can changing the aggregation of harvests more effectively increase abundance of early successional species at the stand and landscape levels?
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Questions2) Can changing the aggregation of harvests more effectively increase abundance of early successional species at the stand and landscape levels?
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Questions•If so, can we retain acceptable timber yield?
•Will smaller cuts be more favorably looked upon than larger cuts by the public?
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzControl
(no cutting) zzzzzzzzzzzz
20-25 ac2-age harvest
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzz5 1-ac harvestsAggregated
5 1-ac harvestsDispersed
2 9-ac harvestsAggregated
2 9-ac harvestsDispersed
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzControl
(no cutting) zzzzzzzzzzzz
20-25 ac2-age harvest
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzz5 1-ac harvestsAggregated
5 1-ac harvestsDispersed
2 9-ac harvestsAggregated
2 9-ac harvestsDispersed
Installed 2016
Currently beingcut
Currently beingcut
Approaches To-Date•Pre-treatment assessment of plants, birds, and bats
•Effects of patch size on bats & plants using existing ESH
•Initial studies of aggregation effects on plants, bird, bats
•Harvesting economics modeling•Public perception baseline info
Effects of Size on Biodiversity-Plants
<3 ha 3-6 ha 6-10 ha
Green, in prep
Woody plant functional traits in relation to edge• No significant difference in the relationship between seed size and distance from edge between opening sizes (p = 0.659)
• No significant difference in relationship between shade tolerance and distance from edge by opening size (p = 0.248)
Effects of Opening Size on Nocturnal Insect Abundance
Mea
n in
sect
abu
ndan
ce
Small Medium Large
Opening size
0
200
400
600
8000
200
400
600
800
2015
2014
Brooks 2016
Small = 0.2-1.6 ha Medium = 2.1-5.6 ha Large = 6.2-18.5 haP > 0.10