Influence of conventional and chemical thinning on stand structure and diversity of plant and mammal communities in young lodgepole pine forest

Silvicultural practices that provide a wide variety of vegetative composition and structure (habitats) in young stands should help manage for biological diversity across forested landscapes. This study was designed to test the hypotheses that: (i) abundance and diversity of stand structure attributes (species diversity and structural diversity of herb, shrub and tree layers) and forest floor small mammal communities, and (ii) relative habitat use by large herbivores, will increase from unthinned to conventionally thinned to chemically thinned stands of young lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forest. Replicate study areas were located near Summerland, Kelowna and Williams Lake in south-central British Columbia, Canada. Each study area had three treatments: a conventionally thinned, a chemically thinned and an unthinned stand. Pre-commercial thinning was conducted in 1993. Coniferous stand structure and understory vegetation were measured prior to thinning in 1993 and 5 years later in 1998. Small mammal populations were sampled intensively from 1993 to 1998. Relative habitat use by large herbivores was sampled in 1998.

Our results indicate that chemical thinning of young lodgepole pine stands produced an aggregated pattern of crop trees compared with stands subjected to conventional thinning. Diameter growth of crop trees in the chemically thinned stands was similar to that in the conventionally thinned, but also to that in unthinned stands. Although horizontal stratification (aggregates of trees) was enhanced, vertical stratification (structural diversity of vegetation) was less in the chemically than conventionally thinned stands. Abundance and diversity of understory vegetation and small mammal communities were generally unaffected by stand thinning in these particular installations. Relative habitat use by mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) occurred in a gradient from highest in the conventionally thinned stand to lowest in the unthinned stand. Habitat use by snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) tended to have the opposite trend. Moose (Alces alces) exhibited no difference in habitat use among stands. Thus, although there were few differences among treatment stands, chemical thinning could be used to develop an aggregated pattern of crop trees in pre-commercially thinned stands to maintain habitat for herbivores such as snowshoe hares and mule deer. Understory plant and forest floor small mammal communities would be maintained in these stands as well.     

Non-structural carbohydrate levels of three co-occurring understory plants and their responses to forest thinning by gap creation in a dense pine plantation

We investigated non-structural carbohydrates(NSC) levels and components(starch,glucose,fructose and sucrose) in the leaves of three typical co-occurring forestfloor plants,moss Eurhynchium savatieri(ES),fern Parathelypteris nipponica(PN) and forb Aruncus sylvester(AS) in a 30-year-old Chinese pine(Pinus tabulaeformis)plantation forest on the eastern Tibetan Plateau.We also explored their responses to three gap creation treatments(control and two gap creations of 80 and 110 m2) based on NSC levels.PN had the highest leaf NSC level of the three plants,with AS second and ES lowest.Starch was the predominant component of NSC and the contents of glucose were higher than those of fructose or sucrose for all three species.The NSC level of ES in intermediate gaps was significantly higher than at control sites.PN also had higher NSC levels in both small and intermediate gaps than in control sites.But the differences between treatments were not obvious for AS.Our results suggest that ES and PN benefit from gap formation while the two species have different NSC response sensitivities to gap size,but the leaf NSC level of AS is less sensitive to the disturbance.