Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The effectiveness of partial cutting as means to maintain biodiversity and old-growth characteristics has been widely advocated throughout Canada's boreal forests. However, the relative importance of paludification (a process where organic material such as mosses accumulate and thus decrease soil pH and raise the water table) in black-spruce/feathermoss forests of the eastern clay-belt region present a unique challenge for the development of sustainable forest management and the implementation of partial cutting. Here we propose the second phase of research in an established, experimental network of partial harvested stands (Partial Cutting Network in Abitibi) located in Western Québec that will 1) evaluate the longer-term response of forest stands such as changes in growth, productivity and tree mortality 5 and 10 years following harvest, 2) quantify the complete cycle of deposition and decomposition of important structural elements such as coarse woody material (CWM) and other forms of dead wood 3) evaluate the response of arthropod biodiversity to both stand structural changes and changes in CWM composition with special attention to their functional roles in 4) trophic interactions with small mammals and their predators including the American marten (Martes americana), as well as 5) there role mediating decomposition and nutrient cycling. Results from this project will continue to help the development of viable silvicultural alternatives and approaches to sustainable forest management that will be necessary to maintain both timber and non-timber values within the black-spruce/feathermoss zone of the clay-belt. Likewise recommendations from this study will provide an important alternative perspective that will contribute to the larger understanding and application of partial cutting and coarse-filter conservation of biodiversity in Canada.