Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

This project will investigate whether retention of living 'green-trees' on harvested sites may mitigate postharvest carbon losses from forest ecosystems, and help conserve soil biodiversity and functioning. Among the concerns associated with clearcut-harvesting of forests is enhanced loss of soil C due to altered environmental conditions and changes in soil organisms and rates of degradation processes. Retention of living trees and their associated mycorrhizal fungal partners may retard litter decay in harvested forests, perhaps by competing with, or antagonizing, saprophytic, free-living fungi, or by drying the soil through water uptake. We will use a chronosequence of harvested sites, at the STEMS long-term research installation on Vancouver Island, B.C., to identify the effect of retaining trees on the diversity and activity of soil fungi that are responsible for decomposition processes. The effect of harvesting on soil organisms and associated functions is a critical knowledge gap that precludes certainty about the sustainability of current and proposed forestry practices. The decisive knowledge achieved through this research will allow BC forest managers to develop and use practices that are based on sound, defensible science. B.C.'s Forest Practices Act, Canada's National Forest Strategy andCanada's Biodiversity Strategy all emphasize the importance of maintaining forest biological diversity, theecological integrity of forests and ensuring sustainable use of forest resources. Current policies, regulations, and guidelines do not sufficiently consider the importance of soil organisms to the maintenance of ecological functions. This is largely because the scientific information does not yet exist to guide decision-making.