Can a trait-based multi-taxa approach improve our assessment of forest management impact on biodiversity?

Abstract

Harvest impact on forest biodiversity has been widely studied, but for managers confronted with a need for integrated cross-taxa assessment, application remains a significant challenge. Using post-harvest boreal forest succession as a model system, we investigate the usefulness of a trait-based multi-taxa approach to improve our understanding of the community dynamics after disturbance. We assess the strength of response to forest harvesting and recovery patterns of four taxa with contrasting attributes (vegetation, carabids, spiders and birds) along a post-harvest chronosequence of jack pine stands in the boreal forests of Canada. We used a complementary set of functional and taxonomic diversity metrics to identify commonalities and dissimilarities in the community assembly processes and sensitivities to harvesting among taxa. Despite the overall similarity of community response for most pairs of taxa and metrics, the strength of cross-taxa congruency varied greatly among metrics, illustrating the complexity of taxa response to harvest as well as the necessity of including a variety of biodiversity metrics in impact assessments. Of the four selected taxa, spiders were found the most sensitive to harvesting, with a strong response to environmental changes after harvest and a slow community recovery process. Birds and carabids showed highly congruent response patterns, with a strong response to harvest followed by a marked recovery process. Ground vegetation was the most resilient to harvesting. We discuss the management implications of these contrasting recovery processes, outline the current limitations of this method and suggest steps toward the implementation of effective integrated multi-taxa monitoring programs.