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Abstract
Colonisation of eastern North America has generated significant modifications in forest composition. In regions highly influenced by human activity, historical ecology can be used to reconstruct pre-settlement forest composition. In this study, we reconstruct the composition of the pre-settlement (1909-1937) forest of a 4,134 km2 sector of the boreal mixedwood forest using early land survey archives. The pre-settlement composition was compared with modern composition using recent eco-forest inventories (1980-2008), and the influence of surficial deposits types on the spatial structuration of compositional changes was assessed. During the pre-settlement period, the landscape was primarily dominated by spruce, which was evenly distributed across surficial deposit types. Trembling aspen, although frequent, rarely dominated stands. In contrast, the present-day landscape is dominated by trembling aspen, notably on clay and till deposits. In general, conifers have undergone a severe reduction in frequency. Spruce and pine forests are today mainly restricted to organic and sandy surficial deposits compared to their distribution during the pre-settlement period. Composition changes observed in western Abitibi are essentially the results of fires and forest harvesting, but surficial deposits have contributed in structuring the current abundance and spatial distribution of the different taxa. In the context of sustainable forest management, considerable effort should be deployed to restore conifer dominance in the region, notably on the fertile deposits that appear particularly susceptible to composition changes.
Highlights
Human activity in North America has modified species distribution and composition of vegetation communities (Nowacki and Abrams, 2015)
Historical ecology can be the most viable option for reconstructing past forest composition and determining changes that have occurred over the last centuries (Morgan et al, 1994; Swetnam et al, 1999), as a reference to develop ecosystem-based forest management and restoration
Archives only offer a portrait of ecosystems at a certain moment in time, they do have the advantage of providing spatially explicit observations of disturbances and vegetation with reasonably good spatial and taxonomic resolution. These kinds of archival records have been used notably to quantitatively describe and compare pre-settlement and modern-day forest compositions (e.g., Schulte et al, 2007; Pinto et al, 2008), to reconstruct pre-settlement disturbance regimes (e.g., Canham and Loucks, 1984; Whitney, 1986), and to determine the influence of edaphic factors on pre-settlement composition (e.g., Whitney, 1982; Barrett et al, 1995). This said, little attention has been given to understanding the influence of edaphic conditions on compositional changes, most notably in the boreal forest
Summary
Human activity in North America has modified species distribution and composition of vegetation communities (Nowacki and Abrams, 2015). Archives only offer a portrait of ecosystems at a certain moment in time, they do have the advantage of providing spatially explicit observations of disturbances and vegetation with reasonably good spatial (generally a few dozen meters) and taxonomic resolution (species or genus) These kinds of archival records have been used notably to quantitatively describe and compare pre-settlement and modern-day forest compositions (e.g., Schulte et al, 2007; Pinto et al, 2008), to reconstruct pre-settlement disturbance regimes (e.g., Canham and Loucks, 1984; Whitney, 1986), and to determine the influence of edaphic factors on pre-settlement composition (e.g., Whitney, 1982; Barrett et al, 1995). This said, little attention has been given to understanding the influence of edaphic conditions on compositional changes (but see Whitney and DeCant, 2003), most notably in the boreal forest
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