Forest Dynamics and Resulting Animal and Plant Population Changes at the Stand and Landscape Levels

Abstract

A disturbance to a stand is often part of larger event which impacts a large landscape area. Across a landscape, a disturbance event leaves a mosaic of” conditions. The event can miss some Stands, kill all trees in other stands, and kill only some trees in other stands. Stands regrow through certain processes and create certain structures after a disturbance; time at which each structure is achieved varies with specific stand and disturbance conditions. Each structure is utilized by certain plant and animal species, but not others. A disturbance leaves many openings across the landscape and allows species which utilize these openings to expand their populations. At the same time, “closed forest” species become extirpated or confined to isolated “refugia” missed by the disturbance. With regrowth the “open” species become confined to small, isolated “refugia” and the closed forest species increase in number. Landscape areas have probably always had various fluctuations in plant and animal populations.