La cartographie écoforestière ou le défi d’intégrer le milieu physique et le couvert forestier

Abstract

Abstract:In Quebec, for the past thirty years, ecological land classifications have been proposed to support the use of ecological information by forest managers. Recently, it has been suggested to replace the classical forest inventory maps, which use only dendrometric variables, by integrated forest/site maps that would use both ecological and forest variables. Several methods were tested at the Foret Montmorency, the experimental forest of Universite Laval located in a hilly boreal area influenced by minor natural and human disturbances (1-50 ha). The production of a large scale (1:20 000 – 1:10 000) integrated forest/site map turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated. In a fragmented forest such as the one in the pilot area, the concept of a homogenous “ecoforest stand” can be considered as utopic. Because of soil heterogeneity and also of the large number of discrepancies between vegetation and soil limits, the delimitation of integrated vegetation/site units was operationally difficult. ...