Long-term recovery of vegetation communities after harvesting in the coastal temperate rainforests of northern British Columbia

Abstract

We sampled second-growth forests ranging in age from 28 to 98 years and compared them with old-growth forests to quantify rates of terrestrial vegetation recovery following harvesting on the northcentral coast of British Columbia. Species richness approximately doubles, while Simpson’s index of diversity increases from 0.81 to 0.91 from young to old forests. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordinations showed differentiation, with some overlap, of old-growth and second-growth forests and a fairly strong correlation of stand age with plot scores, driven by plant species presence and cover. Vegetation succession following logging disturbance is driven primarily by predisturbance species composition; most species found in the young forests are present in old forests and the higher species richness typical of old growth is largely due to the establishment of additional cryptogam and herb species of low cover and constancy. Significantly higher cover of shrub, herb, and bryophyte species differentiates old forests from second-growth forests. Forests 41–100 years old average 63%–73% similarity (depending on site type) to old-growth forests based on species presence–absence and 53%–58% similarity based on species cover. The scarcity of western redcedar ( Thuja plicata Donn ex D. Don) in second-growth stands is of particular concern because of the high ecological, cultural, and economic importance of this tree species.