Abstract
Forestry harvesting represents an important economic activity around the world. Habitat degradation due to forest harvesting contributes to biodiversity loss; therefore, it is necessary to implement logging management aimed at reducing its impact. Forest management by reduce-impact logging (RIL) involves cutting trees following regulations focused on diminishing the impact on biodiversity by following harvesting plans based on forestry inventories and participation of trained workers. In Mexico, RIL is applied mainly in temperate habitats and its effectiveness has been assessed based on vascular plants. In this study, we analyzed the diversity and community structure of terrestrial and epiphytic mosses in managed (sites number = 3) and conserved (sites number = 3) sites in the temperate forest of Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico. Likewise, we evaluated the potential function of mosses as indicators of habitat degradation. Environmental variables were also quantified at local (canopy coverage, altitude, daily temperature, and light) and regional (total annual rainfall, orientation, and slope) scales to evaluate potential relationships with the community and species diversity. We documented 70 mosses species with a diversity (alfa, beta) and community structure similar between managed and conserved sites. For terrestrial mosses, we found marginal differences in their communities, likely related to species coverture variation in managed sites. The diversity and community structure epiphytic mosses were not statistically different in managed and conserved sites. Only the daily variation in light intensity was positively related to the variation of alpha diversity of epiphytic mosses. The species Dicranum sumichrastii Duby and Leptodontium viticulosoides (P. Beauv.) Wijk & Margad. can be considered as ecological indicators for conserved and managed sites, respectively, likely due to their relationship with light and humidity conditions. Our results suggest that that forest management by RIL could be considered as a promising tool to balance timber production and moss diversity.
Highlights
IntroductionIntroduction distributed under the terms andBiodiversity is highly threatened by anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation, land change, soil pollution, and habitat fragmentation around the world [1,2,3,4,5]
Introduction distributed under the terms andBiodiversity is highly threatened by anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation, land change, soil pollution, and habitat fragmentation around the world [1,2,3,4,5]
We evaluated the impact of Reduced-impact logging (RIL) on moss diversity in a pine-oak temperate forest in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico
Summary
Introduction distributed under the terms andBiodiversity is highly threatened by anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation, land change, soil pollution, and habitat fragmentation around the world [1,2,3,4,5]. Forest management represents a series of techniques that enable productive practices and depending on the wood harvest intensity and the impact on species richness, six standard silvicultural systems globally can be distinguished, from the least to the most harmful: selection and retention systems, reduced-impact logging, selective logging, clearcutting, and timber plantations [11]. Reduced-impact logging (RIL) is a silvicultural practice characterized by the selective extraction of trees from previously defined areas to reduce forest damage and protecting of riparian vegetation [12]. In contrast with forest management strategies such as clear-cutting, where entire tree stands are removed and biodiversity is highly impacted [11,24], the RIL generates small clearings reducing habitat disturbance effects [25,26,27]
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