The impact of logging intensity on field-layer vegetation in Swedish boreal forests

Abstract

The relationship between logging intensity and changes in ground cover vegetation was studied in 16 species and groups of species recorded at 10- or 11-year intervals in mature conifer-dominated forests. The 789 plots located in northern and central Sweden had been surveyed by the National Forest Inventory and the National Survey of Forest Soil and Vegetation. Thirty-seven percent of the plots had been subjected to a thinning or clear-cutting between the inventories. A principal components analysis showed that, of the variables considered, logging intensity had the highest explanatory power regarding change in ground cover vegetation between the inventories (the other variables were sum of temperatures, age of stand, timber volume, percentage Pinus sylvestris and site productivity). A multivariate direct gradient analysis technique (Redundancy analysis) showed that the logging intensity significantly affected the change in cover. This analysis also ranked the species in their responsiveness to logging. Epilobium angustifolium, narrow-leaved grasses and broad-leaved grasses, increased most with logging intensity. The response was not linear and only detectable at high logging intensities (>80%). In contrast, Vaccinium myrtillus seemed to decrease linearly with increased logging intensity. There was several years time-lag in the response to logging of E. angustifolium, V. myrtillus and narrow-leaved grasses. Several species and groups of species seemed unaffected by the logging. In sample plots unaffected by logging the cover of most species decreased.