The Short-Term Effects of Experimental Forestry Treatments on Site Conditions in an Oak–Hornbeam Forest

Bence Kovács,Vivien Sass,Flóra Tinya,Csaba Németh,Erika Guba,Péter Ódor,András Bidló

doi:10.3390/f9070406

Abstract

Forest management alters forest site; however, information is still limited about how different silvicultural treatments modify abiotic conditions. We compared the effects of four treatments from three different forestry systems on forest microclimate, litter, and soil conditions. The clear-cutting, retention tree group, preparation cutting, and gap-cutting treatments were experimentally established in a European oak-dominated forest, following a complete block design with six replicates. In this study, we show the results of the quantitative analyses of 21 variables, one year after the interventions. Strong treatment effects were observed for the microclimate and litter variables, whereas the soil characteristics remained similar. The increase in light was the highest in the clear-cuts with intermediate effects in the gap-cuts. The means and variances of the air and soil temperature as well as the vapor pressure deficit were the highest for the clear-cutting treatment. An increase in soil moisture, litter pH, and litter moisture was significant in the gap-cuts and, to a smaller extent, in the clear-cuts. The soil pH increased in the retention tree groups. Microclimatic differences between the treatments were the largest during the summer, which demonstrates the buffering effect of the canopy. Our study confirms that less intensive and more spatially heterogeneous silvicultural treatments (e.g., gap-cutting) preserve a stable below-canopy microclimate more effectively. These results can support and might be useful for both forest management and conservation planning.

Highlights

Forest management induces substantial alterations in environmental conditions that fundamentally influence the ecosystem’s structure and functions [1,2]
According to the performed linear mixed effects models, we found that the experimental treatments affected microclimate and litter variables more, while the soil chemical characteristics did not differ significantly among treatment types—except for topsoil acidity (Table 2 and Figure 2)
Contrary to previous studies reporting that the temperature and humidity in the stands harvested using moderately intensive management practices had only slightly modified microclimates compared to the uncut plots, we found that almost every treatment type resulted significant departures from the control in these variables

Summary

Introduction

Forest management induces substantial alterations in environmental conditions that fundamentally influence the ecosystem’s structure and functions [1,2]. These strongly impact the long-term survival, regeneration, and diversity of forest-dwelling organism groups [3,4]. Studying the effects of different management practices on forest site conditions can support the mitigation of the negative impacts of climate change [15,16], because fine-scale measurements and high-resolution models are necessary to create predictions for the ecological processes or calculate probable species distributions [17,18]. For conservation purposes, it is important to investigate how forestry treatments alter forest site conditions through numerous, highly interrelated effects

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