%0 Research article
%T Historical logging, productivity, and structural characteristics of boreal coniferous forests in Norway
%A Storaunet, Ken Olaf
%A Rolstad, Jørund
%A Gjerde, Ivar
%A Gundersen, Vegard S.
%D 2005
%J Silva Fennica
%V 39
%N 3
%R doi:10.14214/sf.479
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/479
%X Conservation of forest biodiversity has brought about an interest in  evaluating the naturalness of forests, and to locate and protect  semi-natural and old-growth forests in the Fennoscandian countries.  However, it is not always clear how natural these forests really are,  and how the past management history has affected their present  structural composition. We studied the relationships between cut stumps  from historical logging activity (50–100 years ago) and forest  structural characteristics of today in a total of 385 0.25 ha plots in  three boreal coniferous forests which are parts of National Nature  Reserves in Norway. We also studied how forest productivity influenced  these relationships. In plots with negligible logging impact we found  the amount of living trees, dead wood, and size of the oldest trees  mainly to increase with increasing productivity, whereas the age of the  oldest trees decreased. The amount of deciduous trees was generally low  irrespective of productivity. The intensity of logging did not  consistently influence most of these forest structural variables,  neither at low- nor at high-productive sites. The only consistent  relationship in all study areas was a decreasing amount of dead wood  with increasing logging intensity at high-productive sites. Also, the  decay class distribution of dead wood was more right-skewed (indicating  on-going accumulation of dead wood) the more logging had occurred at  high-productive sites. Except from the effects on dead wood, previous  logging does not show up as a major determinant of other stand  structures of today.