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Articles containing the keyword 'riparian'

Category : Research article

article id 10676, category Research article
Eva Ring, Fredrik Johansson, Claudia von Brömssen, Isabelle Bergkvist. (2022). A snapshot of forest buffers near streams, ditches, and lakes on forest land in Sweden – lessons learned. Silva Fennica vol. 56 no. 4 article id 10676. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10676
Keywords: forestry; conifer; harvest; lake; riparian; stream; watercourse
Highlights: Forest buffers were inventoried on 174 harvested and site-prepared compartments bordering surface water in Sweden; Buffers with 100% shoreline coverage were present beside all 16 lakes and 55% of the natural or modified stream reaches; Judging streams´ character from field inspection of individual reaches alone proved difficult on forest land affected by historic drainage activities.
Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Forest buffers beside surface water can mitigate negative effects of logging. To gain more information on buffer implementation in operational forestry, forest buffers were inventoried during 2018 on 174 harvested and site-prepared compartments traversed by or bordering streams, ditches and lakes in three regions across Sweden 2–4 years after clearcutting. Most of the inventoried stream and ditch reaches were ≤5 m wide. The water reaches were categorized as lakes (n = 16), natural streams (n = 50), modified streams (n = 21) or ditches (n = 87). Forest buffers with 100% shoreline coverage were present along all lake reaches and 55% and 10% of the natural or modified stream and ditch reaches, respectively. Buffers were absent beside 14% of the natural or modified stream reaches and 61% of the ditch reaches. Lake reaches had significantly wider buffers on average than ditch reaches and natural or modified stream reaches. The mean (SE) buffer widths beside lakes, natural or modified stream reaches and ditch reaches across all three regions and shoreline coverage classes were 12 (1.1), 6.6 (0.6) and 1.5 (0.5) m, respectively. The character of the local stream networks (natural or modified streams or ditches) containing each inventoried reach, were assessed using map information and the reaches´ field classifications. This illustrated the difficulty of judging a streams´ character based solely on field inspections of individual reaches on forest land where historic drainage activities have been performed. We recommend that also upstream and downstream conditions should be considered when planning environmental measures to protect surface water bodies.

  • Ring, Skogforsk (The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden), Uppsala Science Park, 751 83 Uppsala, Sweden ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8962-9811 E-mail: eva.ring@skogforsk.se (email)
  • Johansson, Skogforsk (The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden), Uppsala Science Park, 751 83 Uppsala, Sweden E-mail: fredrik.johansson@skogforsk.se
  • von Brömssen, Department of energy and technology, Division of applied statistics and mathematics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1452-8696 E-mail: Claudia.von.Bromssen@slu.se
  • Bergkvist, Mellanskog, Uppsala Science Park, Box 127, 751 04 Uppsala, Sweden E-mail: isabelle.bergkvist@mellanskog.se
article id 10000, category Research article
Hamed Yousefzadeh, Rasta Rajaei, Anna Jasińska, Łukasz Walas, Yann Fragnière, Gregor Kozlowski. (2018). Genetic diversity and differentiation of the riparian relict tree Pterocarya fraxinifolia (Juglandaceae) along altitudinal gradients in the Hyrcanian forest (Iran). Silva Fennica vol. 52 no. 5 article id 10000. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10000
Keywords: plant variation; Caucasian wingnut; population genetics; refugium; riparian forest; river system
Highlights: The Caucasian wingnut (Pterocarya fraxinifolia Spach) is an emblematic and relict riparian tree with limited distribution in Hyrcanian forest which investigating its genetic population structure and diversity along altitudinal gradients, and migration patterns are novel; We concluded that rivers are the main seed dispersal vector among P. fraxinifolia populations and there was no trend from upstream to downstream; The high level of gene flow and uniform genetic diversity along each river system suggest the “classical” metapopulation structure of the species.
Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Riparian trees, especially relict trees, are attractive and important for research to understand both past and recent biogeographical and evolutionary processes. Our work is the first study to elucidate the genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the canopy-dominating riparian Pterocarya fraxinifolia (Juglandaceae) along two altitudinal gradients in different river systems of the Hyrcanian forest, which is one of the most important refugium of relict trees in Western Eurasia. Altitudinal gradients were chosen along two river systems at 100, 400 and 900 m a.s.l. Leaf samples were collected from 116 trees, and the genetic diversity was evaluated with eight SSR markers. Overall, 39 alleles were identified for all of the populations studied. The observed heterozygosity (Ho) varied from 0.79 to 0.87 (with a mean of 0.83). The results of the AMOVA analysis indicated that the variation within populations was 88%, whereas the variation among populations was 12% for all of the gradients. A structure analysis indicated that 93% of the trees were grouped in the same gradient. The genetic distance based on Fst confirmed the structure result and indicated a high rate of gene flow among the investigated populations. Based on high gene flow (low differentiation of the population along the same river) and the clearly distinct genetic structure of the investigated gradients, it can be concluded that rivers are the main seed dispersal vector among P. fraxinifolia populations. The genetic diversity of P. fraxinifolia did not show any trend from upstream to downstream. The high level of gene flow and uniform genetic diversity along each river suggest the “classical” metapopulation structure of the species.

  • Yousefzadeh, Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Mazandaran, Iran E-mail: h.yousefzadeh@modares.ac.ir (email)
  • Rajaei, Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Mazandaran, Iran E-mail: r.rajaei@modares.ac.ir
  • Jasińska, Laboratory of Systematics and Geography, Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Parkowa 5, PL-62-035 Kornik, Poland E-mail: jasiak9@wp.pl
  • Walas, Laboratory of Systematics and Geography, Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Parkowa 5, PL-62-035 Kornik, Poland E-mail: lukaswalas@wp.pl
  • Fragnière, Department of Biology and Botanic Garden, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland E-mail: yann.fragniere@unifr.ch
  • Kozlowski, Department of Biology and Botanic Garden, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland; Natural History Museum Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 6, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland E-mail: gregor.kozlowski@unifr.ch
article id 371, category Research article
Mika Nieminen, Erkki Ahti, Hannu Nousiainen, Samuli Joensuu, Martti Vuollekoski. (2005). Capacity of riparian buffer zones to reduce sediment concentrations in discharge from peatlands drained for forestry. Silva Fennica vol. 39 no. 3 article id 371. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.371
Keywords: ditching; suspended solids; peatlands; erosion; riparian buffer zones; water quality protection
Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info
In 1995–2001, the efficiency of riparian buffer zone areas to reduce the concentrations of suspended solids in discharge from peatlands drained for forestry purposes was studied at 7 locations in south-central Finland. The two largest buffer zones reduced the concentrations of suspended solids by > 70%. The efficiency of the three medium-sized buffer zones to reduce through-flow sediment concentrations was 50–60%, but no reduction occurred at the smallest two buffer areas. Thus, the capacity of buffer zones to reduce sediment concentrations was strongly related to their size. However, significant correlations were also found between reduction capacity and inflow water sediment concentrations, although the correlations at the two smallest buffer zones were low. The use of buffer zones in reducing sediment load from peatlands drained for forestry purposes is recommended, but relatively large areas for efficient removal capacity are needed.
  • Nieminen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Research Centre, P.O. Box 18, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland E-mail: mika.nieminen@metla.fi (email)
  • Ahti, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Research Centre, P.O. Box 18, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland E-mail: ea@nn.fi
  • Nousiainen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Research Centre, P.O. Box 18, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland E-mail: hn@nn.fi
  • Joensuu, Forestry Development Centre Tapio, Soidinkuja 4, FI-00700 Helsinki, Finland E-mail: sj@nn.fi
  • Vuollekoski, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Research Centre, P.O. Box 18, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland E-mail: mv@nn.fi

Category : Climate resilient and sustainable forest management – Review article

article id 23057, category Climate resilient and sustainable forest management – Review article
Ane Christensen Tange, Hanne K. Sjølie, Gunnar Austrheim. (2024). Effectiveness of conservation measures to support biodiversity in boreal timber-production forests. Silva Fennica vol. 58 no. 2 article id 23057. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.23057
Keywords: forestry; sustainable forest management; dead wood enhancement; forest certification; green tree retention; riparian buffer zone
Highlights: A systematic review of in-situ conservation measures displays that forest biodiversity levels are largely maintained upon harvest with conservation measures compared to unlogged forest; The type of control impacts the frequency of positive, not significant and negative observations; The relatively few significant results restrain distinct conclusions on the effectiveness of the assessed conservation measures to support biodiversity.
Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Large parts of the boreal forest ecosystems have been greatly affected by human use, and the current timber-oriented forest management practice that dominates boreal forests is proven to cause biodiversity and ecosystem services declines. These negative effects are mitigated in various ways, including in-situ measures implemented upon harvest. The measures comprise trade-offs between economic and ecological aims; thus, requiring solid knowledge of their effectiveness. However, comprehensive literature review of the effectiveness of such measures is scarce. We aim to fill part of this void by reviewing the scientific literature that have gauged effects of four in-situ conservation measures: green tree retention (GTR), patch retention (PR), dead wood retention (DW) and riparian buffer zones (RB). Two outcomes were considered, species richness and species abundance across taxa.

From a total of 3012 initial papers, 48 met our inclusion criteria that generated 238 unique results. Results were grouped according to control. 178 studies used mature, unlogged forest as control. Out of those, 68% of the findings were not significant, i.e., suggesting no significant impact of harvest with biodiversity measures on species richness and species abundance compared to no harvest. Eighteen percent of the observations showed negative effects and 14% of the observations showed positive effects compared to no harvest. Sixty studies used harvest with no measures as control, of which 45% showed significant positive effects, meaning that compared to harvest with no measures, harvest with conservation measures has positively effects on species richness and abundance. However, 43% of the studies found no significant effect of the implemented conservation measures compared to harvest with no measures taken.

The relatively few significant results reported restrain distinct conclusions on the effectiveness of the assessed conservation measures, but some degree of conservation measure is likely to have positive effects on biodiversity in timber-production forest. However, the scientific basis does not allow for pointing to threshold levels. Higher transparency of study design and statistical results would allow us to include more studies. There is a clear need for more research of effectiveness of common conservation measures in timber-production forests in order to strengthen the knowledge basis. In particular, there are few studies that employ harvest without any conservation measure as control. This is pivotal knowledge for forest managers as well as for policymakers for preserving biodiversity and the ecosystems in forest.

  • Tange, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Evenstad, Norway; Glommen Mjøsen Skog SA, Elverum, Norway ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3145-8159 E-mail: ane.tange@inn.no (email)
  • Sjølie, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Evenstad, Norway ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8099-3521 E-mail: hanne.sjolie@inn.no
  • Austrheim, University Museum Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Natural History, Trondheim, Norway ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3909-6666 E-mail: gunnar.austrheim@ntnu.no

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