The response of conifer and broad-leaved trees and shrubs to wildfire and clearcut logging in the boreal forests of central labrador

Abstract

To assess the differences between forest management and natural disturbance, we retrospectively compared crown cover of woody plant species between burned and clearcut sites after 5, 14, and 27 years of succession. All 16 sites had been dominated by black spruce (Picea mariana) before disturbance. We found no difference in species richness between disturbance types, but richness was lowest on 5-year-old sites for both disturbances. Burned and clearcut sites differed in the cover of woody plant species, differences increasing slightly with time since disturbance. Both balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and black spruce were more abundant on 14- and 27-year-old clearcut plots than burned plots. Black spruce cover was always greater than fir, but the spruce:fir ratio on clearcut plots was lower than on burned plots. Our data suggest that fire and clearcut logging affect postdisturbance succession differently. Contrary to other studies, logging resulted in more commercially valuable black spruce than fire, and broad-leaved woody plants were not in greater abundance on logged sites. However, the persistence of fir through logging suggests that the resulting forest would be of lower commercial value than a pure black spruce forest. Copyright © 2005 by the Society of American Foresters.