Abstract

Protected forest areas (PFAs) are key features of biodiversity conservation, and knowledge about long-term development is crucial in evaluating their efficiency and management needs. Longitudinal data on forest structure in PFAs is uncommon and often from small areas. Here we use data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory to study changes in more than 750 000 ha of PFAs over 60 years. Structures important for biodiversity, e.g., number of large trees and the volume of hard deadwood, including both standing and down wood, have more than doubled. The initial volume of deadwood, however, was very low. The overall tree species composition was stable over time, and only among the largest trees were there indications of a shift towards the late successional Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.). Deadwood increased independent of species, size of wood, and site characteristics. This increase was positively related to the volume of living trees and forest age. We conclude that Swedish PFAs, in the absence of active management and under fire suppression at the landscape scale, develop structural components that are crucial for conservation of biodiversity. However, although tree species composition appears stable, present disturbance regimes in the PFAs are considerably different from those in naturally dynamic forests, which may have implications for long-term biodiversity maintenance.

Keywords

national park; nature reserve; temporal trends; forest dynamics; coarse woody debris

Published in

Canadian Journal of Forest Research
2015, Volume: 45, number: 9, pages: 1215-1224
Publisher: CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING, NRC RESEARCH PRESS

SLU Authors

• Hedwall, Per-Ola

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Mikusinski, Grzegorz

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2014-0470

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/69355