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Cumulative patterns of logging and fire (1940–2009): consequences on the structure of the eastern Canadian boreal forest

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Abstract

Context

Although logging has affected circumboreal forest dynamics for nearly a century, very few studies have reconstructed its influence on landscape structure at the subcontinental scale.

Objectives

This study aims to document spatiotemporal patterns of logging and fire since the introduction of logging in the early twentieth-century, and to evaluate the effects of these disturbances on landscape structure.

Methods

We used historical (1940–2009) logging and fire maps to document disturbance patterns across a 195,000-km2 boreal forest landscape of eastern Canada. We produced multitemporal (1970s–2010s) mosaics providing land cover status using Landsat imagery.

Results

Logging significantly increased the rate of disturbance (+74 %) in the study area. The area affected by logging increased linearly with time resulting in a significant rejuvenation of the landscape along the harvesting pattern (south–north progression). From 1940 to 2009, fire was the dominant disturbance and showed a more random spatial distribution than logging. The recent increase of fire influence and the expansion of the proportion of area classified as unproductive terrestrial land suggest that regeneration failures occurred.

Conclusions

This study reveals how logging has modified the disturbances dynamics, following the progression of the logging frontier. Future management practices should aim for a dispersed spatial distribution of harvests to generate landscape structures that are closer to natural conditions, in line with ecosystem-based management. The challenges of defining sustainable practices will remain complex with the predicted increase in fire frequency, since this factor, in combination with logging, can alter both the structure and potentially the resilience of boreal forest.

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Acknowledgments

This study received financial support from Quebec’s Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs (Project No. 142332085) and the Université de Sherbrooke. We thank the initiative of the U.S. Geological Survey which provides open access of the Landsat archives. We also thank J. Noël, A. Leboeuf, J.-D. Sylvain, C. Loyer, J.-A. Langlois and M. Carrier for help with data and spatial analysis, as well as P. Jasinski and D. Tousignant for help with English editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Direction de la recherche forestière, Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec, 2700, Einstein Street, Quebec, QC, G1P 3W8, Canada

    Yan Boucher & Isabelle Auger

  2. Département de géomatique appliquée, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500, boulevard de l’Université Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, J1K 2R1, Canada

    Maude Perrault-Hébert & Richard Fournier

  3. Département des sciences biologiques, Université du Québec à Montreal, Centre-Ville Station, P.O. Box 8888, Montreal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada

    Pierre Drapeau

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  1. Yan Boucher
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  2. Maude Perrault-Hébert
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  3. Richard Fournier
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  4. Pierre Drapeau
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  5. Isabelle Auger
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Correspondence to Yan Boucher.

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Boucher, Y., Perrault-Hébert, M., Fournier, R. et al. Cumulative patterns of logging and fire (1940–2009): consequences on the structure of the eastern Canadian boreal forest. Landscape Ecol 32, 361–375 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0448-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0448-9

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