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Old-Growth Forest Definitions: a Pragmatic View

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Book cover Old-Growth Forests

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 207))

Abstract

Definitions of what constitutes an ‘old-growth’ forest are manifold and often ambiguous. This chapter starts with a review of existing concepts and critically examines their usefulness in the context of ecosystem functioning and forest conservation. Using examples from all major forests biomes, the merits and limitations of structural, successional and biogeochemical definitions are discussed. Second, the plethora of related terms (primary, pristine, intact, virgin, etc.) is screened. A semantic meta-analysis based on entries in the Web of Science reveals that the usage of terminology in the literature depends strongly on the time period, discipline, and scientific community. Third, a model is presented that combines literature data on natural disturbance intervals and maximum longevities of pioneer trees to estimate the landscape fraction covered by old-growth forests (using the successional definition) without human impact. This fraction varies and is about 90%, 50% and 20% in tropical, temperate and boreal forest, respectively. Finally, detection and mapping methods of old-growth forests are discussed and a pragmatic approach to defining old-growth forest is advocated.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://afoludata.jrc.it/carboinvent/cidb_cwdgdb.cfm

  2. 2.

    See also Chap. 17 by Grace and Meir, this volume, in which they emphasise (Sect. 17.1) that many rainforests have the diagnostic characteristics mentioned above, in that they completely lack human impact. Therefore they distinguish old-growth secondary forests that have much of the general appearance of undisturbed forest, but lack some of the biodiversity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-KnÖll-Str. 10, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Christian Wirth & Anja Fankhänel

  2. Centre d’Étude de la Forêt (CEF), Université du Québec á Montréal (UQAM), Montréal, CP, 8888, Canada

    Christian Messier

  3. Chaire Industrielle CRSNG-UQAT-UQAM en Aménagement Forestier Durable, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 445 boul. de l’Universite, C.P.700, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, Canada

    Yves Bergeron

  4. Organismic Biogeochemistry Group, Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knöll-Straβe 10, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Dorothea Frank

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  1. Christian Wirth
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  2. Christian Messier
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  3. Yves Bergeron
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Correspondence to Christian Wirth .

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    Wirth, C., Messier, C., Bergeron, Y., Frank, D., Fankhänel, A. (2009). Old-Growth Forest Definitions: a Pragmatic View. In: Wirth, C., Gleixner, G., Heimann, M. (eds) Old-Growth Forests. Ecological Studies, vol 207. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92706-8_2

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