Young Forest Formation after Harvest Cutting and Fires in the Dark-Coniferous Sedge–Fern Forests of the Southern Sikhote-Alin

Abstract

A comparative analysis of the formation and natural development of the young generation of wood types (genera or species of woody plants) after different harvesting methods and slow-moving surface fires at the interface of fir–spruce and cedar–broadleaf forests in the Southern Sikhote-Alin has been performed. The features of natural regeneration, growth, development, self-thinning, and abundance dynamics of the young generation of wood types are considered over a period of 33 years in three different cutover and burnt areas of the cedar–dark-coniferous sedge–fern forests. It has been established that, out of all the methods of harvest cutting in the pine–dark-coniferous sedge–fern forests of the Southern Sikhote-Alin, regenration proceeds the most rapidly and successfully with no replacement of the dominant species after wintertime selective harvest cutting. In the event of clearcutting and surface fires, the regeneration is accompanied by the replacement of conifers by the fast-growing deciduous species. The regeneration of cedar–dark-coniferous forests takes the longest after clearcutting with the use of heavy-duty machinery that disturbs the ground cover and forest floor and damages the coniferous undergrowth. The success of the regeneration process in the surveyed areas can be attributed to insignificant areas affected by cutting and burning (each less than 1 ha), retention to some degree of undergrowth from the previous generation, the presence of coniferous seed trees on the plots, and the proximity of the primary forest massifs. Selective cutting ensures the successful formation of young growth forest, providing the undergrowth of the previous generation is retained in the forests of the Southern Sikhote-Alin. Our findings confirm the successful formation of young growth forests in areas affected by selective harvest cutting.