Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Are post-fire residual forest patches refugia for boreal bryophyte species? Implications for ecosystem based management and conservation

Biodiversity and Conservation volume 26, pages 943–965 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Residual patches of forest remaining after natural or anthropogenic disturbance may facilitate regeneration of fragmented forest. However, residual patch function remains unclear, especially after natural wildfire. We investigate the role of residual boreal forest patches as refugia for bryophytes and ask the question, do they house bryophyte communities similar to those encountered in undisturbed forests? Bryophytes were sampled in three habitat types in black spruce boreal forests illustrating a gradient of disturbance severity: undisturbed forests, residual patches and burned matrices. Temporal, disturbance severity, spatial and structural variables of habitats were also recorded. Bryophyte community composition differed among habitat types with residual patches characterized by higher species richness, the loss of forest specialists and the addition of disturbance-prone species. The bryophyte community found in residual patches is at the interface between the communities of undisturbed forests and burned matrices. As residual patches did not conserve all species, particularly forest specialists, they were not refugia. However, we identify temporal, spatial and structural characteristics that can maintain bryophyte communities most similar to undisturbed forests and enhance residual patch “refugia potential”. Residual patches enhance bryophyte diversity of the landscape housing species that cannot survive in the burned matrix. As conclusion we discuss the use of retention patches in harvested stands, together with the preservation of undisturbed stands that house singular bryophyte communities and especially sensitive forest specialists.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1

Figure was created with ArcGis 10.3.1

Fig. 2

Figure was created with R 3.2.1 and powerpoint softwares

Fig. 3

Figure was created with R 3.2.1 and powerpoint softwares

Fig. 4

Figure was created with R 3.2.1 and powerpoint softwares

Fig. 5

Figure was created with R 3.2.1 and powerpoint softwares

References

  • Andison DW, McCleary K (2014) Detecting regional differences in within-wildfire burn patterns in western boreal Canada. For Chron 90:59–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Araújo MB (2002) Biodiversity hotpots and zones of ecological transition. Conserv Biol 16:1662–1663

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arseneault J, Fenton NJ, Bergeron Y (2012) Effects of variable canopy retention harvest on epixylic bryophytes in boreal black spruce–feathermoss forests. Can J For Res 42:1467–1476

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Auerbach M, Shmida A (1987) Spatial scale and the determinants of plant species richness. Trends Ecol Evol 2:238–242

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baker TP, Jordan GJ, Dalton PJ, Baker SC (2013) Impact of distance to mature forest on the recolonisation of bryophytes in a regenerating Tasmanian wet eucalypt forest. Aust J Bot 61:633–642

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker TP, Jordan GJ, Steel EA, Fountain-Jones NM, Wardlaw TJ, Baker SC (2014) Microclimate through space and time: microclimatic variation at the edge of regeneration forests over daily, yearly and decadal time scales. For Ecol Manag 334:174–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbier S, Gosselin F, Balandier P (2008) Influence of tree species on understory vegetation diversity and mechanisms involved—a critical review for temperate and boreal forests. For Ecol Manag 254:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergeron Y, Gauthier S, Flannigan M, Kafka V (2004) Fire regimes at the transition between mixedwood and coniferous boreal forest in northwestern Quebec. Ecology 85:1916–1932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference: practical information-theoric approach, 2nd edn. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson DJ, Reich PB, Frelich LE (2011) Fine-scale heterogeneity in overstory composition contributes to heterogeneity of wildfire severity in southern boreal forest. J For Res JPN 16:203–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chaieb C, Fenton NJ, Lafleur B, Bergeron Y (2015) Can we use forest inventory mapping as a coarse filter in ecosystem based management in the black spruce boreal forest? Forests 6:1195–1207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke PJ (2002) Habitat islands in fire-prone vegetation: do landscape features influence community composition? J Biogeogr 29:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Creed RP (2000) Is there a new keystone species in North American lakes and rivers? Oikos 91:405–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cyr D, Gauthier S, Bergeron Y, Carcaillet C (2009) Forest management is driving the eastern North American boreal forest outside its natural range of variability. Front Ecol Environ 7:519–524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drapeau P, Nappi A, Imbeau L, Saint-Germain M (2009) Standing deadwood for keystone bird species in the eastern boreal forest: managing for snag dynamics. For Chron 85:227–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • During HJ (1992) Ecological classification of bryophytes and lichens. In: Bates JW, Farmer AM (eds) Bryophytes and lichens in changing environment. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp 1–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Dynesius M, Hylander K (2007) Resilience of bryophyte communities to clear-cutting of boreal stream-side forests. Biol Conserv 135:423–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Environment Canada (2015) Canadian climate normals 1981–2010 Station data http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/index_e.html. Accessed 5 Apr 2015

  • ESRI (2015) ArcGis Dekstop: release 10.3.1. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands

  • Faubert J (2012–2014) Flore des bryophytes du Québec-Labrador (vol. 1, 2 and 3). Société québécoise de bryologie, Saint-Valérien

  • Fenton NJ, Bergeron Y (2008) Does time of habitat make old-growth forests species rich? Bryophyte richness in boreal Picea mariana forests. Biol Conserv 141:1389–1399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton NJ, Bergeron Y (2013) Stochastic processes dominate during boreal bryophyte community assembly. Ecology 94:1993–2006

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton NJ, Frego KA (2005) Bryophyte (moss and liverwort) conservation under remnant canopy in managed forests. Biol Conserv 122:417–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2007) Flora of North America, North of Mexico (vol. 27), Bryophytes: Moss, Part 1. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • Greene DF, Macdonald SE, Haeussler S, Domenicano S, Noel J, Jayen K, Charron I, Gauthier S, Hunt S, Gielau ET, Bergeron Y, Swift L (2007) The reduction of organic-layer depth by wildfire in the North American boreal forest and its effect on tree recruitment by seed. Can J For Res 37:1012–1023

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grondin P (1996) Écologie forestière. In: Bérard JA, Côté M (eds) Manuel de foresterie. Presse de l’Université Laval, Québec, pp 133–279

    Google Scholar 

  • Halpern CB (1988) Early successional pathways and the resistance and resilience of forest communities. Ecology 69:1703–1714

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herben T (1995) Founder and dominance control: neglected concepts in the community dynamics of clonal plants. Abstracta Botanica 19:3–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgins SI, Bond WJ, Trollope WS (2000) Fire, resprouting and variability: a recipe for grass–tree coexistence in savanna. J Ecol 88:213–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Honnay O, Hermy M, Coppin P (1999) Effects of area, age and diversity of forest patches in Belgium on plant species richness, and implications for conservation and reforestation. Biol Conserv 87:73–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hylander K, Johnson S (2010) In situ survival of forest bryophytes in small-scale refugia after an intense forest fire. J Veg Sci 21:1099–1109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laaka-Lindberg S, Korpelainen H, Pohjamo M (2006) Spatial distribution of epixylic hepatics in relation to substrate in a boreal old-gorth forest. J Hattori Bot Lab 100:311–323

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster J, Belyea LR (1997) Nested hierarchies and scale-dependence of mechanisms of flow refugium use. J N Am Benthol Soc 16:221–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen DR, Speckman PL (2004) Multivariate regression trees for analysis of abundance data. Biometrics 60:543–549

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee S-II, Spense JR, Langor DW, Pinzon J (2015) Retention patch size and conservation of saproxylic beetles in boreal white spruce stands. For Ecol Manag 358:98–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard SWJ, Bennett AF, Clarke MF (2014) Determinants of the occurrence of unburnt forest patches: potential biotic refuges within a large, intense wildfire in south-eastern Australia. For Ecol Manag 314:85–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lepš J, Šmilauer P (2003) Multivariate analysis of ecological data using CANOCO. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Lesica P, McCune B, Cooper SV, Hong WS (1991) Differences in lichen and bryophyte communities between old-growth and managed second-growth forests in the Swan Valley, Montana. Can J Bot 69:1745–1755

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Löbel S, Rydin H (2010) Trade-offs and habitat constraints in the establishment of epiphytic bryophytes. Funct Ecol 24:887–897

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Löbel S, Snäll T, Rydin H (2006) Metapopulation processes in epiphytes inferred from patterns of regional distribution and local abundance in fragmented forest landscapes. J Ecol 94:856–868

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Madoui A, Leduc A, Gauthier S, Bergeron Y (2010) Spatial pattern analyses of post-fire residual stands in the black spruce boreal forest of western Quebec. Int J Wildland Fire 19:1110–1126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miyanishi K, Johnson EA (2002) Process and patterns of duff consumption in the mixedwood boreal forest. Can J For Res 32:1285–1295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moussaoui L, Fenton NJ, Leduc A, Bergeron Y (2016a) Deadwood abundance in post-harvest and post-fire residual patches: an evaluation of patch temporal dynamics in black spruce boreal forest. For Ecol Manag 368:17–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moussaoui L, Fenton NJ, Leduc A, Bergeron Y (2016b) Can retention harvest maintain natural structural complexity? A comparison of post-harvest and post-fire residual patches in boreal forest. Forests 10:243–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murcia C (1995) Edge effects in fragmented forests: implications for conservation. Trends Ecol Evol 10:58–62

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nappi A, Drapeau P, Savard J-PL (2004) Salvage logging after wildfire in the boreal forest: is it becoming a hot issue for wildlife? For Chron 80:67–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newmaster SG, Belland RJ, Arsenault A, Vitt DH, Stephens TR (2005) The ones we left behind: comparing plot sampling and floristic habitat sampling for estimating bryophyte biodiversity. Divers Distrib 11:57–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Payette S (1992) Fire as a controlling process in the North American boreal forest. In: Shugart HH, Leemans R, Bonan G (eds) A systems analysis of the global boreal forest. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 144–169

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Perhans K, Appelgren L, Jonsson F, Nordin U, Söderström B, Gustafsson L (2009) Retention patches as potential refugia for bryophytes and lichens in managed forest landscapes. Biol Conserv 142:1125–1133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinheiro JC, Bates DM (1995) Approximations to the log-likelihood function in the nonlinear mixed-effects model. J Comput Graph Stat 4:12–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Pipp AK, Henderson C, Callaway RM (2001) Effects of forest age and forest structure on epiphytic lichen biomass and diversity in a Douglas-fir forest. Northwest Sci 75:12–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Pouliot D, Paquet C, Déry S, Jetté J-P, Pouilot B, Pâquet J (2010) Guide pour la préparation et l’analyse des plans annuels d’interventions forestières de 2011–2012 et de 2012–2013—Mesures associées aux dérogations à la coupe en mosaïque dans la pessière à mousses. Gouvernement du Québec, ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune, Direction de l’environnement et de la protection des forêts, Québec

  • Powell MJD (2009) The BOBYQA algorithm for bound constrained optimization without derivatives, Report No. DAMTP 2009/NA06, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge

  • Rambo TR (2001) Decaying logs and habitat heterogeneity: implications for bryophyte diversity in Western Oregon forest. Northwest Sci 75:270–277

    Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2015) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson NM, Leonard SWJ, Ritchie EG, Bassett M, Chia EK, Buckingham S, Gibb H, Bennett AF, Clarke MF (2013) Refuges for fauna in fire-prone landscapes: their ecological function and importance. J Appl Ecol 50:1321–1329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson NM, Leonard SWJ, Bennett AF, Clarke MF (2016) Are forest gullies refuges for birds when burnt? The value of topographical heterogeneity to avian diversity in a fire-prone landscape. Biol Conserv 200:1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld JS (2002) Functional redundancy in ecology and conservation. Oikos 98:156–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross-Davis AL, Frego KA (2002) Comparison of plantations and naturally regenerated clearcuts in the Acadian forest: forest floor bryophyte community and habitat features. Can J Bot 80:21–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samson C, Dussault C, Courtois R, Ouellet J-P (2002) Guide d’aménagement de l’habitat de l’orignal. Société de la faune et des parcs du Québec, Fondation de la faune du Québec et ministère des Ressources naturelles du Québec, Sainte-Foy

  • Sedell JR, Reeves GH, Hauer FR, Stanford JA, Hawkins CP (1990) Role of refugia in recovery from disturbances: modern fragmented and disconnected river systems. Environ Manag 14:711–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shmida A, Wilson MV (1985) Biological determinants of species diversity. J Biogeogr 12:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simard M, Lecomte N, Bergeron Y, Bernier PY, Paré D (2007) Forest productivity decline caused by successional paludification of boreal soils. Ecol Appl 17:1619–1637

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Söderström L (1987) Dispersal as limiting factor for distribution among epixylic bryophytes. Symp Biol Hung 35:475–483

    Google Scholar 

  • Söderström L, Jonsson B (1989) Spatial pattern and dispersal in the leafy hepatic Ptilidium pulcherrimum. J Bryol 15:793–802

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szövényi P, Hock ZS, Tóth Z (2004) Phorophyte preferences of epiphytic bryophytes in a stream valley in the Carpathian Basin. J Bryol 26:137–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas JW, Anderson RG, Maser C, Bull EL (1979) Wildlife habitats in managed forests of the Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Agricultural Handbook

  • Tilman D, May R, Lehman C, Nowak M (1994) Habitat destruction and the extinction debt. Nature 371:65–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turetsky MR, Bond-Lamberty B, Euskirchen E, Talbot J, Frolking S, McGuire AD, Tuittila E-S (2012) The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems. New Phytol 196:49–67

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vellend M, Srivastava DS, Anderson KM, Brown CD, Jankowski JE, Kleynhans EJ, Kraft NJB, Letaw AD, Macdonald AAM, Maclean JE, Myers-Smith IH, Norris AR, Xue X (2014) Assessing the relative importance of neutral stochasticity in ecological communities. Oikos 123:1420–1430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker B (1995) Conserving biological diversity through ecosystem resilience. Conserv Biol 9:747–752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warton DI, Hui FKC (2011) The arcsine is asinine: the analysis of proportions in ecology. Ecology 92:3–10

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Chafi Chaieb who provided bryophyte samples from the undisturbed forest sites and Julie Arseneault for their identification. Authors would also like to thank: Emilie E. Chavel and Louiza Moussaoui who provided some of the environmental data used in this paper; Myriam Paquette, Flora Joubier, Louis Dubois and Philippe Heine for their field assistance; Danielle Charron, Philippe Duval, Raynald Julien, Danièle Laporte, Marie-Hélène Longpré, and Michel Poitras for their technical support; Marc J. Mazerolle for his statistical advice; and Jean Faubert for his precious help in the identification of the most difficult bryophyte samples.

Funding

This study was funded by the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) in partnership with Tembec, Eacom and Resolute Forest Products.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de recherche sur les forêts, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 445 Boul. de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC, J9X 4E5, Canada

    Marion Barbé, Nicole J. Fenton & Yves Bergeron

  2. Chaire industrielle UQAM-UQAT en aménagement forestier durable, Institut de recherche sur les forêts, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 445 Boul. de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC, J9X 4E5, Canada

    Yves Bergeron

Authors
  1. Marion Barbé
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nicole J. Fenton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yves Bergeron
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marion Barbé.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by T. G. Allan Green.

This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Forest and plantation biodiversity.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10531_2016_1281_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 43 kb) Online Resource 1 Temporal, severity, spatial and structural variables measured at each of the undisturbed forests, residual patches and burned matrices sampled

10531_2016_1281_MOESM2_ESM.docx

Supplementary material 2 (DOCX 78 kb) Online Resource 2 Number of bryophyte taxa found at each habitat type: undisturbed forest, residual patch and burned matrix in boreal black spruce feather-moss forest after wildfire in western Québec region

Supplementary material 3 (DOCX 18 kb) Online Resource 3 Correlation coefficients among 12 environmental variables

10531_2016_1281_MOESM4_ESM.docx

Supplementary material 4 (DOCX 18 kb) Online Resource 4 Mean and SD of continuous environmental variables per habitat type

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Barbé, M., Fenton, N.J. & Bergeron, Y. Are post-fire residual forest patches refugia for boreal bryophyte species? Implications for ecosystem based management and conservation. Biodivers Conserv 26, 943–965 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1281-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1281-9

Keywords

search

Navigation