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Climate change will affect the ability of forest management to reduce gaps between current and presettlement forest composition in southeastern Canada

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Abstract

Context

Forest landscapes at the boreal–temperate ecotone have been extensively altered. Reducing the gap between current and presettlement forest conditions through ecosystem-based forest management (EBFM) is thought to enhance ecological integrity. However, climate change may interfere with this goal and make these targets unrealistic.

Objectives

We evaluated the impacts of climate change on the ability of EBFM to reduce discrepancies between current and presettlement forest conditions in southeastern Canada.

Methods

We used early-land-survey data as well as projections from a forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) under four climate change scenarios and four management scenarios to evaluate future discrepancies between presettlement forest conditions and future forest landscapes.

Results

By triggering swift declines in most late-succession boreal conifer species biomass, climate change would greatly reduce the ability of forest management to reduce the gap with presettlement forest composition, especially under severe anthropogenic climate forcing. Scenarios assuming extensive clearcutting also favor aggressive competitor species that have already increased with high historical harvest levels (e.g., poplars, maples).

Conclusions

EBFM would still be the “less bad” forest harvesting strategy in order to mitigate composition discrepancies with the presettlement forests, though it is likely to fail under severe climate forcing. In this latter case, one might thus question the relevancy of using presettlement forest composition as a target for restoring degraded forest landscapes. As such, we advocate that managers should relax the centrality of the reference condition and focus on functional restoration rather than aiming at reducing the gaps with presettlement forest composition per se.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Fortin, R. Terrail, A. deRomer, M. Leroyer for constructing the presettlement forest composition database. This research was funded by the Forest Change project of the Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laurentian Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, 1055 du P.E.P.S, Stn. Sainte-Foy, P.O. Box 10380, Québec, QC, G1V 4C7, Canada

    Yan Boulanger, Sylvie Gauthier & Dominic Cyr

  2. Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300 allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada

    Dominique Arseneault & Sébastien Dupuis

  3. Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et de Parcs, 2700 rue Einstein, Québec, QC, G1P 3W8, Canada

    Yan Boucher

  4. Atlantic Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, 1350 Regent Street South, P.O. Box 4000, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5P7, Canada

    Anthony R. Taylor

  5. Northern Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, 5320 122nd Street NW, Edmonton, AB, T6H 3S5, Canada

    David T. Price

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  1. Yan Boulanger
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  2. Dominique Arseneault
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  3. Yan Boucher
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  6. Anthony R. Taylor
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Correspondence to Yan Boulanger.

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Boulanger, Y., Arseneault, D., Boucher, Y. et al. Climate change will affect the ability of forest management to reduce gaps between current and presettlement forest composition in southeastern Canada. Landscape Ecol 34, 159–174 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-018-0761-6

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