A quantitative estimation of the importance of short stumps for saproxylic organisms

Author

Head of department: Göran Ericsson +46 (0)90-786 8508
Assistant head of department:  Joakim Hjältén +46 (0)90-786 8400

Postal address: Institutionen för vilt fisk och miljö, SLU, 901 83 Umeå
Visiting address: Skogsmarksgränd, Umeå

• Aim: Determine the short term ecological consequences of stump harvest and the potential for compensatory measures.

Project description: There are plans in Sweden to harvest the remaining short stumps on clear-felled areas to substitute fossile fuels. This research project treats the effects this may have on biodiversity in boreal forests. We take advantage of an already established long-term dead-wood experiment. We want to determine: 1) how large part of the wood-inhabiting species pool of clear-cuts and their reproduction that is found in short stumps; 2) the function of stumps in creating micro-topographic refugia for forest species intolerant to clear-cuts;  3) if these functions varies spatially in the landscape; 4) if compensation measures are necessary and what their magnitude should be. The results are important to make stump harvest acceptable from a conservation point of view.

Hosting forest companies: Holmen, SCA, Sveaskog.
Funding: Swedish energy agency.

Publications
Hjältén, J., Stenbacka, F, Andersson J. 2010. Saproxylic beetle assemblages on low-stumps, high-stumps and logs: implications for environmental effects of stump harvest. Forest Ecology and Management, 260, 1149-1155.

For further details log on website :
http://www.slu.se/en/departments/wildlife-fish-environmental-studies/research/research-areas/forest-biocore/a-quantitative-estimation/