Abstract
Due to negative impacts of even-aged forest management on a range of socio-ecological values, there is increased interest in uneven-aged forest management, where selection cuttings continuously maintain a forest canopy with a variety of tree sizes. In boreal Europe, little is known about the effects of uneven-aged management on birds, a group embracing important ecological functions which is formally used as an environmental indicator. We will use a multi-scale approach to quantify the effects of uneven-aged forest management on birds. Building on an existing field experimental set-up in central Sweden, we will: (1) develop measures of three-dimensional vegetation structure for describing habitats in uneven-aged boreal forest using widely available airborne laser scanning data, (2) compare bird assemblage structure among stands under uneven-aged management, unmanaged control stands, and thinned even-aged stands, in relation to vegetation structure, and (3) quantify the breeding success of two declining forest bird species in the three above-mentioned stand types, again in relation to vegetation structure. Moreover, combining forest simulations and dynamic population modeling, we will (4) predict the large-scale, long-term effects of different degrees of implementation of uneven-aged forestry on a specialized forest bird?s population. The results will be of immediate value for assessing the ecological potential of uneven-aged management as a complement to even-aged systems.
Sweden