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The projects explores to what extent natural disturbance regimes indicate the reaction of forest biota to stand-replacing disturbances, and whether this relationship can be reliably used for planning ecologically sustainable forestry. Clear-cuts with residual trees are treated as a model system, enabling also direct practical implications. The study consists of (1) establishing the composition, substratum use, condition and origin of the biota of residual trees as well as of whole clear-cuts with and without residual trees in forest types of different natural disturbance regimes; (2) comparing life history traits of species that survive and go extinct on the trees after clear-cutting; (3) exploring whether the determinants of survival of the residual trees can indicate the existance of correspondingly adaptated organisms. Technically, the project includes a cross-sectional study to quantify the community differences between clear-cuts and old stands of four forest types, a survey of temporal changes in clear-cuts covered by a pilot study in 2002-2004, and the compilation of review articles on the biodiversity effects of residual trees and cavity trees. Six large species groups are explored: saproxylic fungi and beetles, lichens, bryophytes, vascular plants and birds. The main results will be published in international peer-reviewed journals; one Ph.D. thesis and one M.Sc. thesis will be completed, and one additional Ph.D. thesis will be partly financed. The results can be immediately applied to improve forestry legislature, certification standards and forestry planning with the aspects of residual trees. The results also allow to establish more completely the role of managed forests in biodiversity conservation, and thus to plan specific conservation measures more efficiently. |