Testing forest ecosystem management in boreal mixedwoods of northwestern Quebec: initial response of aspen stands to different levels of harvesting

The SAFE (sylviculture et aménagement forestiers écosystémique) project was set up in 1998 in the Lake Duparquet Research and Teaching Forest to test stand-level silvicultural treatments designed to reflect different aspects of natural forest dynamics. In the winter of 1998–1999, four levels of forest harvesting, including a no-harvest and a clearcut treatment, were applied to even-aged trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands according to a complete block design with three replications. Two partial cut treatments removed 33% and 61% of the stand basal area. During the first growing season, harvesting induced a large increase in indigenous understorey biomass that paralleled changes in the canopy opening. Aspen sucker density increased from 4916 stems/ha in the control to 28 751 and 63 333 stems/ha in the one-third and two-thirds harvesting treatments and 102 916 stems/ha in the clearcut. Most changes in nutrient cycling occurred in the second year and included an increase in forest floor organic C, total N, and base cation availability and a decrease in microbial C/N ratio. These changes may have occurred in response to reduced vegetation uptake and woody debris abundance.