Monitoring Forest Recovery Following Wildfire and Harvest in Boreal Forests Using Satellite Imagery

Forests

Amar Madoui¹  Sylvie Gauthier³  Alain Leduc¹  Yves Bergeron⁴  Osvaldo Valeria⁴  Joanne C. White² 

[1] Centre d’étude de la forêt, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale, Centre-ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada; E-Mail:;Centre d’étude de la forêt, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale, Centre-ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada; E-Mail;Ressources naturelles Canada, Service canadien des forêts, Centre de foresterie des Laurentides, 1055 du PEPS, C.P. 10380, Station Sainte-Foy, Québec, QC G1V 4C7, Canada; E-Mail:;Forest Research Institute, Industrial Chair NSERC-UQAT-UQAM in Sustainable Forest Management, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 445 boulevard de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC J9X 5E4, Canada; E-Mails:

关键词: Black spruce-feathermoss;    disturbance;    post-disturbance recovery;    revegetation rate;    succession;    time since disturbance.;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f6114105

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In the managed boreal forest, harvesting has become a disturbance as important as fire. To assess whether forest recovery following both types of disturbance is similar, we compared post-disturbance revegetation rates of forests in 22 fire events and 14 harvested agglomerations (harvested areas over 5–10 years in the same vicinity) in the western boreal forest of Quebec. Pre-disturbance conditions were first compared in terms of vegetation cover types and surficial deposit types using an ordination technique. Post-disturbance changes over 30 years in land cover types were characterized by vectors of succession in an ordination. Four post-disturbance stages were identified from the 48 land thematic classes in the Landsat images: “S0” stand initiation phase; “S1” early regeneration phase; “S2” stem exclusion phase; and “S3” the coniferous forest. Analyses suggest that fire occurs in both productive and unproductive forests, which is not the case for harvesting. Revegetation rates (i.e., rapidity with which forest cover is re-established) appeared to be more advanced in harvested agglomerations when compared with entire fire events. However, when considering only the productive forest fraction of each fire, the revegetation rates are comparable between the fire events and the harvested agglomerations. The S0 is practically absent from harvested agglomerations, which is not the case in the fire events. The difference in revegetation rates between the two disturbance types could therefore be attributed mostly to the fact that fire also occurs in unproductive forest, a factor that has to be taken into account in such comparisons.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.