Plant diversity in old-growth and second-growth stands in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia

UBC Faculty Research and Publications

Plant diversity in old-growth and second-growth stands in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia Klinka, Karel

Abstract

One of the human activities impacting biodiversity is the cutting of old-growth forests. In response to the controversy surrounding the cutting of old-growth in the coastal rainforest of BC, the Ministries of the Environment and Forests have produced biodiversity guidelines that are to be applied when manipulating stands in the provincial forest. This study augments these guidelines by investigating the diversity differences between second-growth and old-growth forests in relation to site quality. We demonstrate how standlevel plant diversity differs between 40-year-old and old-growth stands in the Very Wet Coastal Western Hemlock subzone (CWHvm) on Vancouver Island. This information is intended to provide foresters with an understanding of the effects of age, disturbance and site quality on stand-level plant diversity, thereby allowing for informed professional management decisions.

Item Metadata

Title	Plant diversity in old-growth and second-growth stands in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia
Alternate Title	Scientia silvica extension series, no. 3
Creator	Klinka, Karel
Publisher	Forest Sciences Department, University of British Columbia
Date Issued	1997
Description	One of the human activities impacting biodiversity is the cutting of old-growth forests. In response to the controversy surrounding the cutting of old-growth in the coastal rainforest of BC, the Ministries of the Environment and Forests have produced biodiversity guidelines that are to be applied when manipulating stands in the provincial forest. This study augments these guidelines by investigating the diversity differences between second-growth and old-growth forests in relation to site quality. We demonstrate how standlevel plant diversity differs between 40-year-old and old-growth stands in the Very Wet Coastal Western Hemlock subzone (CWHvm) on Vancouver Island. This information is intended to provide foresters with an understanding of the effects of age, disturbance and site quality on stand-level plant diversity, thereby allowing for informed professional management decisions.
Extent	124020 bytes
Subject	West Coast hemlock; Biodiversity; Plant diversity; Forest site quality; Plant succession; Understory plants; Old growth forest ecology; Forest biodiversity; Forest ecology
Genre	Report
Type	Text
File Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
Date Available	2008-04-07
Provider	Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights	All rights reserved
DOI	10.14288/1.0107245
URI	http://hdl.handle.net/2429/652
Affiliation	Forestry, Faculty of; Forest Sciences, Department of
Peer Review Status	Reviewed
Scholarly Level	Faculty
Aggregated Source Repository	DSpace

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