Soil communities following harvest have different early successional dynamics compared with post-wildfire patterns.

ABSTRACT: Stand-replacing wildfire is the primary natural disturbance in jack pine-dominated boreal forests; but clearcut harvest also emulates this natural renewal process. We used a 60-year clearcut harvest chronosequence to assess whether soil communities became more similar to those in wildfire-origin stands over time. We assessed convergence across disturbance types at each stand development stage and recovery compared to the wildfire mature stand development stage (~ 85 years). To evaluate cumulative effects, we also assessed a 20-year salvage harvest chronosequence where wildfire was followed by salvage logging of fire-killed trees. Beta diversity analyses showed different recovery times among soil taxa. Following clearcut harvest, bacteria converged to wildfire reference conditions more quic

SUBMITTER: Porter TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12689615 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature