Natural succession and clearcutting as drivers of environmental heterogeneity and beta diversity in North American boreal forests.

ABSTRACT: Clear-cutting alters natural ecosystem processes by reducing landscape heterogeneity. It is the dominant harvesting technique across the boreal zone, yet understanding of how environmental heterogeneity and beta diversity are structured in forest ecosystems and post-clear cut is lacking. We use ground-dwelling arthropods as models to determine how natural succession (progression from deciduous to mixed to coniferous cover types) and clear-cutting change boreal forests, exploring the role of environmental heterogeneity in shaping beta diversity across multiple spatial scales (between-cover types and between-stands of the same cover type (1600 to 8500 m), between-plots (100 to 400 m) and within-plots (20 to 40 m)). We characterise environmental heterogeneity as variability in combined struct

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Tejero S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6214561 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature