Evaluating the effects of clearcutting, wildfire, and bioenergy wood ash application on forest soils to improve emulation silviculture

Abstract

Ontario’s forest management guides promote the use emulation silviculture to manage the province’s forests on a landscape scale based on natural disturbance regimes. While clearcut harvesting can have similar effects to wildfire such as the removal of vegetation, creation of edge habitat, as well as increasing nitrogen cycling and decomposition rates, it lacks the chemical impacts associated with fire and ash deposition. This thesis compared published studies from North America, Europe, and Asia and found that there are similarities between harvesting and wildfire on boreal forest floors and soil characteristics. Harvesting and wildfire can have a similar effect on base cation pools such as calcium, as well as forest floor and soil pH, though fire’s impacts are more substantial. Upon examination of European and Canadian bioenergy wood-ash trials, the application of ash on post-harvest forest soils could benefit certain sites and improve current emulation silviculture techniques.