Canuel et al. - Post-harvest woody debris and regeneration interactions are driven by ecological factors rather than wood procurement intensity in temperate and boreal forests of eastern Canada

Increasing harvesting intensity to meet greater demand for biomass procurement can impact forest ecosystem functions because of its direct and indirect effects on woody debris inputs and on the regeneration of next-rotation stands. In this context, we studied the establishment of both natural and planted regeneration following harvesting operations using cut-to-length logging of increasing wood procurement intensity. We aimed to determine the relationships between wood procurement intensity, woody debris inputs, and regeneration success in the two years after harvesting. We tested four treatments of increasing wood procurement intensity within six experimental sites that fall along a gradient of varying forest characteristics of boreal and temperate forests in eastern Canada.