Responses in forest structure to anthropogenic edge effects in western North American boreal forest

Edge effects are a major consequence of forest fragmentation, altering forest structure by changing the amount of tree snags and coarse woody debris (CWD). The magnitude and spatial extent of these responses are often influenced by edge orientation and time since initial disturbance. However, how these factors shape edge effects for different types of anthropogenic disturbances remains poorly understood. Here, we assessed changes in the presence of recently fallen logs, older logs, and standing snags as a function of distance from anthropogenic edges, edge orientation, and age of those edges in Alberta’s mesic upland boreal forest, Canada. The presence of snags and CWD (recent and older logs) was lowest at the edge and increased significantly with distance from edges, with this effect extending up to 75 m into the forest interior. In addition, older, west-facing, and south-facing edges, which represent the direction of prevailing winds and storms, showed greater snags and CWD presence and a less pronounced increase with distance from the edge. These results indicate that the availability of snags and CWD along industrial edges in Alberta’s boreal forest is highly dynamic and shaped by both spatial (distance from edge and edge orientation) and temporal (edge age) factors. Such changes may contribute to the simplification of forest structure near anthropogenic edges, potentially reducing habitat availability for cavity-nesting species and other organisms that depend on coarse woody debris. This dataset contains raw data from forestry belt transects for 46 transects in the Athabasca region of Alberta, Canada.