Data from: Trade-offs in berry production and biodiversity under prescribed burning and retention regimes in Boreal forests

1. Green tree retention and prescribed burning are practices used to
mitigate negative effects of forestry. Beside their effects on
biodiversity, these practices should also promote non-timber forest
products (NTFPs). We assessed: (1) how prescribed burning and tree
retention influence NTFPs by examining production of bilberry Vaccinium
myrtillus and cowberry; Vaccinium vitis-idaea (2) if there are synergies
or trade-offs in the delivery of these NTFPs in relation to delivery of
species richness, focusing on five groups of forest dwelling species. 2.
We used a long-term experiment located in eastern Finland with three
different harvesting treatments: clearcut-logging, logging with retention
patches and unlogged, which were combined with or without prescribed
burning. Eleven years after the treatment application, we scored plant
cover and berry production in different microhabitats within these
treatments, while species richness data for five species groups
(ground-layer lichens and bryophytes, vascular plants, saproxylic beetles,
pollinators – here bees and hoverflies) were collected at the stand level.
3. Logging favoured cowberry production, particularly for plants growing
in the vicinity of stumps. Logging was detrimental for cover and berry
production of bilberry. Retention mitigated these negative effects
slightly, but cover and berry production were still substantially lower
compared to unlogged forests. Prescribed burning increased cowberry
production in retention patches and in unlogged forest. Bilberry
production decreased with burning, except in unlogged forest where the
effect was neutral. 4. No single management treatment simultaneously
favoured all values - NTFPs and richness - and trade-offs among values
were common. Only bilberry production and beetle diversity were higher
under retention forestry, or in unlogged stands, compared to logged
stands. Prescribed burning favoured many values when performed in
combination with retention forestry, or in unlogged stands, but different
treatment combinations favoured different species groups. 5. Synthesis and
applications. Our results demonstrate that widely-applied conservation
practices in managed forests are unlikely to benefit all ecosystem values
everywhere. If high multi-functionality is desired, managing at a
landscape scale, countering the local trade-offs among values, may be more
appropriate than the stand scale conservation practices commonly practiced
today.