Identifying regrowth forests with advanced mature forest values

SC Baker; S Kasel; LG van Galen; GJ Jordan; CR Nitschke; EC Pryde

Journal article

Identifying regrowth forests with advanced mature forest values

SC Baker, S Kasel, LG van Galen, GJ Jordan, CR Nitschke, EC Pryde

Forest Ecology and Management | ELSEVIER | Published : 2019

DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2018.10.048

Abstract

In this study, we examined the associations between field-assessed floristic and structural habitat values for mature forest and GIS-derived variables to assess whether high conservation value forests could be predicted for strategic reservation at a landscape scale. We investigated the Eucalyptus regnans forests of the Victorian Central Highlands in south-eastern Australia, where several extensive wildfires in the last century have left little mature forest. We assessed the extent to which the floristic composition and a suite of habitat-related structural variables could be explained by two forest inventory GIS variables (percentage senescence and site productivity) and whether explanatory..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Sabine Kasel Author

Craig Nitschke Author

Related Projects (2)

IFER CORE: Understanding and predicting Victoria’s forest biodiversity and community dynamics

A NEW INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT

As harvested regions can maintain high levels of biodiversity, forestry has moved away from conservation in large reserves, and instead focu..

Grants

Awarded by Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, State Government of Victoria

Funding Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken with approval by the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) under Research Permit Number 10008199. The work was funded by Australian Research Council Linkage Grant LP140100075, VicForests, as well as the Victorian DELWP iFER (Integrated Forest Ecosystem Research Project). We would like to thank those who contributed to project design (S. Wood, T. Wardlaw, P. Vesk, C. Powell, P. Baker, E. Martin), data collection and processing (B. Smith, D. Lockwood, B. Drouyn, VicForests staff), and provision of climate data (S. Stewart). We were greatly assisted in digital data collection by M. Cashmore (ProofSafe). We are especially grateful to those people who advised us on various aspects of statistical analysis, some of whom we didn't know but generously responded to questions about R packages. We received advice from Roland Pitcher, Robin Genuer, Russell Thomson, Claire Foster and Michael Charleston. We appreciate the constructive comments provided by two anonymous referees.