Seral stage, site conditions, and the vulnerability of understory plant communities to forest harvesting

Understanding how composition and structure of vegetation responds to disturbance is essential to predicting and managing the impacts of forest harvesting on plant communities. My analyses showed that the wet, temperate rainforests of coastal British Columbia exhibit trends in diversity across a successional sequence similar to those found in Douglas-fir forests to the south. As well, I was able to highlight the importance of considering the response of individual species. I identified 12 species that were associated with old-forest. Furthermore, I found these late-sera1 associates exhibited similar environmental preferences to one another. Specifically, the typical plot containing a late-sera1 associate was drier than the typical plot for most other species. If forest managers want to maintain species' distributions across the landscape, a shift has to be made from focussing solely on aggregate measure of diversity, to considering the impacts of management activities on species that are especially vulnerable to disturbance.