Kobra Maleki, Philippe Marchand, Danielle Charron, Yves Bergeron. Seedling recruitment in response to stand composition, interannual climate variability, and soil disturbance in the boreal mixed woods of Canada 2024. J. Veg. Sci. e13237
DOI : 10.1111/jvs.13237
Abstract Aim Seedling recruitment is a vital process for forest regeneration and is influenced by various factors such as stand composition, climate, and soil disturbance. We conducted a long-term field experiment (18?years) to study the effects of these factors and their interactions on seedling recruitment. Location Our study focused on five main species in boreal mixed woods of eastern Canada: trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), white spruce (Picea glauca), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), and white cedar (Thuja occidentalis). Methods Sixteen 1-m2 seedling monitoring subplots were set up in each of seven stands originating from different wildfires (fire years ranging from 1760 to 1944), with a soil scarification treatment applied to every other subplot. Annual new seedling counts were related to growing-season climate (mean temperature, growing degree days and drought code), scarification, and stand effects via a Bayesian generalized linear mixed model. Results Soil scarification had a large positive effect on seedling recruitment for three species (aspen, birch and spruce). As expected, high mean temperatures during the seed production period (two years prior to seedling emergence) increased seedling recruitment for all species but aspen. Contrary to other studies, we did not find a positive effect of dry conditions during the seed production period. Furthermore, high values of growing degree days suppressed conifer seedling recruitment. Except for white cedar, basal area was weakly correlated with seedling abundance, suggesting a small number of reproductive individuals is sufficient to saturate seedling recruitment. Conclusion Our findings underscore the importance of considering multiple factors, such as soil disturbance, climate, and stand composition, as well as their effects on different life stages when developing effective forest management strategies to promote regeneration in boreal mixed-wood ecosystems.
Maxence Soubeyrand, Philippe Marchand, Louis Duchesne, Yves Bergeron, Fabio Gennaretti. Interactions between climate, soil and competition drive tree growth in Quebec forests 2024. For. Ecol. Manage. 121731
DOI : 10.1016/j.foreco.2024.121731
Climate, soil, and competition factors jointly drive tree growth variability at local and regional scale. However, the comprehensive interaction of these factors and their combined effects on tree responses within their environment remains poorly explored in current research. Using a detailed forest inventory dataset in Québec, we examined tree growth of balsam fir (Abies balsamea Mill), black spruce (Picea mariana Mill), red maple (Acer rubrum L.), sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marshall), white birch (Betula papyrifera Marshall), and yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton), as a function of competition for light and space with neighboring trees, climate and soil-related variables. Interactions between all these variables were considered in a Bayesian model predicting tree growth. The amount of light received by trees was the main variables explaining tree growth except for coniferous tree species which was influenced mostly by climate variables. Among the studied species, only red maple and white birch exhibited increased growth under warmer conditions. Intraspecific competition had strong species-specific impacts, varying from negative effects for balsam fir, to positive for red maple and yellow birch. Interactions between climate, soil, and competition played a crucial role in shaping growth patterns, especially for sugar maple, and black spruce that strongly responded to a combination of climate and competition factors. In general, tree growth also increased with the soil cation-exchange capacity (CEC), especially when higher CEC is coupled with higher temperatures and precipitation, except for black spruce. While anticipated climate conditions in Quebec, even under the most optimistic scenarios, will have a strong negative impact on the tree growth of most tree species, management can mitigate this impact by promoting tree diversity with more complex stand structures.
Anoj Subedi, Philippe Marchand, Yves Bergeron, Hubert Morin, Miguel Montoro Girona. Climatic conditions modulate the effect of spruce budworm outbreaks on black spruce growth 2023. Agric. For. Meteorol. 109548
DOI : 10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109548
Current ecological models predict profound climate change-related effects on the natural disturbance regimes of forests. Spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) (SBW) is the principal insect defoliator in eastern North America, and SBW outbreaks have a major impact on the structure and function of the Canadian boreal forest, as defoliation leads to decreased tree growth, increased mortality, and lower forest productivity. SBW outbreaks have become more severe over the last century with the changing climate; however, little is known about how climate fluctuations affect the growth of SBW host species during the outbreak period. Here we evaluate how climate and outbreak severity combined to affect black spruce (Picea mariana) growth during the SBW outbreak that occurred between 1968–1988 and 2006–2017. We compiled dendrochronological series (2271 trees), outbreak severity (estimated by observed aerial defoliation), and climate data for 164 sites in Québec, Canada. We used a linear mixed effect model to determine the impacts of climatic parameters, cumulative defoliation (of the previous five years), and their coupled effect on basal area growth. At maximum outbreak severity, basal area growth of black spruce was reduced by 14%–18% over five years. This outbreak growth response was affected by climate: warmer previous summer minimum temperatures and a higher previous summer climate moisture index further decreased growth by 11% and 4%, respectively. In contrast, a preceding year's warmer spring minimum temperatures (9%) and summer maximum temperatures (7%) attenuated the negative SBW effect. This study adds knowledge to our landscape-level understanding of combined insect–climate effects and helps predictions of future SBW-related damage to forest stands to bolster sustainable forest management. We also recommend that projections of boreal forest ecosystems include several classes of SBW defoliation and multiple climatic scenarios in future simulations.
Ange-Marie Bothroh, David Paré, Xavier Cavard, Nicole J. Fenton, Osvaldo Valeria, Philippe Marchand, Yves Bergeron. Nine-years effect of harvesting and mechanical site preparation on
bryophyte decomposition and carbon stocks in a boreal forested peatland, 2023. For. Ecol. Manage. 540:121020
DOI : 10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121020
The boreal forest holds the world's largest soil carbon (C) reservoir. A large portion of it is contained in a thick organic layer originating from the slow decay of bryophytes. Because a thick organic layer slows down tree growth, reduces forest productivity, and thereby reduces the potential wood supply, silvicultural treatments that aim to maintain or restore forest productivity after harvesting often involve mechanical site preparation. However, while these treatments can increase growth and C storage in trees, they can also lead to accelerated decomposition of the soil organic matter, reducing C storage. In this study, we assessed the nine-years effect of two silvicultural treatments on soil C dynamics in forested peatlands of northwestern Quebec, compared to unharvested controls: (1) cut with protection of regeneration and soils (CPRS; low soil disturbance, also called careful logging around advanced growth (CLAAG)), (2) CPRS followed by mechanical site preparation (CPRS + MSP, plowing; severe soil disturbance). The mass loss rate of three bryophytes (Pleurozium schreberi, Sphagnum capillifolium, and Sphagnum fuscum) was measured over two growing seasons together with soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. We also studied the different effects of temperature, water table level, depth, and type of soil layer on mosses decomposition.We observed a significant influence of silvicultural treatments, bryophyte species, and soil layer type (fibric, mesic, humic and mineral) on bryophyte mass loss, which was higher in the CPRS + MSP treatment (21.6 ± 0.13 % standard error) than in control sites (9.5 ± 0.21 %); CPRS alone resulted in an intermediate mass loss of 11.6 ± 0.23 %, for Sphagnum mosses. Bryophyte mass loss was significantly higher in fibric than humic layer. SOC stocks in the uppermost organic soil layer (fibric) were lower in the CPRS + MSP group than in the control group, while the CPRS group was intermediate; however, differences were not statistically significant for the other soil layer and for total SOC. We conclude that while CPRS + MSP accelerates Sphagnum moss decomposition in the topsoil layer, it has limited impact on total soil C stocks that are detectable with stock change methods.
Maxence Soubeyrand, Fabio Gennaretti, Olivier Blarquez, Yves Bergeron, Anthony R Taylor, Loïc D'Orangeville, Philippe Marchand. Competitive interactions under current climate allow temperate tree species to grow and survive in boreal mixedwood forest. 2023. Ecography e06525
DOI : 10.1111/ecog.06525
With climate change, climatic optima are shifting poleward more rapidly than tree migration processes, resulting in a mismatch between species distributions and bioclimatic envelopes. Temperate hardwood tree species may take advantage of the release of climate constraints and forest management to migrate into the boreal forest. Here, we use the SORTIE-ND forest simulation model to determine the potential for the persistence of three temperate species (sugar maple, red maple and yellow birch) when introduced at seedling stage in typical balsam fir–paper birch (BF–PB) bioclimatic domain stands of eastern Canada, quantifying the consequences on the native species composition. SORTIE-ND is a spatially explicit, individual-based forest stand model that simulates tree growth, regeneration and mortality. We performed a novel parameterization of the SORTIE-ND tree growth equation allowing for the inclusion of climate modifiers on tree growth. After validating our model with data from permanent forest inventory plots, we modeled the dynamics of unharvested stands at different successional stages, as well as post-harvest stands, after the addition of sugar maple, red maple and yellow birch seedlings at different densities. Our results show that current BF–PB domain climate conditions do not limit growth and survival of temperate species in boreal stands. Of the temperate species introduced, sugar maple had the lowest ability to grow and survive by the end of the simulation. Species assemblages of host stands were impacted by the presence of temperate species when the addition of seedlings was above 5000 temperate seedlings per hectare at the beginning of the simulation. For stands that were recently clear cut, temperate seedlings were unable to grow due to intense competition from aspen regeneration. Our results suggest that both current climate and competitive interactions between temperate species and boreal species should not impede the ability of temperate species to grow and survive in the BF–PB domain.
Osvaldo Valeria, Nicole J. Fenton, Philippe Marchand, Louis Imbeau. Projet identification des milieux humides : une approche régionale adaptée à l’Abitibi sur la base des données de télédétection et lidar. 2022. Rapport d'étape Chaire AFD 20 p.
Maxence Soubeyrand, Marine Dupassieux, Philippe Marchand. Des feuillus tempérés dans les forêts Abitibiennes? 2022. Le Couvert Boréal p.16
Anoj Subedi, Miguel Montoro Girona, Philippe Marchand. Impacts de la tordeuse des bourgeons de l’épinette et des changements climatiques sur la croissance des arbres. 2022. Le Couvert Boréal p.13
Zinzou Max Debaly, Philippe Marchand, Miguel Montoro Girona. Autoregressive models for time series of random sums of positive variables: Application to tree growth as a function of climate and insect outbreak. 2022. Ecological Modelling 471:110053
DOI : 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.110053
We present a broad class of semi-parametric models for time series of random sums of positive variables. Our methodology allows the number of terms inside the sum to be time-varying and is therefore well suited to many examples encountered in the natural sciences. We study the stability properties of the models and provide a valid statistical inference procedure to estimate the model parameters. It is shown that the proposed quasi-maximum likelihood estimator is consistent and asymptotically Gaussian distributed. This work is complemented by simulation results and applied to time series representing growth rates of white spruce (Picea glauca) trees from a few dozen sites in Québec (Canada). This time series spans 41 years, including one major spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) outbreak between 1968 and 1991. We found significant growth reductions related to budworm-induced defoliation up to two years post-outbreak. Our results also revealed the positive effects of maximum summer temperature, precipitation, and the climate moisture index on white spruce growth. We also identified the negative effects of the climate moisture index in the spring and the maximum temperature of the previous summer. However, the model’s performance on this data set was not improved when the interactions between climate and defoliation on growth were considered. This study represents a major advance in our understanding of budworm–climate–tree interactions and provides a useful tool to project the combined effects of climate and insect defoliation on tree growth in a context of greater frequency and severity of outbreaks coupled with the anticipated increases in temperature.
Carlos Cerrejon Lozano, Osvaldo Valeria, Richard Caners, Philippe Marchand, Nicole J. Fenton. No place to hide: Rare plant detection through remote sensing. 2021. Diversity and Distributions. 27(6):948-961
DOI : 10.1111/ddi.13244
Aim
Detection of rare species is limited by their intrinsic nature and by the constraints associated with traditional field surveys. Remote sensing (RS) provides a powerful alternative to traditional detection methods through the increasing availability of RS products. Here, we assess the capacity of RS at high and medium resolution to detect rare plants with direct and indirect approaches, and how the performance of RS can be influenced by the characteristics of species.
Methods
An extensive literature review was conducted to synthesize the use of RS to detect or predict rare plant occurrence at high and medium resolution (<30 m and 30–300 m, respectively). The concept of “rarity” was based on Rabinowitz's rare species classification. The literature review was performed in Scopus for the period 1990–2020.
Results
While direct detection is often limited, it is possible with high and very high spatial resolution data for rare plants with distinctive traits. RS is also able to capture biophysical conditions driving rare plant distributions, which can indirectly provide accurate predictions for them. Both approaches have the potential to discover new populations of rare plants. RS can also feed SAMs of rare plants, which combined with SDMs can provide a valuable approach for rare plant detection. While direct detection is limited by the space occupied by a species within its habitat and its morphological, phenological and physiological characteristics, the predictive performance of RS-based SDMs (indirect detection) can be influenced by habitat size, habitat specificity and phenological features of rare plants. Similarly, model predictive performance can be influenced by the rarity form of the target species according to the rarity classification criteria.
Main conclusions.
With this synthesis, the strong potential of RS for the purposes of detection and prediction of rare plant has been highlighted, with practical applications for conservation and management.
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Maxence Soubeyrand, Philippe Marchand, Louis Duchesne, Yves Bergeron, Fabio Gennaretti. Les interactions entre le climat, le sol et la compétition influencent la croissance des arbres dans les forêts du Québec 25e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. (2023-11-28) youtube
Maxence Soubeyrand, Philippe Marchand, Yves Bergeron, Fabio Gennaretti. Interactions between climate, soil, and competition drive tree growth in the boreal forests of Québec 3e rencontre annuelle du Laboratoire International de Recherche sur les Forêts Froides. Station touristique Duchesnay, Québec. (2023-10-03)
Maxence Soubeyrand, Fabio Gennaretti, Olivier Blarquez, Pierre Grondin, Philippe Marchand. Effet du climat et de la compétition sur la migration future vers le nord d'espèces de feuillus tempérés dans la forêt boréale mixte 16e colloque annuel du CEF, Université de Montréal (2023-05-08)
Judicaël Osse, Zinsou Max Debaly, Philippe Marchand, Martin Barrette, Miguel Montoro Girona. Un nouvel outil statistique pour évaluer la dynamique de la défoliation de la forêt boréale 16e colloque annuel du CEF, Université de Montréal (2023-05-08)
Anoj Subedi, Philippe Marchand, Yves Bergeron, Hubert Morin, Miguel Montoro Girona. Climate warming reduces black spruce growth during an outbreak period 15e colloque annuel du CEF, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec (2022-09-28)
Maxence Soubeyrand, Philippe Marchand, Fabio Gennaretti, Anthony Taylor, Loïc D'Orangeville, Olivier Blarquez, Yves Bergeron. Modélisation du comportement des peuplements de feuillus tempérés dans une matrice coniférienne Conférence annuelle de l’Association Botanique Canadienne. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. (2022-06-06)
Marc-Frédéric Indorf, Philippe Marchand, Yves Bergeron. Analyse et modélisation des dynamiques des cortèges de bryophytes et trachéophytes des tourbières du nord-ouest du Québec 3e colloque annuel de la Chaire industrielle CRSNG-UQAT sur la biodiversité en contexte minier. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. (2022-04-22)
Maxence Soubeyrand, Anthony Taylor, Loïc D'Orangeville, Olivier Blarquez, Philippe Marchand. Modélisation du comportement des peuplements de feuillus tempérés dans une matrice coniférienne 23e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (2021-12-07)
Anoj Subedi, Miguel Montoro Girona, Philippe Marchand, Yves Bergeron, Hubert Morin. Comment la tordeuse des bourgeons de l'épinette affecte la croissance des arbres ? une approche dendrochronologique et climatique 23e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (2021-12-07)
Supun Madhumadhawa Pawuluwage, Philippe Marchand. Facteurs influant la facilitation entre les espèces d'arbres boréaux pendant le processus de régénération dans un site post-minier 3e colloque annuel de la Chaire industrielle CRSNG-UQAT sur la biodiversité en contexte minier. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. (2021-04-21)
Christine Tatiana Corredor Durango, Osvaldo Valeria, Philippe Marchand. La distribution spatiale de la paludification analysée sous toutes ses coutures 22e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, complètement virtuel (2020-12-02)
Judicaël Osse, Philippe Marchand, Miguel Montoro Girona. Prédire la propagation des épidémies de la tordeuse des bourgeons de l’épinette dans un contexte de changements climatiques 22e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, complètement virtuel (2020-12-02)
Anoj Subedi, Miguel Montoro Girona, Philippe Marchand, Hubert Morin, Marie-Josée Fortin. Understanding complex interactions in forest ecosystems : Impact of climate on the defoliation of black spruce by the spruce budworm 22e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, complètement virtuel (2020-12-02)
Louis Imbeau, Lise Jaton, Osvaldo Valeria, Philippe Marchand, Nicole J. Fenton. Détection des milieux humides : une approche régionale adaptée à l’Abitibi 21e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. (2019-11-30)
Christine Tatiana Corredor Durango, Osvaldo Valeria, Philippe Marchand. Effects of time since fire, slope and surface deposits influencing paludification processes in the boreal forests of Quebec, Canada 21e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. (2019-11-30)
Philippe Marchand, Miguel Montoro Girona, Mathieu Bouchard, Élise Filotas, Hubert Morin, Louis De Grandpré, Yves Bergeron, Pierre Therrien, Anouschka R. Hof, Matthew Duveneck. Projections de l’activité de la tordeuse des bourgeons de l’épinette dans un contexte de changement climatique 21e colloque de la Chaire AFD. Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. (2019-11-30)