Marcel Schneider | RENR Graduate Seminar

Event details: A graduate exam seminar is a presentation of the student’s final research project for their degree.
This is an ALES MSc Final Exam Seminar by Marcel Schneider. This seminar is open to the general public to attend.

MSc with Dr. Charles Nock.

4-42B Earth Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton Alberta.

or

Zoom Link: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/j/95451609195?pwd=Y3huMFl6L1JSemMxWmVkN0d4UW5aZz09

Thesis Topic: Forest Resilience to Wildfire and Harvesting: A Comparison of Microclimate & Understory Plant Diversity in Island Remnants a Decade After Disturbance

Abstract:

An important feature of ecosystem-based forest management in Alberta is the emulation of natural disturbances such as wildfire. Post-fire landscapes typically include unburned or partially burned patches of forest (remnants). Remnants are thought to provide a heterogenous forest structure, and support understory plant communities and microclimates similar to mature forest within a disturbed landscape. While forest managers leave remnant patches within harvest blocks to emulate the structural effects of fire, it is unknown if they are effective analogues. Within a plot network comprised of reference forest and decade-old fire and harvest remnants, I characterized the composition of vascular understory plants and measured forest floor temperatures to assess if remnants contained plant communities and microclimatic temperatures similar to those of reference forest. While there were differences in understory composition between fire and harvest remnants, they were both effective at maintaining microclimates and understory plant communities similar to those of reference forests.