Ecological thinning is a silvicultural technique used in forest management that involves cutting trees to improve functions of a forest other than timber production.
Although thinning originated as a man-made forest management tool, aimed at increasing timber yields, the shift from production forests to multifunctional forests brought with it the cutting of trees to manipulate an ecosystem for various reasons, ranging from removing non-native species from a plot to removing poplars growing on a riverside beach aimed at recreational use.
Since the 1970s, leaving the thinned trees on the forest floor has become an increasingly common policy: wood can be decomposed in a more natural fashion, playing an important role in increasing biodiversity by providing habitat to various invertebrates, birds and small mammals. Many fungi (e.g. Calocera viscosa) and mosses are saproxylic or epixylic as well (e.g. Marchantiophyta) – some moss species completing their entire life-cycle on a single log.
Where trees are managed under a commercial regime, competition is reduced by removing adjacent stems that exhibit less favourable timber quality potential. When left in a natural state trees will "self-thin", but this process can be unreliable in some circumstances. Examples of this can be found in the Buxus–Ironbark forests and woodlands of Victoria (Australia) where a large proportion of trees are coppice, resultant from timber cutting in decades gone by.
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Ecologicalthinning is a silvicultural technique used in forest management that involves cutting trees to improve functions of a forest other than timber...
Early thinning, eg. after 20 years, rather than late thinning, eg. after 50 years, has different effects on the trees thinned. An early thinning would...
above) when small local ecological and social systems become part of a larger system. When the previous relatively stable ecological relationships are destabilized...
events organized by ecological foundations. Moreover, Polish Forest Inspectorates and schools give special lectures and lead ecological awareness campaigns...
nurse effect to offset any negative response to competition. See ThinningThinning is an operation that artificially reduces the number of trees growing...
G. (1996). "Ecological properties for the evaluation, management, and restoration of temperate deciduous forest ecosystems". Ecological Applications...
include the development of better methods for the planting, protecting, thinning, controlled burning, felling, extracting, and processing of timber. One...
desirable saplings Thinning – removal of trees to favor the growth of select trees in order to maximize timber production Ecologicalthinning – removal of trees...
debris is important for its forestry management implications. Plantation thinning can reduce the potential for recruitment of LWD into proximal streams....
Matsuda, K. 2004. Stand and self-thinning dynamics in natural Abies stands in northern Hokkaido, Japan. Ecological Research 19:301. Shibuya, Masato;...
formal designation used by the United States Forest Service Long-term ecological research site Model forest - formal designation used by the Food and Agriculture...
occurring on geological time scales. Eutrophication can have the following ecological effects: increased biomass of phytoplankton, changes in macrophyte species...
topic. The concurrent sessions span the breadth and diversity of the ecological, economic, and social sciences related to forests. The location of the...
of ecological succession in dry, mixed-conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest. The approach involves a combination of fuels reduction, thinning small-diameter...
individual or society. Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint (including their carbon footprint) by altering their home designs...
that time will only be for forest management activities, such as ecologicalthinning for forest health, road and track maintenance, and clearing to conduct...