Methods for forest regeneration without clear-cuts in order to enable transitioning to alternative forestry methods in Sweden - What is the role of blow ground competition?

Swedish interest in alternative forestry methods is growing.

Conversion from the even-aged monocultures of today to uneven-aged structure needed for continuous-cover forestry to succeed. But it is hampered by poor seedling growth and survival near overstory trees. This is old silvicultural knowledge, but the actual ecophysiological mechanism remains unknown.

This must be remedied to enable alternative management systems.We propose targeted studies to identify the mechanism underlying the regeneration problem. Cutting-edge mycorrhizal science indicates that common mycorrhizal networks may hold an important key.

Trees and seedlings can share fungal partners and compete for resources within this network, which has been shown to place the small seedling at a great disadvanage.Large-scale isotopic experiments will investigate the cause of poor regeneration.

New root exclusion experiments in different parts of Sweden will investigate which forest types and geographical regions are more vulnerable. An extensive ecophysiological survey of natural regeneration in forests across Sweden will be conducted. Swedish forest owners will be invited to contribute data from their land to the survey.

Swedish data will be compared to boreal data from Canada.

Prototype solutions to the regeneration problem will be tested.Via collaboration with Skogsstyrelsen, regeneration in different forestry systems will be compared, and dialogue with forest owners and stakeholders will be maintained.