Datasets of productivity and vegetation composition of boreal stands from an experiment comparing silviculture scenarios of increasing intensity after 20 years

Abstract

This data article describes datasets of plant community composition, dendrometric measurements, quantity and quality of snags of humid boreal stands (Quebec, Canada) from an experiment comparing silviculture scenarios of increasing intensity: (i) careful logging around advance growth (CLAAG); (ii) CLAAG followed by pre-commercial thinning; (iii) plantation followed by mechanical release; and (iv) plantation followed by chemical release and within five naturally disturbed sites. These data enable researchers to examine vegetation biodiversity recovery, ecosystem variables such as dead wood, and boreal stand productivity 20 years following the start of increasing-intensity silviculture scenarios. As a result, these data can be used to investigate the trade-off between keeping important ecosystem aspects of natural forests and maintaining and/or growing merchantable wood production at the stand level. This trade-off is the paradigm of forest ecosystem-based management, which aims to reduce the ecological distance between natural and managed forests in order to balance ecological challenges with the provision of socioeconomic services.

Keywords: Ecosystem-based management; Forest composition; Silviculture; Vegetation diversity.