2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/24/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | Are riparian buffers surrounding forestry-impacted streams sufficient to meet key ecological objectives? | Virtual Platform
Are riparian buffers surrounding forestry-impacted streams sufficient to meet key ecological objectives?
Riparian buffers are commonly advocated to protect freshwaters from anthropogenic stressors. In Sweden, riparian buffers are suggested to sustain several ecological objectives in aquatic systems, namely shading, biodiversity, reduction of sedimentation, and provision of deadwood and food. We evaluated whether riparian buffers of different widths along recently harvested streams were able to provide proxies of these targeted objectives, and further compared them to streams in mature unharvested production forests (reference) in northern and southern Sweden. The influence of buffer width varied with objective and region. In both regions, canopy cover (proxy for shading) increased with riparian width, and riparian deadwood was highest in the no buffer streams. Organic matter (OM; proxy for food) increased with buffer width in the south, while OM was highest in the northern no buffer streams. All other parameters tested had no relationship to buffer width. These differing responses suggest that the contemporary strategy of prescribing fixed-width buffers and/or stating objectives without defined guidelines is insufficient given the large variability of stream ecosystems across small spatial scales. To develop functionally effective buffers, more consideration for site-specificity and land mosaic planning are needed.
- Aquatic–terrestrial biodiversity
- Monitoring
- Management
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Presenters/Authors
Darshanaa Chellaiah
(), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, darshanaa.chellaiah@slu.se;
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Lenka Kuglerová
(), Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, lenka.kuglerova@slu.se;
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