Above- and below-ground vegetation recovery in recently clearcut and burned sites dominated by Gaultheria shallon in coastal British Columbia.

Messier, C; Kimmins, JP Forest Ecology and Management [FOR. ECOL. MANAGE.]. Vol. 46, no. 3-4, pp. 275-294. 1991.

ABSTRACT Above- and below-ground vegetation recovery was assessed 2, 4 and 8 years after logging and burning on an age sequence of sites dominated by salal (Gaultheria shallon Pursh) on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The total above-ground vegetation biomass quadrupled from 1372 kg ha super(-1) on the 2-year-old sites to 5574 kg ha super(-1) on the 8-year-old sites. These are low values for post-logging above-ground biomass when compared with many other forest ecosystems. Salal was the dominant species on these sites, representing 77%, 87% and 73% of the total above-ground biomass on the 2-, 4- and 8-year-old sites, respectively. Leaf area index increased from 0.67 to 2.31 between the 2- and 4-year-old sites, but was only 2.53 on the 8-year-old sites. The total below-ground biomass increased six times from 1908 kg ha super(-1) on the 2-year-old sites to 11 415 kg ha super(-1) on the 8-year-old sites. The proportion of fine-roots to total roots declined with increasing site age as new rhizomes were produced.