A pan-Canadian assessment of empirical research on post-disturbance recovery in the Canadian Forest Service

Abstract

Information about post-disturbance regeneration success and successional dynamics is critical to predict forest ecosystem resistance and resilience to disturbances and climate change. Our objective was to identify and classify post-disturbance empirical research conducted by the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) of Natural Resources Canada to provide guidance on future research needs, improving our understanding of post-disturbance recovery in a Canadian context. We collected and classified peer-reviewed and non-published literature produced by the department between 1998 and 2020 that concerned post-disturbance ecology. We focused on research addressing natural or anthropogenic disturbances, such as wildfires, pest outbreaks, windthrows, forest management and seismic lines. We found that forest harvesting was the disturbance most studied by CFS, followed by fire. Most studies examined changes in vegetation related to forest management and fire and they were mainly focussed on post-disturbance tree regeneration success. Our results provide a geographic overview of CFS research on post-disturbance recovery in Canada and enable the identification of key knowledge gaps. Notably, research focusing on recovery after natural disturbances was underrepresented in the assessed literature compared to studies centered around harvesting. Long-term research sites, chrono-sequences that substitute space for time, and studies focused on consecutive disturbances are especially important to maintain and establish in the face of climate change.