Effects of salvage logging after forest fire on Siberian larch regeneration and ecosystem carbon stocks at the drought limit of the boreal forest in Mongolia

Post-fire salvage logging is widely applied in Mongolia's boreal forests with the intent to prevent intact forests from logging. The rationale behind this approach is the assumption that the additional disturbance caused by the removal of standing deadwood after stand-replacing fire is of no further significance for the already heavily disturbed ecosystem. However, while there is a global debate on effects of salvage logging for regeneration success, biodiversity, and soil health, little evidence has been collected from strongly drought-limited southern boreal forests of Central Asia. Comparing sites with and without salvage logging, we investigated forests of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) ca. 20 years after stand-replacing fire and asked whether postfire salvage logging affected regeneration density, terminal shoot length and radial stem increment, ecosystem carbon stock densities, and reduced organic layer depth and compacted the soil. The biomass of the larch regeneration was significantly reduced by salvage logging, while tree growth was not affected. The ecosystem carbon stock density of burnt forest without salvage logging was 202 Mg C ha⁻¹ and thus even in the lower range of intact larch forests from Mongolia, whereas burnt forests with salvage logging had organic carbon stock densities (104 Mg C ha⁻¹) that were lower than those of unburned grasslands in the forest-steppe. These results show that removing deadwood from burnt forest is not insignificant, but has the potential to delay forest recovery and strongly reduces organic carbon storage. However, we did not find significant reductions in soil organic carbon stocks or soil compaction. Nonetheless, our findings raise the question of whether careful management of intact forests (especially by selective felling under a continuous-cover forestry regime) would be a more ecologically sustainable alternative than post-fire salvage logging.