What burns and what is cut? Contrasting disturbance effects of harvesting and wildfire on primary forest stands in old-growth–dominated boreal landscapes
• Fire avoids coniferous old-growth forests with tall and/or dense canopies. • Low- and open-canopy coniferous forests exhibit higher fire susceptibility. • Forest harvesting preferentially targets older, taller and denser stands than fire. • Harvesting bias alters representativity of remnant boreal old-growth forests. • Avoidance of low- and open-canopy forests by harvesting may increase fire risk.
Authors
- Maxence Martin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1384-0514)
- Kaysandra Waldron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7551-4346)
- Junior A. Tremblay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4930-0939)
- Claudio Mura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5882-5169)
Institutions
- Canadian Forest Service (CA)
- Natural Resources Canada (CA)
- Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA)
- Université du Québec à Montréal (CA)
- Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (CA)
- Université Laval (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Forest Ecology and Management
- Published
- 2026-05-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123905
- Primary Topic
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources Naturelles
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada