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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Forest Research is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Use of herbicides in forestry to direct successional trajectories has raised concerns over possible direct or indirect effects on non-target organisms. We studied the response of forest birds to an operational application of glyphosate and sulfometuron methyl herbicides, using a randomized block design in which half of each 8ha block received herbicide and the other acted as a control, on shelterwood seed-cut Allegheny hardwood stands in northwestern Pennsylvania. We monitored birds using 50m radius point counts in two pretreatment years and for 10years post-treatment (1992–2004). Fences were erected six years after herbicide treatment in response to increased deer browsing at a subset of sites. Avian responses to herbicide treatment varied by nesting guild: we detected no response by cavity-nesters, but documented declines in the shrub-, ground- and canopy-nesting guilds. Responses were short-lived (2–4years post-treatment), but shrub-nesters did not recover until fencing provided regenerating vegetation respite from browsing. Thus, apparent responses of birds to herbicide were confounded with deer browsing in this study. High species turnover, even within control plots, suggests that avian communities may be assessed more appropriately assessed at larger spatial scales than those used in this study (6.5–8ha). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Shelterwood seed cutting in conjunction with herbicide site preparation has proven effective at regenerating Allegheny hardwood forests, but the long-term impact of this silvicultural system on herbaceous vegetation has not been determined. From 1994 to 2004, we studied the impacts of operational herbicide site preparation using glyphosate plus sulfometuron methyl herbicides in the context of a shelterwood seed cut. Our study took place on 10 partially cut sites on the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. Half of each site received herbicide and half did not in a split-plot design with repeated measures. Fences were erected after year six because deer impact had increased. Resilience of individual species and the community were determined using measures of percent cover by species or species groups and indices of diversity and similarity comparing post-treatment to pre-treatment conditions and controls. In the short term, abundance of all species was reduced and there were four fewer species on average in treated areas. No species was eliminated by herbicide across all sites in the long term. Graminoids were more abundant on treated plots after year six. Targeted ferns remained less abundant on treated than control plots after 10years. Species richness recovered within 4years following treatment. Shannon Diversity and Shannon Evenness were greater in treated than in control plots over the full study period, but the differences were not significant in any single year. The richness-based Jaccard index of similarity did not differ between control and treatment plots after year two, while relative abundance influenced indices showed significant differences through year eight. Results suggest that herbaceous layer vegetation is resilient to the disturbance created by herbicide-shelterwood treatments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sugar maple ( Acer saccharum Marsh.) is a keystone species in the northern hardwood forest, and decline episodes have negatively affected the growth and health of sugar maple in portions of its range over the past 50+ years. Crown health, growth, survival, and flower and seed production of sugar maple were negatively affected by a widespread decline event in the mid-1980s on the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau in northern Pennsylvania. A long-term liming study was initiated in 1985 to evaluate responses to a one-time application of 22.4 Mg·ha-1 of dolomitic limestone in four northern hardwood stands. Over the 23-year period ending in 2008, sugar maple basal area increment (BAINC) increased significantly ( P ≤ 0.05) in limed plots from 1995 through 2008, whereas American beech ( Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.) BAINC was unaffected. For black cherry ( Prunus serotina Ehrh.), the third principal overstory species, BAINC and survival were reduced in limed plots compared with unlimed plots. Foliar Ca and Mg remained significantly higher in sugar maple foliage sampled 21 years after lime application, showing persistence of the lime effect. These results show long-term species-specific responses to lime application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]