Assignment Task: An old age forest has been totally removed or clear-cut from a wide area due to a landslide. Following the disaster, there was no vegetation on the site and only bare rocks were predominantly visible.
1. What type of succession will begin on this site and why?
2. Explain the process of forest recovery/succession (i.e., from bare land to climax forest) that will take place on the site, considering (i) the relative contribution of the geochemical, biogeochemical and chemical cycles and (ii) the changes in forest composition and functions that occur during each development/seral stage
3. During the succession, there has been a much slower rate of shift in the composition of the species from the stage of early seral species (i.e., pioneers) to late seral species than excepted. What are (i) the ecological mechanisms at both individual and population levels and (ii) the environment factors that can explain the delay in the shift of species composition from one seral stage to the other?
4. To recover the forest ecosystem to its pre-disturbance stage, the area has been protected to allow for a natural regeneration of the soil and vegetation. After 50 years of natural regeneration, the forester in charge of the restoration of the site decides to apply a clearcutting treatment. The aim of the clearcutting was to accelerate the forest succession through the removal of dominant tree species and triggering the growth and recruitment of understory seedlings and/or saplings of shade-tolerant species. The clearcutting has resulted in tick late seral forest floor condition that remains largely undisturbed. A few years after the treatment, the forest manager noticed that the forest succession process did not start. (i) Based on your ecological knowledge of the forest succession process, how do you explain the lack of or delay in the initiation of the forest succession after clearcutting? (ii) What management practices can be applied to trigger forest succession in this case?