PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #70: Riparian Ecology. Presiding: R. Cosgriff.
Thursday, August 9, 2001. 1:00 PM to 4:45 PM. Hall of Ideas I.

Apparent temporal shifts in stream communities following selective logging.

Huckins, Casey¹, Van Dusen, Pete¹, Flaspohler, David¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Recent studies have greatly increased our understanding of how clear-cut logging influences the structure and function of stream communities. In contrast, our understanding of the influences of selective logging on stream communities is much less complete, despite its prevalence as a forest management technique in mixed hardwood forests such as those throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes region. In this study, we examined the abundance and community structure of fish and macroinvertebrates within twelve headwater streams that varied in the time since adjacent forests were last selectively logged. All sites were located within the Otter River watershed in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We detected significant relationships among the years elapsed since the sites were selectively logged, standard indices of coldwater habitat quality (e.g., GLEAS Procedure 51), and the composition of stream communities. For example, the abundances of brook char (Salvelinus fontinalis) and macroinvertebrates generally known to be sensitive to disturbance (i.e., Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) were negatively correlated with year of forest cut. Our findings suggest that selective logging of riparian forests is associated with detectable signals in local aquatic animal abundance and diversity and that these dynamics appear to persist for at least 30 years after logging.

KEY WORDS: Salvelinus fontinalis, stream community, selective logging, riparian zone