Recovery of lichens after logging: preliminary results from Tasmania's wet forests

Abstract

Logging in Tasmania's wet eucalypt forests has traditionally been based on a clearfell, burn and sow regime, a process that has become increasingly controversial in recent years. The managing authority for these forests, Forestry Tasmania, has designed a Silvicultural Systems Trial in Tasmania's Southern Forests to explore alternative methods for harvesting and regenerating eucalypts. One of the components of this Trial is a study of lichens and bryophytes. Pre-logging surveys revealed a diverse flora comprising 134 lichen and 144 bryophyte taxa. Logging and regeneration produces a suite of new microhabitats for colonization by lichens and bryophytes. After three years, 51 lichens have been recorded in the plots. Twenty-eight were recorded in the unlogged forest, and represent recolonizers; lichen survivors after logging and regeneration treatment are very few. The remaining 23 lichens represent some transient weedy species as well as some that are typical of more open, drier conditions. A feature of the post-logging flora is the high proportion of species also found in the Northern Hemisphere. Re-establishment of the pre-logging flora is limited by habitat and will depend on the re-establishment of pre-logging habitats such as mature dominant trees and understorey trees and shrubs.