Christine Naaijen Dept. of Forestry Aberdeen - Scotland E-mail:u02cpn@abdn.ac.uk Dear Christine I can give you some background information from south eastern Australia relevant to your thesis topic - part of my own research deals with a similar issue, the impacts of even aged regrowth eucalypt forest thinning on vegetation structure and composition. I am familiar with the Australian literature (what little there is on ecological impacts), and it is largely unpublished, and restricted to a few studies on vegetation, and some animal groups (birds, bats, etc). There are several long term ecological studies in place, but most have only been running a few years and have not reported their results, and some have experimental designs which are probably inadequate for studying ecological impacts. However none approach the depth of the studies reported from Canada by Alaback et al or from Michigan by Metzger et al. There is of course considerably more Australian literature on growth responses to thinning, fire and fuel management, diseases, hydrological aspects, insects and so forth which I'm sure you can access conventionally. I would be happy to correspond further and exchange references and information on vegetation responses to thinning. PS. There was a conference in Scotland a year or so ago on vegetation responses to wind - have you seen the proceedings yet? Regards Ross Peacock Principal Forest Ecologist (Flora) Sustainable Forest Management Team State Forests of NSW Locked Bag 23 Pennant Hills NSW 2120 AUSTRALIA ph +61 2 9980 4281, fax +61 2 484 0057 email rossp@ironbark.forest.nsw.gov.au
Mail converted by
MHonArc 1.1.0