Dear list members, I have a problem for you. I am working on natural regeneration of jack pine from logging slash left on site in the boreal forests of the clay belt of northwestern Québec, Canada. High temperatures reached close to the ground in summer are important for this method to work because they can favor cone opening and seed dispersion. Someone recently suggested to me that small clear-cuts could heat up more rapidly in the spring and possibly reach higher temperatures in summer because the neibouring forest protects the boundary layer of warm air close to the ground from the wind. On the other hand, there is a common belief that forested areas have a more narrow range of temperatures than open areas. Considering this, one might think that small clear-cuts should experience a smaller range of temperature variation than large clear-cuts, thus possibly lower maximum temperatures. All this seems contradictory to me. I have installed field experiments with jack pine natural regeneration in small clear-cuts and in large clear-cuts. However, the design of the experiments doesn't allow me to infer any valuable conclusions about the specific impact of clear-cut size on maximum temperatures in the soil-air boundary layer. I would appreciate any hint or reference that would help me to sort this all out. What would be the most pertinent or relevent hypotheses one could make about this problem? Thanks, Martin Béland, M. Sc. Env. Student reasearcher Unité de recherche et de développement forestiers de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue (URDFAT) Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) (819)762-0971 #2362 fax (819)797-4727
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