Final report for the framework project “Forest development in the lower parts of Switzerland after windthrow”
At the end of 1999 storm Lothar caused widespread windthrow in many Swiss forests. This provided the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL with the opportunity to establish research sites in windthrown forests and seven sites were set up, mainly in beech forests in the Swiss lowlands. Two sites were situated in the spruce-fir-forest of the Pre-Alps. Each study site was divided into two different treatments: (1) windthrown timber cleared and (2) uncleared. During the first four years after the storm we studied and compared natural succession in the different site treatments within the following sub-projects:
• the soils and their compaction by harvest machines,
• the dynamics of ground vegetation,
• the dynamics of natural forest regeneration,
• the dynamics of mycorrhiza,
• the dynamics of insect diversity,
• the dynamics of timber decay, and
• the interaction between vegetation and roe deer after windthrow.
This report describes the questions, the methods and the findings of these sub-projects.