DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m7fg0
title: Data from: Trade-offs in berry production and biodiversity under prescribed burning and retention regimes in Boreal forests

description: 1. Green tree retention and prescribed burning are practices used to
 mitigate negative effects of forestry. Beside their effects on
 biodiversity, these practices should also promote non-timber forest
 products (NTFPs). We assessed: (1) how prescribed burning and tree
 retention influence NTFPs by examining production of bilberry Vaccinium
 myrtillus and cowberry; Vaccinium vitis-idaea (2) if there are synergies
 or trade-offs in the delivery of these NTFPs in relation to delivery of
 species richness, focusing on five groups of forest dwelling species. 2.
 We used a long-term experiment located in eastern Finland with three
 different harvesting treatments: clearcut-logging, logging with retention
 patches and unlogged, which were combined with or without prescribed
 burning. Eleven years after the treatment application, we scored plant
 cover and berry production in different microhabitats within these
 treatments, while species richness data for five species groups
 (ground-layer lichens and bryophytes, vascular plants, saproxylic beetles,
 pollinators – here bees and hoverflies) were collected at the stand level.
 3. Logging favoured cowberry production, particularly for plants growing
 in the vicinity of stumps. Logging was detrimental for cover and berry
 production of bilberry. Retention mitigated these negative effects
 slightly, but cover and berry production were still substantially lower
 compared to unlogged forests. Prescribed burning increased cowberry
 production in retention patches and in unlogged forest. Bilberry
 production decreased with burning, except in unlogged forest where the
 effect was neutral. 4. No single management treatment simultaneously
 favoured all values - NTFPs and richness - and trade-offs among values
 were common. Only bilberry production and beetle diversity were higher
 under retention forestry, or in unlogged stands, compared to logged
 stands. Prescribed burning favoured many values when performed in
 combination with retention forestry, or in unlogged stands, but different
 treatment combinations favoured different species groups. 5. Synthesis and
 applications. Our results demonstrate that widely-applied conservation
 practices in managed forests are unlikely to benefit all ecosystem values
 everywhere. If high multi-functionality is desired, managing at a
 landscape scale, countering the local trade-offs among values, may be more
 appropriate than the stand scale conservation practices commonly practiced
 today.
description: Fruit production and
 plant cover for two Vaccinium speciesFruit production and
 plant cover for Vaccinium myrtillus and Vaccinium vitis-idaea collected in
 experimental plots. See readme file for more info.Granathetal_fire_reten_fruitcover.csvSpecies richness of multiple species groupsSpecies richness of pollinators, saproxylic beetles, bryophytes, vascular plants and lichens. Collected in experimental plots. See readme file for more info.Granathetal_richness.csvR script to reproduce resultsR script with comments to reproduce results in the associated article.Granathetal_fire_reten.RPlant community dataPlant community data (percent cover) from experimental plots. Ground living vascular plants, macrolichens and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts). Year 2000, 2003 and 2011. See README file for more information.Granathetal_vegcover.csv