| The primary cause of species loss is habitat loss and fragmentation. One source of this is associated with meeting increasing human demands for natural resources, such as wood. Sustainable forestry, which I define as providing an economically viable wood supply while simultaneously protecting biodiversity, is complicated because the effects of forestry on biodiversity are mostly unknown. I investigated moss communities in industrial and old-growth forests in Maine, U.S.A. The sensitivity of mosses to changes in microhabitat and microclimate makes them potentially vulnerable to many wood harvest practices.; For this work, I first developed a sampling protocol for measuring and comparing moss diversity in north-temperate forests; I concluded that a 50m 2 area with 3 replicates was an effective sampling effort for a given forest treatment. Comparing two old-growth and 15 industrial forest treatments, I found moss species richness to be highest in old-growth mixedwood sites and lowest in non-herbicided clearcuts. Differences in moss communities between old-growth and mature industrial forests were driven by a few rare species found only in old-growth forest, and more disturbance specialists in the industrial sites. Since information on species-specific habitat requirements is incomplete for most moss species, I determined the distribution of Neckera pennata, an internationally red listed moss epiphyte, within old-growth, mature, and mid-age industrial forests. The frequency of occurrence of N. pennata was highest in the old-growth forest and lowest in the mid-age industrial forests, and it occupied primarily large diameter (>40 cm) deciduous trees, mostly of the species Acer saccharum.; It has been suggested that retaining pieces of intact forest in newly harvested landscapes may ameliorate the impacts of forestry practices by providing vital habitat for species persistence. I studied the potential for forest remnants to act as refugia for mosses by comparing community composition in remnant forests, adjacent harvested areas, and intact forests. Species richness was highest in the remnants due to the presence of more disturbance specialists and forest structure affected moss occupancy. Remnant forest strips can act as short-term refugia for forest mosses in temperate forests, however, I was unable to determine if they would function in the long-term. |
