Deadwood in managed and protected forest in southern Sweden : in the wake of storm

Abstract: Deadwood has increased over the last 25 years, but it remains unclear to what extent this is driven by forestry practices or storms. Therefore, I wanted to study the change in volume, decay stage and tree species during a 22-year period, to see if there was a correlation between increase of deadwood and storm. This study included data from southern Sweden, collected by the Swedish National Forest Inventory between 1994-2016. Deadwood in production forest have doubled over the last 25 years and almost quadrupled in protected forest. The increase does not depend on storm since much of the fallen wood was probably removed following year. In protected forest there was an increase in deadwood of broadleaved trees and a drastic decrease in Pinus sylvetstris. While in production forest, conifer trees dominate and there was no lasting effect due to the storm Gudrun (2005) on Picea abies. Hard deadwood decreased in production forest, possibly due to increased removal of branches and treetops, used as forest fuel in forest management. Possible reasons for the increase in deadwood could be the awareness in forestry, especially certification system and voluntarily set asides. Though, there is still necessary to increase the volume of deadwood in production forest, since it covers the largest parts of Swedish forests and does not seem to reach the national environment objective in 2030.