Changes to blanket bog adjoining forest plots at Bad a' Cheo, Rumster Forest, Caithness
1998
Shotbolt, L. | Anderson, A.R. | Townend, J.
Some impacts of 28-year-old South Coastal lodgepole pine forest on adjacent open blanket bog were investigated. A general rise in ground level in unplanted areas between 1966 and 1987 had been cancelled out by subsidence over most of the area by 1996. The forest plots had subsided by 40-80 cm since planting, depending on the cultivation/drainage treatment used and had an increased peat dry bulk density (0.13 Mg m-3) and a decreased water content (7 kg kg-1 dry matter) compared with points more than 50 m from the forest (0.06-0.11 Mg m-3 and 9-16 kg kg-1 dry matter). The depth to water table in July averaged 55 cm in the forest but only 20 cm outside. The zone outside the forest affected by subsidence averaged 30 m wide in 1996, compared with 10-20 m in 1987, suggesting that by the end of the first rotation a 40-m wide zone will be affected. The development of a slope outside the forest by subsidence was considered to be a consequence of more rapid run-off and seepage towards the forest, rather than root spread onto the bog. Where pool systems or other vulnerable habitats are surrounded by forest, a buffer zone at least 40 m wide is needed between the edge of the habitat and the edge of the forest to safeguard the habitat during the first rotation. A narrower buffer zone may be sufficient in higher rainfall areas.
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