Coastal Old-Growth Dynamics (OGD) Project

The coastal old-growth dynamics (OGD) project is a study of the features of old-growth forest ecosystems of coastal B.C. across time and space. 

On this page: 

• What is the coastal old-growth dynamics project?
• Purpose of the old-growth dynamics project
• Historical plot establishment (1992-93)
• Re-establishment, re-measurement, and expansion of the project (2007-09)
• Research partners and acknowledgements

What is the coastal old-growth dynamics project?

This project uses a network of permanent, stand-mapped plots within provincial protected areas to study structure, composition, and function of these forests over time. The foundation of the study is a set of plots established in 1992 and 1993.

Data from the OGD network provides a comparative understanding of old-growth across climatic conditions and site and disturbance types. The plots provide benchmark measures for evaluating impacts of additional stresses such as harvesting, development, and climate change on old-growth forests. The original plots are being remeasured and expanded, and new plots are being added to the study network.

Purpose of the old-growth dynamics project

Coastal temperate rainforests are diverse in temperature, moisture and continentality. These ecosystems include forests in:

• Southern Oregon (OR) and Washington (WA),
• Coastal British Columbia (Schoonmaker et al. 1997), and
• Southeast Alaska (AK)

They are characterized by long time periods between stand-replacing disturbances, with as little as 0.001% of forest area affected by these large disturbance events per year (Pearson 2003).  Estimated turnover times of small forest gaps of one to two trees range from 300 to 1300 years (e.g., Lertzman et al. 1996) and dominant tree species are relatively long-lived, e.g., >400 years.

The revitalization and expansion of the OGD plot network builds upon research from B.C., the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and Southeast Alaska to study these forests over time periods relevant to their development (decades to centuries). 

Current management initiatives in coastal B.C. that will draw on OGD data and analysis include:

• Developing operational approaches for ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii
• Exploring the framework of ecosystem resilience for managing old-growth forests in the context of climate change
• Quantifying (measuring in numbers) cumulative effects of resource development, and
• Evaluating ecosystem recovery to old-growth condition after disturbances such as wildfires and climate change

Historical plot establishment (1992-93)

Between 1992 and 1993, Paul Alaback, then with the USDA Forest Service (PNW Research Station, Juneau, AK), and Fred Nuszdorfer, then Regional Ecologist for the BC Forest Service, Vancouver Forest Region, established a series of 0.25 ha permanent, stand-mapped plots. These were established in old-growth stands that investigators hoped were going to be protected over multiple decades.

These plots contributed to a series that started in Southeast Alaska and was to span the north pacific coastal temperate rainforest to examine variability in coastal temperate old-growth rainforest across this latitudinal gradient. Data were collected to evaluate biomass, structure, and composition and to monitor changes in ecosystem structure and function with climate change.

Re-establishment, re-measurement, and expansion of the project (2007-09)

Work is being done with multiple partners from other agencies (BC Parks, Parks Canada), First Nations (Haisla First Nation, Kitlope River Valley), universities (Simon Fraser), and with the scientists who established the historical plots (Paul Alaback, Audrey Pearson) to refined and remeasure the plots established in 1992-3. Field crews have remeasured features from these older plots, expanded the plots in many cases, and added additional ecological measurements to the database.

Potential sites are being evaluated to add to the network based on their value for addressing questions of interest in ecological theory and application, the joint needs of our partners, resource availability, and site accessibility.

Additional, existing, stand-mapped plots from other projects are also available to provide comparative temporal and spatial data along the BC coast, e.g., plots established in 1995 at Rocky Point on southeastern Vancouver Island and a plot initiated through the Smithsonian Institution’s Man and the Biosphere (SIMAB) Program at Bamfield, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Research partners and acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge and thank our partners who helped make the old-growth dynamics project possible.