Article Modelling Post-Disturbance Successional Dynamics of the Canadian Boreal Mixedwoods Kobra Maleki 1,* , Mohamadou Alpha Gueye 1, Benoit Lafleur 1, Alain Leduc 2 and Yves Bergeron 1,2 1 Institut de recherche sur les forêts, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 445 boul. de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC J9X 5E4, Canada;
[email protected] (M.A.G.); Benoit.Lafl
[email protected] (B.L.);
[email protected] (Y.B.) 2 Centre d’étude de la forêt, Département des sciences biologiques, Université de Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-819-762-0971 (ext. 2462) Received: 31 October 2019; Accepted: 14 December 2019; Published: 18 December 2019 Abstract: Natural disturbances, such as fire and insect outbreaks, play important roles in natural forest dynamics, which are characterized over long time scales by changes in stand composition and structure. Individual-based forest simulators could help explain and predict the response of forest ecosystems to different disturbances, silvicultural treatments, or environmental stressors. This study evaluated the ability of the SORTIE-ND simulator to reproduce post-disturbance dynamics of the boreal mixedwoods of eastern Canada. In 1991 and 2009, we sampled all trees (including seedlings and saplings) in 431 (256 m2) plots located in the Lake Duparquet Research and Teaching Forest (western Quebec). These plots were distributed in stands originating from seven wildfires that occurred between 1760 and 1944, and which represented a chronosequence of post-disturbance stand development. We used the 1991 inventory data to parameterize the model, and simulated short- to long-term natural dynamics of post-fire stands in both the absence and presence of a spruce budworm outbreak.