FUNGI AND WIND STRONGLY INFLUENCE THE TEMPORAL AVAILABILITY OF LOGS IN AN OLD-GROWTH SPRUCE FOREST.

The article focuses on a study related to examining the modes of decay and temporal patterns in the availability of Picea abies logs in an old-growth forest affected by internal disturbance. The study was conducted in Norra Gardfjäallet State Forest Reserve in Västerbotten County, Sweden. Almost 90 percent of the logs took about 60 years to decay beyond a deformed trunk with soft wood. Heart-rot fungi were found to be important factors behind the dynamics of dead wood. The impact of log size on wood decay rates was also examined.