Mr Mark Neyland

Mr Mark Neyland
PhD student

Topic: regeneration and growth of Eucalyptus obliqua and major rainforest species after a range of silvicultural treatments

University of Tasmania

Clearfell (C) harvesting followed by burning (B) and sowing (S) is routinely used in Tasmania to regenerate over 90 per cent of harvested lowland wet eucalypt forests. Responding to community concerns about the visual and other perceived consequences of CBS and the potential for longer-term effects on biodiversity, this project examines several alternatives.

The project is being undertaken at the Warra Silvicultural Systems Trial (SST) in Southern Tasmania. Click here for more information from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. This is where a range of potentially feasible alternative silvicultural systems are being tested in lowland wet eucalypt forests. The systems differ in the percentage and pattern of dominant and understorey species that are left undisturbed, as well as in the fire regime following logging.

The research will address the following questions:

• Which environments produce the best eucalypt and special species timbers growth?
• Which burn/disturbance classes give the highest seedling densities of eucalypts and special species timbers?
• Which treatments produce what proportions of burn/disturbance classes?
• Which treatments retain original species composition and structures?
• What value are the understorey islands for retention of vascular plants?

I have a busy lifestyle, working full-time as manager of native forest research at Forestry Tasmania and completing my PhD part-time. I also edit a journal so much of this work happens during the evenings.

I chose to do this PhD because the work was going to get done anyway, and I could piggy back the PhD on that work without eating into my private life too much. I find the PhD personally satisfying; I've had the opportunity to take a research trip to Canada and the United States to view variable retention harvesting and to meet fellow practitioners, and in 2005 I presented my work at the IUFRO conference in Brisbane.

My supervisors are Dr Jürgen Bauhus (University of Freiburg), Dr Chris Beadle (Ensis and CRC for Forestry), Dr Neil Davidson (University of Tasmania) and Dr John Hickey (Forestry Tasmania).

My PhD is funded by Forestry Tasmania and the CRC for Forestry.

My PhD studies contribute to the CRC for Forestry Biodiversity Project.

To browse other PhD projects available with the Biodiversity Project, click here.

Aerial photo of Warra silvicultural trial.

Key:
CBS = clearfell, burn and sow
DRN = dispersed retention
ARN = aggregated retention
SGS = single tree/small group selection
GS = group selection