Effects of logging on biodiversity and productivity in a temperate natural forest

Understanding how logging affects forest ecosystems, especially the balance between timber production and biodiversity conservation, is central to sustainable ecosystem management under increasing global timber demand and accelerating biodiversity loss.

Based on observations from stem‐mapped natural forest plots under different logging intensities in a temperate forest in Northeastern China, we assessed the relative contributions of niche complementarity, mass‐ratio and vegetation quantity effects on forest productivity and explored whether forests can maintain relatively high biodiversity and productivity under moderate timber extraction.

Our results demonstrate that forest logging significantly reduced stand density, biodiversity and productivity. Among these factors, the basal area of retained trees—a proxy for vegetation quantity—was the primary determinant of productivity, highlighting the dominant role of the vegetation quantity effect in mediating logging impacts. Low‐intensity logging (~8% of basal area removed) may allow a balance between biodiversity conservation and timber production, whereas more severe disturbances were associated with marked declines in both biodiversity and productivity. Additionally, biodiversity and productivity declined sharply when the post‐logging basal area dropped from an initial 29.85 m ² /ha to below 19.71 m ² /ha, suggesting that maintaining sufficient residual stand density is critical for sustaining ecosystem performance.

Synthesis and applications. These findings demonstrate that low‐intensity, ecologically informed selective logging may support both biodiversity and productivity in our temperate forests. While specific transition points may vary across forest types and environmental contexts, our study provides a quantitative basis for density regulation and offers a practical reference for sustainable ecosystem management in Northeastern China.