scholarly journals Simulating the Effects of Intensifying Silviculture on Desired Species Yields across a Broad Environmental Gradient

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 755
Author(s):  
Eric B. Searle ◽  
F. Wayne Bell ◽  
Guy R. Larocque ◽  
Mathieu Fortin ◽  
Jennifer Dacosta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Mechanistic Models ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Forest Modelling

In the past two decades, forest management has undergone major paradigm shifts that are challenging the current forest modelling architecture. New silvicultural systems, guidelines for natural disturbance emulation, a desire to enhance structural complexity, major advances in successional theory, and climate change have all highlighted the limitations of current empirical models in covering this range of conditions. Mechanistic models, which focus on modelling underlying ecological processes rather than specific forest conditions, have the potential to meet these new paradigm shifts in a consistent framework, thereby streamlining the planning process. Here we use the NEBIE (a silvicultural intervention scale that classifies management intensities as natural, extensive, basic, intensive, and elite) plot network, from across Ontario, Canada, to examine the applicability of a mechanistic model, ZELIG-CFS (a version of the ZELIG tree growth model developed by the Canadian Forest Service), to simulate yields and species compositions. As silvicultural intensity increased, overall yield generally increased. Species compositions met the desired outcomes when specific silvicultural treatments were implemented and otherwise generally moved from more shade-intolerant to more shade-tolerant species through time. Our results indicated that a mechanistic model can simulate complex stands across a range of forest types and silvicultural systems while accounting for climate change. Finally, we highlight the need to improve the modelling of regeneration processes in ZELIG-CFS to better represent regeneration dynamics in plantations. While fine-tuning is needed, mechanistic models present an option to incorporate adaptive complexity into modelling forest management outcomes.

scholarly journals Do Review Papers on Bird–Vegetation Relationships Provide Actionable Information to Forest Managers in the Eastern United States?

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 990
Author(s):  
Casey A. Lott ◽  
Michael E. Akresh ◽  
Bridgett E. Costanzo ◽  
Anthony W. D’Amato ◽  
Shengwu Duan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Desired Future Conditions ◽  
Forest Managers

Forest management planning requires the specification of measurable objectives as desired future conditions at spatial extents ranging from stands to landscapes and temporal extents ranging from a single growing season to several centuries. Effective implementation of forest management requires understanding current conditions and constraints well enough to apply the appropriate silvicultural strategies to produce desired future conditions, often for multiple objectives, at varying spatial and temporal extents. We administered an online survey to forest managers in the eastern US to better understand how wildlife scientists could best provide information to help meet wildlife-related habitat objectives. We then examined more than 1000 review papers on bird–vegetation relationships in the eastern US compiled during a systematic review of the primary literature to see how well this evidence-base meets the information needs of forest managers. We identified two main areas where wildlife scientists could increase the relevance and applicability of their research. First, forest managers want descriptions of wildlife species–vegetation relationships using the operational metrics of forest management (forest type, tree species composition, basal area, tree density, stocking rates, etc.) summarized at the operational spatial units of forest management (stands, compartments, and forests). Second, forest managers want information about how to provide wildlife habitats for many different species with varied habitat needs across temporal extents related to the ecological processes of succession after harvest or natural disturbance (1–2 decades) or even longer periods of stand development. We provide examples of review papers that meet these information needs of forest managers and topic-specific bibliographies of additional review papers that may contain actionable information for foresters who wish to meet wildlife management objectives. We suggest that wildlife scientists become more familiar with the extensive grey literature on forest bird–vegetation relationships and forest management that is available in natural resource management agency reports. We also suggest that wildlife scientists could reconsider everything from the questions they ask, the metrics they report on, and the way they allocate samples in time and space, to provide more relevant and actionable information to forest managers.

Is the END (emulation of natural disturbance) a new beginning? A critical analysis of the use of fire regimes as the basis of forest ecosystem management with examples from the Canadian western Cordillera

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stockdale ◽  
Mike Flannigan ◽  
Ellen Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Disturbance Regime ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Management Actions

As our view of disturbances such as wildfire has shifted from prevention to recognizing their ecological necessity, so too forest management has evolved from timber-focused even-aged management to more holistic paradigms like ecosystem-based management. Emulation of natural disturbance (END) is a variant of ecosystem management that recognizes the importance of disturbance for maintaining ecological integrity. For END to be a successful model for forest management we need to describe disturbance regimes and implement management actions that emulate them, in turn achieving our objectives for forest structure and function. We review the different components of fire regimes (cause, frequency, extent, timing, and magnitude), we describe low-, mixed-, and high-severity fire regimes, and we discuss key issues related to describing these regimes. When characterizing fire regimes, different methods and spatial and temporal extents result in wide variation of estimates for different fire regime components. Comparing studies is difficult as few measure the same components; some methods are based on the assumption of a high-severity fire regime and are not suited to detecting mixed- or low-severity regimes, which are critical to END management, as this would affect retention in harvested areas. We outline some difficulties with using fire regimes as coarse filters for forest management, including (i) not fully understanding the interactions between fire and other disturbance agents, (ii) assuming that fire is strictly an exogenous disturbance agent that exerts top-down control of forest structure while ignoring numerous endogenous and bottom-up feedbacks on fire effects, and (iii) assuming by only replicating natural disturbance patterns we preserve ecological processes and vital ecosystem components. Even with a good understanding of a fire regime, we would still be challenged with choosing the temporal and spatial scope for the disturbance regime we are trying to emulate. We cannot yet define forest conditions that will arise from variations in disturbance regime; this then limits our ability to implement management actions that will achieve those conditions. We end by highlighting some important knowledge gaps about fire regimes and how the END model could be strengthened to achieve a more sustainable form of forest management.

Climate change will impact the protective effect of forests against rockfall

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Moos ◽  
Antoine Guisan ◽  
Randin Christophe ◽  
Lischke Heike
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Protective Effect ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Protective Capacity ◽  
Forest Modelling ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Protective Function ◽  
Extreme Climate

<p>In mountain areas, forests play a crucial role in protecting people and assets from natural hazards, such as rockfall. Their protective effect is strongly influenced by their structure and state, which are expected to be affected by climate change. More frequent drought events, but also changing natural disturbance regimes, may lead to abrupt diebacks of contemporary species followed by a slow reforestation. In this study, we investigated how a changing climate can affect the protective capacity of mountain forests against rockfall. We therefore combined dynamic forest modelling with a detailed rockfall risk analysis at three case study sites in the Western Swiss Alps. Future forest development was simulated for a moderate and an extreme climate scenario for 200 years with the dynamic forest model TreeMig (Lischke et al., 2006). We then calculated rockfall risk for different forest states based on three-dimensional rockfall simulations with RockyFor3D (Dorren 2016). First results indicate that both at high elevation near the tree line (1500-2200 m a.s.l.) as well as at lower elevations (500-1000 m a.s.l.), increasing drought can lead to diebacks of trees and a reduction of tree density and diameters resulting in a substantial loss of the protective function. Depending on the speed of migration of other, more drought tolerant species, this loss can be partially compensated, but a permanent reduction of the protective effect is to be expected at least for an extreme climate scneario due to a reduced basal area of the forest.</p>

Third Millennium Forestry: What climate change might mean to forests and forest management in Ontario

2000 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Parker ◽  
Stephen J. Colombo ◽  
Marilyn L. Cherry ◽  
Sylvia Greifenhagen ◽  
Chris Papadopol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Forest Health ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Intensive Forest Management ◽  
Precipitation Regimes ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
Key Aspects

Climate change may profoundly influence Ontario's forest ecosystems and their management. Elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, increased temperature and altered precipitation regimes will affect forest vegetation through their influence on physiological (e.g., photosynthesis, respiration) and ecological processes (e.g., net primary production, decomposition), and may result in dramatic northward shifts in the natural range of forest types and species. More importantly, climate change is expected to increase the frequency of natural disturbances. Silvicultural intervention will increasingly be relied on to maintain forest health, manage declining stands, regenerate disturbed areas and cutovers with desired species and genotypes, maintain genetic diversity, and assist in species migration. Given the increasingly important role of Ontario's forests in national and provincial efforts to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of the Kyoto Protocol, afforestation, conservation of existing forests, and increased forest management activities to accelerate the storage of carbon in Ontario's forests will be key aspects of forestry at the start of the third millennium. Key words: adaptation, afforestation, bioenergy, carbon dioxide, climate change, disturbance, intensive forest management, migration, mitigation, sequestration, succession

scholarly journals The “emulation of natural disturbance” (END) management approach in Canadian forestry: A critical evaluation

2009 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole L Klenk ◽  
Gary Q Bull ◽  
James I. MacLellan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Past History ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Environmental Ethic ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Climate Change Projections ◽  
The Past

The “emulation of natural disturbance” (END) is an ambiguous forest management approach that embodies an environmental ethic of “following nature” and the values associated with the nature/culture dichotomy. Given climate change projections, the emulation of natural disturbance or any approach that commits itself to reproducing a snapshot of the past history and evolution of forests may not be appropriate over large areas of the forested landscape. The adoption of a naturalistic forest management approach may appear to make sense for biodiversity conservation, but such an approach may not be adaptive in a rapidly changing climate. Rather than aiming to “follow nature,” Canadian forestry should strive to be innovative in its efforts to manage its forests. Key words: emulation of natural disturbance, TRIAD, environmental ethics, naturalistic forest management, climate change, adaptation

scholarly journals Fundy Model Forest: Partners in sustainable forest management

1999 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. MacLean ◽  
Peter Etheridge ◽  
Joe Pelham ◽  
Walter Emrich
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Scenario Planning ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Timber Supply ◽  
Forest Modelling ◽  
Management Planning

Scenario planning was used to develop a consensus-based, multi-stakeholder management planning process for a 114 000 ha land base in New Brunswick, Canada. This is part of the Fundy Model Forest, which involves four major landowner groups, along with 26 other Partnership organizations. Public consultation and Partnership input were used to define 25 scenarios, determining effects of alternative means of riparian strip management, road construction, vegetation and insect control, harvesting, maintenance of biodiversity, and plantation establishment. The Woodstock forest modelling software was used to determine effects of each scenario on timber supply, forest structure, measures of biodiversity and ecological integrity, areas of mature forest, and wildlife habitat. In a series of workshops, the Partners were successful in reaching consensus on a Fundy Model Forest "preferred" management scenario, which was conveyed to the land managers for implementation. Development of the management planning process and the use of scenario planning procedures in the Fundy Model Forest are described. Key words: scenario planning, sustainable forest management, Fundy Model Forest, timber supply, biodiversity

scholarly journals Natural Disturbance-Based Forest Management: Moving Beyond Retention and Continuous-Cover Forestry

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Kuuluvainen ◽  
Per Angelstam ◽  
Lee Frelich ◽  
Kalev Jõgiste ◽  
Matti Koivula ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Multiple Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Evolutionary Potential ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Continuous Cover Forestry

Global forest area is declining rapidly, along with degradation of the ecological condition of remaining forests. Hence it is necessary to adopt forest management approaches that can achieve a balance between (1) human management designs based on homogenization of forest structure to efficiently deliver economic values and (2) naturally emerging self-organized ecosystem dynamics that foster heterogeneity, biodiversity, resilience and adaptive capacity. Natural disturbance-based management is suggested to provide such an approach. It is grounded on the premise that disturbance is a key process maintaining diversity of ecosystem structures, species and functions, and adaptive and evolutionary potential, which functionally link to sustainability of ecosystem services supporting human well-being. We review the development, ecological and evolutionary foundations and applications of natural disturbance-based forest management. With emphasis on boreal forests, we compare this approach with two mainstream approaches to sustainable forest management, retention and continuous-cover forestry. Compared with these approaches, natural disturbance-based management provides a more comprehensive framework, which is compatible with current understanding of multiple-scale ecological processes and structures, which underlie biodiversity, resilience and adaptive potential of forest ecosystems. We conclude that natural disturbance-based management provides a comprehensive ecosystem-based framework for managing forests for human needs of commodity production and immaterial values, while maintaining forest health in the rapidly changing global environment.

Copenhagen Agreement - A New Paradigm of Climate Problem Solving

2010 ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Agibalov ◽  
A. Kokorin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
New Order ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Energy Efficiency Policy ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
Change Policy

Copenhagen summit results could be called a failure. This is the failure of UN climate change policy management, but definitely the first step to a new order as well. The article reviews main characteristics of climate policy paradigm shifts. Russian interests in climate change policy and main threats are analyzed. Successful development and implementation of energy savings and energy efficiency policy are necessary and would sufficiently help solving the global climate change problem.

Wald und Klimawandel in der inneralpinen Trockenregion Visp

2012 ◽  
Vol 163 (12) ◽  
pp. 481-492
Author(s):  
Andreas Rigling ◽  
Ché Elkin ◽  
Matthias Dobbertin ◽  
Britta Eilmann ◽  
Arnaud Giuggiola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Ecosystem ◽  
Bark Beetles ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Forest Monitoring ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Forest Ecosystem Services

Forest and climate change in the inner-Alpine dry region of Visp Over the past decades, observed increases in temperature have been particularly pronounced in mountain regions. If this trend should continue in the 21st Century, frequency and intensity of droughts will increase, and will pose major challenges for forest management. Under current conditions drought-related tree mortality is already an important factor of forest ecosystems in dry inner-Alpine valleys. Here we assess the sensitivity of forest ecosystems to climate change and evaluate alternative forest management strategies in the Visp region. We integrate data from forest monitoring plots, field experiments and dynamic forests models to evaluate how the forest ecosystem services timber production, protection against natural hazards, carbon storage and biodiver-sity will be impacted. Our results suggest that at dry low elevation sites the drought tolerance of native tree species will be exceeded so that in the longer term a transition to more drought-adapted species should be considered. At medium elevations, drought and insect disturbances as by bark beetles are projected to be important for forest development, while at high elevations forests are projected to expand and grow better. All of the ecosystem services that we considered are projected to be impacted by changing forest conditions, with the specific impacts often being elevation-dependent. In the medium term, forest management that aims to increase the resilience of forests to drought can help maintain forest ecosystem services temporarily. However, our results suggest that relatively rigid management interventions are required to achieve significant effects. By using a combination of environmental monitoring, field experiments and modeling, we are able to gain insight into how forest ecosystem, and the services they provide, will respond to future changes.

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