Climate Change and Forest Management: Implications for Energy Biomass Production in Boreal Forest Ecosystems

2013 ◽  
pp. 209-222
Author(s):  
Ashraful Alam
2012 ◽  
Vol 163 (12) ◽  
pp. 481-492
Author(s):  
Andreas Rigling ◽  
Ché Elkin ◽  
Matthias Dobbertin ◽  
Britta Eilmann ◽  
Arnaud Giuggiola ◽  
...  

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.


2006 ◽  
Vol 86 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 171-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Shaw ◽  
Oleg Chertov ◽  
Alexander Komarov ◽  
Jagtar Bhatti ◽  
Marina Nadporozhskaya ◽  
...  

Sustainability of forest ecosystems and climate change are two critical issues for boreal forest ecosystems in Canada that require an understanding of the links and balance between productivity, soil processes and their interaction with natural and anth ropogenic disturbances. Forest ecosystem models can be used to understand and predict boreal forest ecosystem dynamics. EFIMOD 2 is an individual tree model of the forest-soil ecosystem capable of modelling nitrogen feedback to productivity in response to changes in soil moisture and temperature. It has been successfully applied in Europe, but has not been calibrated for any forest ecosystem in Canada. The objective of this study was to parameterize and validate EFIMOD 2 for jack pine in Canada. Simulated and measured results agreed for changes in tree biomass carbon and soil carbon and nitrogen with increasing stand age and across a climatic gradient from the southern to northern limits of the boreal forest. Preliminary results from scenario testing indicate that EFIMOD 2 can be successfully applied to predict the impacts of forest management practices and climate change in the absence of natural disturbances on jack pine in the boreal forest of Canada. Model development is underway to represent the effects of natural disturbances. Key words: EFIMOD 2, forest soil, carbon, nitrogen, model, jack pine


2017 ◽  
Vol 400 ◽  
pp. 542-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin J. Daniel ◽  
Michael T. Ter-Mikaelian ◽  
B. Mike Wotton ◽  
Bronwyn Rayfield ◽  
Marie-Josée Fortin

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Ivo Machar ◽  
Veronika Vlckova ◽  
Lubomir Salek ◽  
Vilem Pechanec ◽  
Arkadiusz Nowak ◽  
...  

Abstract The impact of climate change on forest ecosystems may manifest itself by a shift in forest vegetation zones in the landscape northward and into higher elevations. Studies of climate change-induced vegetation zone shifts in forest ecosystems have been relatively rare in the context of European temperate zone (apart from Alpine regions). The presented paper outlines the results of a biogeographic model of climatic conditions in forest vegetation zones applied in the Central European landscape. The objective of the study is a prediction of future silvicultural conditions for the Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.), which is one of the principal tree species within European forests. The model is based on a general environmental dependence of forest vegetation zones on the long-term effect of altitudinal and exposure climates defined by the mean and extreme air temperatures and the amount and distribution of atmospheric precipitation. The climatological data for the model were provided by a validated regional climate database for 2010 – 2090 according to the SRES A1B scenario, bound to specific geo-referenced points in the landscape. The geobiocoenological data in the model were provided by the Biogeography Register database which contains ecological data on the landscape bound to individual cadastres of the entire Czech Republic. The biogeographic model applies special programs (the FORTRAN programming language) in the environment of geographic information systems. The model outputs can be clearly graphically visualized as scenarios of predicted future climatic conditions of landscape vegetation zones. Modelling of the regional scenario of changes in the climatic conditions of forest vegetation zones reveals that in the prediction period of 2070 and beyond, good and very good climatic conditions for the cultivation of forests with dominant Norway spruce will be found only in some parts of its today’s native range in forest vegetation zones 5 – 8. Based on the results provided by the regional scenario, the authors of this paper recommend fundamental reassessment of the national strategy of sustainable forest management in the Czech Republic, stipulating that the current practice of spruce cultivation be reduced only to areas specifically defined by the biogeographic model. The paper shows that biogeographic models based on the concept of vegetation zoning can be applied not only in regional scenarios of climate change in the landscape but also as support tools for the creation of strategies of sustainable forest management.


Author(s):  
Rim Khlifa ◽  
Daniel Houle ◽  
Hubert Morin ◽  
Steven Kembel

Phyllosphere microbial communities have received considerable attention given their important influence on their plant hosts and on ecosystem functioning. In a context where climate change threatens the sustainability of ecosystems, it is important to understand how phyllosphere microbes will respond to changes in their environment. We used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to quantify phyllosphere bacterial communities of black spruce exposed to nitrogen canopy enrichment and soil warming in the boreal forest of Quebec, Canada. The treatments were applied from April to September 2015 and the sampling was done in September. Neither treatment influenced the overall community structure and diversity of black spruce phyllosphere bacterial communities. However, some bacterial taxa and inferred microbial functions did differ among treatments, revealing in particular a stronger response of some bacteria to soil warming rather than nitrogen enrichment. Our results suggest that soil warming could potentially induce more changes in phyllosphere bacterial taxa abundances and functions than nitrogen addition, with potential consequences for microbial diversity and boreal forest ecosystem function under likely climate change scenarios. Our study suggests avenues for further research to integrate a more mechanistic understanding of the importance of phyllosphere microbes for black spruce and boreal forest ecosystems.


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