Facilitation and competition reduction in tree species mixtures in Central Europe: Consequences for growth modeling and forest management

Abstract. Although forest management is one of the instruments proposed to mitigate climate change, the relationship between forest management and canopy albedo has been ignored so far by climate models. Here we develop an approach that could be implemented in Earth system models. A stand-level forest gap model is combined with a canopy radiation transfer model and satellite-derived model parameters to quantify the effects of forest thinning on summertime canopy albedo. This approach reveals which parameter has the largest affect on summer canopy albedo: we examined the effects of three forest species (pine, beech, oak) and four thinning strategies with a constant forest floor albedo (light to intense thinning regimes) and five different solar zenith angles at five different sites (40° N 9° E–60° N 9° E). During stand establishment, summertime canopy albedo is driven by tree species. In the later stages of stand development, the effect of tree species on summertime canopy albedo decreases in favour of an increasing influence of forest thinning. These trends continue until the end of the rotation, where thinning explains up to 50% of the variance in near-infrared albedo and up to 70% of the variance in visible canopy albedo. The absolute summertime canopy albedo of all species ranges from 0.03 to 0.06 (visible) and 0.20 to 0.28 (near-infrared); thus the albedo needs to be parameterised at species level. In addition, Earth system models need to account for forest management in such a way that structural changes in the canopy are described by changes in leaf area index and crown volume (maximum change of 0.02 visible and 0.05 near-infrared albedo) and that the expression of albedo depends on the solar zenith angle (maximum change of 0.02 visible and 0.05 near-infrared albedo). Earth system models taking into account these parameters would not only be able to examine the spatial effects of forest management but also the total effects of forest management on climate.

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Environmental change impacts on the C- and N-cycle of European forests: a model comparison study

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-10-1751-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 1751-1773 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

D. R. Cameron ◽

M. Van Oijen ◽

C. Werner ◽

K. Butterbach-Bahl ◽

R. Grote ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Central Europe ◽

Tree Species ◽

Carbon Sink ◽

N2o Emission ◽

Forest Growth ◽

N2o Emissions ◽

European Forests ◽

Considerable Uncertainty ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen

Abstract. Forests are important components of the greenhouse gas balance of Europe. There is considerable uncertainty about how predicted changes to climate and nitrogen deposition will perturb the carbon and nitrogen cycles of European forests and thereby alter forest growth, carbon sequestration and N2O emission. The present study aimed to quantify the carbon and nitrogen balance, including the exchange of greenhouse gases, of European forests over the period 2010–2030, with a particular emphasis on the spatial variability of change. The analysis was carried out for two tree species: European beech and Scots pine. For this purpose, four different dynamic models were used: BASFOR, DailyDayCent, INTEGRATOR and Landscape-DNDC. These models span a range from semi-empirical to complex mechanistic. Comparison of these models allowed assessment of the extent to which model predictions depended on differences in model inputs and structure. We found a European average carbon sink of 0.160 ± 0.020 kgC m−2 yr−1 (pine) and 0.138 ± 0.062 kgC m−2 yr−1 (beech) and N2O source of 0.285 ± 0.125 kgN ha−1 yr−1 (pine) and 0.575 ± 0.105 kgN ha−1 yr−1 (beech). The European average greenhouse gas potential of the carbon sink was 18 (pine) and 8 (beech) times that of the N2O source. Carbon sequestration was larger in the trees than in the soil. Carbon sequestration and forest growth were largest in central Europe and lowest in northern Sweden and Finland, N. Poland and S. Spain. No single driver was found to dominate change across Europe. Forests were found to be most sensitive to change in environmental drivers where the drivers were limiting growth, where changes were particularly large or where changes acted in concert. The models disagreed as to which environmental changes were most significant for the geographical variation in forest growth and as to which tree species showed the largest rate of carbon sequestration. Pine and beech forests were found to have differing sensitivities to environmental change, in particular the response to changes in nitrogen and precipitation, with beech forest more vulnerable to drought. There was considerable uncertainty about the geographical location of N2O emissions. Two of the models BASFOR and LandscapeDNDC had largest emissions in central Europe where nitrogen deposition and soil nitrogen were largest, whereas the two other models identified different regions with large N2O emission. N2O emissions were found to be larger from beech than pine forests and were found to be particularly sensitive to forest growth.

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Summertime canopy albedo is sensitive to forest thinning

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-10-15373-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 15373-15414 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J. Otto ◽

D. Berveiller ◽

F.-M. Bréon ◽

N. Delpierre ◽

G. Geppert ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Tree Species ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Canopy Structure ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Transfer Model ◽

Forest Thinning ◽

Crown Volume ◽

The Difference

Abstract. Despite an emerging body of literature linking canopy albedo to forest management, understanding of the process is still fragmented. We combined a stand-level forest gap model with a canopy radiation transfer model and satellite-derived model parameters to quantify the effects of forest thinning, that is removing trees at a certain time during the forest rotation, on summertime canopy albedo. The effects of different forest species (pine, beech, oak) and four thinning strategies (light to intense thinning regimes) were examined. During stand establishment, summertime canopy albedo is driven by tree species. In the later stages of stand development, the effect of tree species on summertime canopy albedo decreases in favour of an increasing influence of forest thinning on summertime canopy albedo. These trends continue until the end of the rotation where thinning explains up to 50% of the variance in near-infrared canopy albedo and up to 70% of the variance in visible canopy albedo. More intense thinning lowers the summertime shortwave albedo in the canopy by as much as 0.02 compared to unthinned forest. The structural changes associated with forest thinning can be described by the change in LAI in combination with crown volume. However, forests with identical canopy structure can have different summertime albedo values due to their location: the further north a forest is situated, the more the solar zenith angle increases and thus the higher is the summertime canopy albedo, independent of the wavelength. Despite the increase of absolute summertime canopy albedo values with latitude, the difference in canopy albedo between managed and unmanaged forest decreases with increasing latitude. Forest management thus strongly altered summertime forest albedo.

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The influence of boreal tree species mixtures on ecosystem carbon storage and fluxes

Forest Ecology and Management ◽

10.1016/j.foreco.2015.06.029 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 354 ◽

pp. 119-129 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Jérôme Laganière ◽

Xavier Cavard ◽

Brian W. Brassard ◽

David Paré ◽

Yves Bergeron ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Storage ◽

Tree Species ◽

Ecosystem Carbon ◽

Species Mixtures

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Stand structure indices as tools to support forest management: an application in Trentino forests (Italy)

Journal of Forest Science ◽

10.17221/75/2012-jfs ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 59 (No. 4) ◽

pp. 159-168 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

F. Pastorella ◽

A. Paletto

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Forest Management ◽

Species Diversity ◽

Species Composition ◽

Tree Species ◽

Stand Structure ◽

Composite Index ◽

Mutual Position ◽

Tree Species Composition ◽

North East

Stand structure and species diversity are two useful parameters to provide a synthetic measure of forest biodiversity. The stand structure is spatial distribution, mutual position, diameter and height differentiation of trees in a forest ecosystem and it highly influences habitat and species diversity. The forest stand and species diversity can be measured through indices that provide important information to better address silvicultural practices and forest management strategies in the short and long-term period. These indices can be combined in a composite index in order to evaluate the complex diversity at the stand level. The aim of the paper is to identify and to test a complex index (S-index) allowing to take into account both the tree species composition and the stand structure. S-index was applied in a case study in the north-east of Italy (Trentino province). The results show that the Norway spruce forests in Trentino province are characterized by a medium-low level of complexity (S-index is in a range between 0.14 and 0.46) due to a low tree species composition rather than to the stand structure (diametric differentiation and spatial distribution of trees).  

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Canadian Forestry Accreditation Board Annual Report – 2015 / Bureau Canadien d'agrément en foresterie Rapport Annuel – 2015: SFI Partnering for Conservation and Community Impact: New Pathway to Environmentally Responsible Forest Management in LEED: Legal Forestry alone is not worthy of LEED Credit: All Tree Species Vulnerable to Drought?: Carbon in Pacific Northwest Forests Reflects Harvest History: Value of Urban (London, UK) Trees Shown: Old-growth Forests as Buffer against Rising Temperatures

The Forestry Chronicle ◽

10.5558/tfc2016-033 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 92 (02) ◽

pp. 150-162

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Pacific Northwest ◽

Tree Species ◽

Annual Report ◽

Old Growth ◽

Community Impact ◽

Environmentally Responsible ◽

Rapport Annuel ◽

Old Growth Forests

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Modern forest management and the decline of the Woodland Brown (Lopinga achine) in Central Europe

Forest Ecology and Management ◽

10.1016/j.foreco.2011.12.028 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 269 ◽

pp. 239-248 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Merle Streitberger ◽

Gabriel Hermann ◽

Wolfgang Kraus ◽

Thomas Fartmann

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Central Europe

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APPLYING OF BIOGEAGRAPHY MODEL TO FOREST MANAGEMENT STRATEGY UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE IN CENTRAL EUROPE

17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2017, Water Resources. Forest, Marine and Ocean Ecosystems ◽

10.5593/sgem2017/32/s14.094 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Katerina Vrublova

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Forest Management ◽

Central Europe ◽

Management Strategy

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Retrospective analysis of growth A contribution to sustainable forest management in the tropics

IAWA Journal ◽

10.1163/22941932-20170173 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 297-S21 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Neda Lotfiomran ◽

Michael Köhl

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Tropical Forests ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Rings ◽

Tree Species ◽

Sustainable Forest Management ◽

Cedrela Odorata ◽

Tree Ring Analysis ◽

Hymenaea Courbaril ◽

Ring Analysis

Reliable information on tree growth is a prerequisite for sustainable forest management (SFM). However, in tropical forests its implementation is often hampered by insufficient knowledge of the growth dynamics of trees. Although tree ring analysis of tropical trees has a long history, its application for SFM has only recently been considered. In the current study, we illustrate both the potentials and limitations of a retrospective growth assessment by tree ring analysis under the prevailing tropical conditions in a Surinamese rain forest. For this purpose, 38 commercial tree species were screened and grouped into three categories according to the visibility of their tree ring boundaries: (I) tree rings absent or indistinct, (II) distinct but partially vague tree rings which enable approximate age estimation, (III) very distinct tree rings. In 22 out of 38 commercial tree species distinct to very distinct tree ring boundaries could be identified. The anatomy of tree ring boundaries was described following Worbes and Fichtler (2010). Four species with distinct growth rings, Cedrela odorata, Hymenaea courbaril, Pithecellobium corymbosum and Goupia glabra, were studied in greater detail. Time-series analysis was used to characterise their radial growth. From the tree ring width, the annual diameter increment and cumulative diameter growth were calculated to find long-term growth patterns. Pithecellobium corymbosum and partially Hymenaea courbaril followed a typical S-shaped growth curve. By contrast, Goupia glabra and Cedrela odorata did not exhibit an age-related decrease of growth, but showed a constant linear growth over their entire life span. If based on more sample trees, such data can provide target-oriented information for improving SFM in tropical forests.

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