Climate change produces winners and losers: Differential responses of amphibians in mountain forests of the Near East

Forests provide countless ecological, societal, and climatological benefits. With changing climate, maintaining certain services may lead to a decrease in the quantity or quality of other services available from that source. Accordingly, our research objective is to analyze the effects of the provision of a certain ecosystem service on the economically optimized harvest schedules and how harvest schedules will be influenced by climate change. Based on financial portfolio theory, we determined, for two case study regions in Austria and Slovakia, treatment schedules based on nonlinear programming, which integrates climate-sensitive biophysical risks and risk-averting behavior of the management. In both cases, results recommend reducing the overaged stocking volume within several decades to establish new ingrowth, leading to an overall reduction of age and related risk, as well as an increase in growth. Under climate change conditions, the admixing of hardwoods towards spruce–fir–beech (Austria) or spruce–pine–beech (Slovakia) stands should be emphasized to account for the changing risk and growth conditions. Moreover, climate change scenarios either increased (Austria) or decreased (Slovakia) the economic return slightly. In both cases, the costs for providing the ecosystem service “rock fall protection” increases under climate change. Although in the Austrian case there is no clear tendency between the management options, in the Slovakian case, a close-to-nature management option is preferred under climate change conditions. Increasing tree species richness, increasing structural diversity, replacing high-risk stands, and reducing average growing stocks are important preconditions for a successful sustainable management of European mountain forests in the long term.

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Efficacy of Trans-geographic Observational Network Design for Revelation of Growth Pattern in Mountain Forests Across Europe

10.1007/978-3-030-80767-2_5 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 141-187

Author(s):

H. Pretzsch ◽

T. Hilmers ◽

E. Uhl ◽

M. del Río ◽

A. Avdagić ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Norway Spruce ◽

Large Scale ◽

Statistical Evaluation ◽

European Beech ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Silver Fir ◽

Mountain Forests ◽

Mixed Species ◽

Yield Data

AbstractUnderstanding tree and stand growth dynamics in the frame of climate change calls for large-scale analyses. For analysing growth patterns in mountain forests across Europe, the CLIMO consortium compiled a network of observational plots across European mountain regions. Here, we describe the design and efficacy of this network of plots in monospecific European beech and mixed-species stands of Norway spruce, European beech, and silver fir.First, we sketch the state of the art of existing monitoring and observational approaches for assessing the growth of mountain forests. Second, we introduce the design, measurement protocols, as well as site and stand characteristics, and we stress the innovation of the newly compiled network. Third, we give an overview of the growth and yield data at stand and tree level, sketch the growth characteristics along elevation gradients, and introduce the methods of statistical evaluation. Fourth, we report additional measurements of soil, genetic resources, and climate smartness indicators and criteria, which were available for statistical evaluation and testing hypotheses. Fifth, we present the ESFONET (European Smart Forest Network) approach of data and knowledge dissemination. The discussion is focussed on the novelty and relevance of the database, its potential for monitoring, understanding and management of mountain forests toward climate smartness, and the requirements for future assessments and inventories.In this chapter, we describe the design and efficacy of this network of plots in monospecific European beech and mixed-species stands of Norway spruce, European beech, and silver fir. We present how to acquire and evaluate data from individual trees and the whole stand to quantify and understand the growth of mountain forests in Europe under climate change. It will provide concepts, models, and practical hints for analogous trans-geographic projects that may be based on the existing and newly recorded data on forests.

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