Multi-objective forestry increases the production of ecosystem services

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olalla Díaz-Yáñez ◽  
Timo Pukkala ◽  
Petteri Packalen ◽  
Manfred J Lexer ◽  
Heli Peltola
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Simulation And Optimization ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Continuous Cover Forestry

Abstract Boreal forests produce multiple ecosystem services for the society. Their trade-offs determine whether they should be produced simultaneously or whether it is preferable to assign separate areas to different ecosystem services. We use simulation and optimization to analyse the correlations, trade-offs and production levels of several ecosystem services in single- and multi-objective forestry over 100 years in a boreal forest landscape. The case study area covers 3600 ha of boreal forest, consisting of 3365 stands. The ecosystem services and their indicators (in parentheses) considered are carbon sequestration (forestry carbon balance), biodiversity (amount of deadwood and broadleaf volume), economic profitability of forestry (net present value of timber production) and timber supply to forest industry (volume of harvested timber). The treatment alternatives simulated for each of the stands include both even-aged rotation forestry (thinning from above with clear cut) and continuous cover forestry regimes (thinning from above with no clear cut). First, we develop 200 Pareto optimal plans by maximizing multi-attribute utility functions using random weights for the ecosystem service indicators. Second, we compare the average level of ecosystem services in single- and multi-objective forestry. Based on our findings, forestry carbon balance and the amount of deadwood correlate positively with each other, and both of them correlate negatively with harvested timber volume and economic profitability of forestry. Despite this, the simultaneous maximization of multiple objectives increased the overall production levels of several ecosystem services, which suggests that the management of boreal forests should be multi-objective to sustain the simultaneous provision of timber and other ecosystem services.

Multifunctional comparison of different management strategies in boreal forests

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
O Díaz-Yáñez ◽  
T Pukkala ◽  
P Packalen ◽  
H Peltola
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Biodiversity Indicators ◽  
Rotation Forest ◽  
Continuous Cover Forestry

Abstract In sustainable forestry, forests should produce multiple ecosystem services for society, such as timber, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Therefore, in the evaluation of forest management strategies, we have to consider the impacts of management on several ecosystem services. In this study, we compared the effects of five different forest management strategies on timber drain, carbon stocks, carbon balance and biodiversity indicators, while maximizing economic revenues from timber production. The assessment was carried out in a boreal landscape of 43 000 ha over a 100-year calculation period. The five management strategies were rotation forest management (with thinning from below or above), continuous cover forestry, a combination of rotation forest management and continuous cover forestry and any-aged forestry. Rotation forest management with thinning from below was less profitable than the other strategies, which were close to each other in economic profitability. Rotation forest management with thinning from below was also the poorest in terms of carbon stocks, carbon balance and biodiversity indicators. Any-aged and continuous cover forestry were the best in terms of carbon sequestration and biodiversity indicators. In general, management strategies that used thinning from above and that were not restricted to rotation forest management as the only option provided more ecosystem services and were also economically profitable. Such management strategies may help to satisfy the increasing demand for diverse uses of forests.

scholarly journals Effects of wind damage on the optimal management of boreal forests under current and changing climatic conditions

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ane Zubizarreta-Gerendiain ◽  
Timo Pukkala ◽  
Heli Peltola
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Forest Biomass ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Wind Damage ◽  
Timber Production ◽  
Optimal Management ◽  
Management Plans

This study presents a new method for considering the risk of wind damage in forest planning and for predicting the amount of damage and its effects on timber production, economic profitability and carbon balance of forestry. The effects of wind damage on the optimal management of boreal forests under current and changing climatic conditions were analyzed by comparing four forest management plans. A reference plan maximized net present value (NPV) with even-flow harvesting constraints. The second plan minimized height differences between adjacent stands, the third minimized height differences while simultaneously maximizing NPV, and the fourth maximized height differences between adjacent stands. To obtain damage-adjusted results, schedules that belonged to the optimal management plans were simulated with wind damage, taking into account the shelter provided by adjacent stands. Maximizing NPV and simultaneously minimizing height differences resulted in the highest damage-adjusted NPV. Increasing wind damage increased carbon balance of forest soil but decreased the total carbon balance of forestry as it decreased the carbon balances of living forest biomass and wood-based products. Climate change slightly improved the total carbon balance of forestry. If wind damage was ignored in calculations, NPV, total carbon balance of forestry, and timber production were overestimated.

scholarly journals Simulating boreal forest carbon dynamics after stand-replacing fire disturbance: insights from a global process-based vegetation model

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 8233-8252 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Yue ◽  
P. Ciais ◽  
S. Luyssaert ◽  
P. Cadule ◽  
J. Harden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Carbon Stock ◽  
Forest Carbon ◽  
Biomass Carbon ◽  
Co2 Fluxes ◽  
Vegetation Model ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Simulation Results

Abstract. Stand-replacing fires are the dominant fire type in North American boreal forests. They leave a historical legacy of a mosaic landscape of different aged forest cohorts. This forest age dynamics must be included in vegetation models to accurately quantify the role of fire in the historical and current regional forest carbon balance. The present study adapted the global process-based vegetation model ORCHIDEE to simulate the CO2 emissions from boreal forest fire and the subsequent recovery after a stand-replacing fire; the model represents postfire new cohort establishment, forest stand structure and the self-thinning process. Simulation results are evaluated against observations of three clusters of postfire forest chronosequences in Canada and Alaska. The variables evaluated include: fire carbon emissions, CO2 fluxes (gross primary production, total ecosystem respiration and net ecosystem exchange), leaf area index, and biometric measurements (aboveground biomass carbon, forest floor carbon, woody debris carbon, stand individual density, stand basal area, and mean diameter at breast height). When forced by local climate and the atmospheric CO2 history at each chronosequence site, the model simulations generally match the observed CO2 fluxes and carbon stock data well, with model-measurement mean square root of deviation comparable with the measurement accuracy (for CO2 flux ~100 g C m−2 yr−1, for biomass carbon ~1000 g C m−2 and for soil carbon ~2000 g C m−2). We find that the current postfire forest carbon sink at the evaluation sites, as observed by chronosequence methods, is mainly due to a combination of historical CO2 increase and forest succession. Climate change and variability during this period offsets some of these expected carbon gains. The negative impacts of climate were a likely consequence of increasing water stress caused by significant temperature increases that were not matched by concurrent increases in precipitation. Our simulation results demonstrate that a global vegetation model such as ORCHIDEE is able to capture the essential ecosystem processes in fire-disturbed boreal forests and produces satisfactory results in terms of both carbon fluxes and carbon-stock evolution after fire. This makes the model suitable for regional simulations in boreal regions where fire regimes play a key role in the ecosystem carbon balance.

scholarly journals Sustainable Water Resources Management in an Arid Area Using a Coupled Optimization-Simulation Modeling

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siamak Farrokhzadeh ◽  
Seyed Hashemi Monfared ◽  
Gholamreza Azizyan ◽  
Ali Sardar Shahraki ◽  
Maurits Ertsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Multi Objective Optimization ◽  
Wetland Ecosystems ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
Sustainable Water Resources Management ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Conflicting Objectives

Severe water scarcity in recent years has magnified the economic, social, and environmental significance of water stress globally, making optimal planning in water resources necessary for sustainable socio-economic development. One of the regions that is most affected by this is the Sistan region and its Hamoun wetland, located in south-east Iran. Water policies are essential to sustain current basin ecosystem services, maintaining a balance between conflicting demands from agriculture and the protection of wetland ecosystems. In the present study, a multi-objective optimization model is linked with the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software to optimize water allocation decisions over multiple years. We formulate and parameterize a multi-objective optimization problem where the net economic benefit from agriculture and the supply of environmental requirements were maximized, to analyze the trade-off between different stakeholders. This problem is modeled and solved for the study area with detailed agricultural, socio-economic, and environmental data for 30 years and quantification of ecosystem services. By plotting Pareto sets, we investigate the trade-offs between the two conflicting objectives and evaluate a possible compromise. The results are analyzed by comparing purely economic versus multi-objective scenarios on the Pareto front. Finally, the disadvantages and advantages of these scenarios are also qualitatively described to help the decision process for water resources managers.

scholarly journals Management Strategies for Wood Fuel Harvesting—Trade-Offs with Biodiversity and Forest Ecosystem Services

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette Eggers ◽  
Ylva Melin ◽  
Johanna Lundström ◽  
Dan Bergström ◽  
Karin Öhman
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Forest Ecosystem ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Woody Biomass ◽  
Optimization Techniques ◽  
Wood Fuel ◽  
Reindeer Husbandry ◽  
Simulation And Optimization ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Impact

Bioenergy is expected to contribute to mitigating climate change. One major source for bioenergy is woody biomass from forests, including logging residues, stumps, and whole trees from young dense stands. However, at increased extraction rates of woody biomass, the forest ecosystem, its biodiversity, and its ability to contribute to fundamental ecosystem services will be affected. We used simulation and optimization techniques to assess the impact of different management strategies on the supply of bioenergy and the trade-offs between wood fuel harvesting, biodiversity, and three other ecosystem services—reindeer husbandry, carbon storage, and recreation. The projections covered 100 years and a forest area of 3 million ha in northern Sweden. We found that the development of novel and cost-effective management systems for biomass outtake from young dense stands may provide options for a significant supply of bioenergy to the emerging bioeconomy, while at the same time securing biodiversity and important ecosystem values in future stand developments. In addition, there is potential to increase the extraction of harvest residues and stumps while simultaneously improving conditions for biodiversity and the amount of carbon stored in forest ecosystems compared to current levels. However, the projected continuing trend of increased forest density (in terms of basal area) has a negative impact on the potential for reindeer husbandry and recreation, which calls for researching new management strategies on landscape levels.

Carbon emissions from wildfires in larch forest ecosystems of Northeast Siberia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement J. Delcourt ◽  
Brian Izbicki ◽  
Elena A. Kukavskaya ◽  
Michelle C. Mack ◽  
Trofim C. Maximov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Larch Forest ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Larch Forests ◽  
Carbon Combustion

<p>The boreal forest is one of the largest terrestrial carbon reservoirs on Earth and accounts for approximately 30% of the world’s forest cover. The boreal carbon balance is thus of global significance. Wildfires affect the boreal carbon balance, releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere when soil organic layers and aboveground biomass are combusted. The boreal forest is warming faster than the global average. These higher temperatures lead to increases in the frequency and severity of wildfire disturbance in boreal regions.</p><p>Significant progress has been made in quantifying carbon combustion in North American boreal forests, yet few measurements have been conducted in the larch dominated boreal forests of Northeast Siberia. Deciduous needleleaf larch forest growing on continuous permafrost is a unique ecosystem of Siberia. Although these larch forests cover approximately 20% of the boreal biome, the consequences of intensifying fire regimes on the carbon stocks and vegetation dynamics of these ecosystems remain poorly understood.</p><p>We conducted a field campaign in larch forests around Yakutsk, Northeast Siberia, during the summer of 2019 with the goal of filling parts of these knowledge and data gaps by collecting ground measurements of carbon combustion from two large fire events in 2017 and 2018. During this campaign, we sampled 42 burned sites in two fire scars that cover gradients of fire severity, vegetation composition and landscape position. Within these sites, we performed a wide range of measurements to quantify aboveground and belowground carbon emissions, constrained by data from 12 unburned sites. We also assessed post-fire recovery and active layer deepening. We investigated major drivers of pre-fire carbon stocks and subsequent combustion at the site level. Our results will reduce uncertainties in larger scale estimates of carbon emissions from Siberian fires which is in turn essential for assessing the implications of the climate-induced intensification of fire regimes for the global carbon cycle.</p>

Multi-objective optimization of ecosystem services in an agricultural intensive watershed

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingqiao Kong
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Optimization Method ◽  
Service Trade ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
Response Characteristics ◽  
Land Use Optimization ◽  
Trade Offs

<p>The complex trade-offs of ecosystem services make ecosystem management difficult to achieve win-win goals, especially in a watershed with intensive agriculture. Although a lot of research has been carried out on the types, characteristics and harmonized measures of ecosystem service trade-offs, how to achieve synergistic gain through effective land use management still lacks quantitative Optimization. Combined with models of land use optimization and spatially assessment of ecosystem services, the study build a multi-objective function and a land use optimization method to realize maximization of the total benefit based on the characteristics of ecosystem service trade-off and the driving factors in the Dongting Lake watershed， which is one of the priority areas for ecological protection in China and is also agricultural intensive. First we quantitatively model the water purification service, sediment reduction service and agricultural production using field observation and spatial models of ecosystem services, then the integrated response characteristics of multi-objectives are analyzed according to different land use scenarios based on driven mechanism of ecosystem service trade-offs. Finally the way of optimizing land use allocation and synergetic development of multiple ecosystem services in the watershed is proposed to provide quantitative means for regional land use optimization.</p>

scholarly journals Integrating Ecosystem Services and Human Demand for a New Ecosystem Management Approach: A Case Study from the Giant Panda World Heritage Site

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Fu ◽  
Pei Xu ◽  
Yukuan Wang ◽  
Yingman Guo
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Giant Panda ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Trade Offs

Ecological management based on the ecosystem approach promotes ecological protection and the sustainable use of natural resources. We developed a quantitative approach to identify the ecological function zones at the country-scale, through integrating supply and demand of ecosystem services. We selected the biologically diverse hotspot of Baoxing County, which forms a part of the Sichuan Giant Panda World Heritage Site, to explore the integration of ecosystem services supply and demand for ecosystem management. Specifically, we assessed the various support, provision, regulating, and cultural services as classified by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. We applied the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs) model to spatially map habitat quality, water retention, and carbon sinks, and used statistical data to evaluate food products, animal husbandry, and product supply services. We then quantified the demands for these services in terms of population, protected species, hydropower, water, and land use. The relationship between areas of supply and areas of demand was discussed for each township, and the spatial variability in the supply–demand relationship was also considered. As a result, we spatially divided the county into six ecological functional areas, and the linkages between each region were comprehensively discussed. This study thus provides a detailed methodology for the successful implementation of an ecosystem management framework on a county-scale based on the spatial partitioning of supply and demand.

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