Klimawandel als waldbauliche Herausforderung | Climate change as a challenge for silviculture

Climate change is about to change many site factors relevant for forest dynamics, and is therefore posing a great challenge for silviculture. We review the options for addressing this challenge and provide recommendations. In general, forest management should aim at increasing the adaptive capacity of the forests, enhancing their resistance to disturbance, and at reducing negative impacts of increased disturbances on forest products and services. The key to coping with climate change lies in enhancing the proportion of tree species adapted to future climate, and, in response to the uncertainties associated, in promoting the diversity of tree species and provenances. Additionally, fostering diversity in forest structure is likely to reduce risks and secure forest products and services. Strategic silvicultural options include mapping the sensitivity of sites and stands to climate change, adapting the target species compositions and choosing an appropriate silvicultural system. At an operational level, silvicultural options to increase tree species diversity include artificial regeneration, tending young stands, regeneration cuts and the reduction of ungulate impact. Other options are the premature final felling of stands and wildfire prevention. As the site conditions are undergoing change, the two cornerstones of close-to-nature silviculture “species selection based on (current) site conditions” and “preference for natural regeneration”, need revision. A flexible approach to forest management is advocated since the reactions of the forest to climate change cannot be accurately predicted.

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The cost of risk management and multifunctionality in forestry: a simulation approach for a case study area in Southeast Germany

European Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1007/s10342-021-01391-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Stefan Friedrich ◽

Torben Hilmers ◽

Claudia Chreptun ◽

Elizabeth Gosling ◽

Isabelle Jarisch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Forest Management ◽

Tree Species ◽

Species Selection ◽

Forest Composition ◽

Future Research ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Financial Return ◽

The Cost

AbstractForest management faces growing uncertainty concerning environmental conditions and demand for ecosystem services. To help forest managers consider uncertainty, we applied a robust and multi-criteria approach to select the optimal composition of a forest enterprise from 12 stand types. In our simulation, the forest enterprise strives for either financial return or a multi-criteria forest management considering financial return, carbon storage and forest ecosystem stability. To quantify the influence of climate change on these decision criteria, we used the concept of analogous climate zones. Our results provide recommendations for long-term strategies for tree species selection in a Southeast German forest enterprise. The results show that considering both uncertainty and multifunctionality in forest management led to more diversified forest compositions. However, robust and multi-criteria optimisation required the forest enterprise to pay a premium in terms of lower income. Financial returns decreased when forest composition accounted for uncertainty or multiple objectives. We also found that adaptation measures could only partly financially compensate the effects of climate change. As the study is limited to two tree species, including additional tree species, variants of mixing proportions and further silvicultural strategies in the optimisation appears a promising avenue for future research.

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Terrestrial Carbon Stock Potential in Selected Forest in Bhutan, India and Nepal

Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology ◽

10.9734/ajee/2021/v15i130219 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 21-32

Author(s):

Kezang Choden ◽

Bhagat Suberi ◽

Purna Chettri

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Forest Management ◽

Carbon Stock ◽

Sustainable Forest Management ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Stand Density ◽

Forest Products ◽

Forest Types ◽

Sequestration Potential ◽

The Government

Forests are natural carbon reservoirs that play an important role in the global carbon cycle for storing large quantities of carbon in vegetation and soils. Carbon stored in pool helps in mitigating climate change by carbon sequestration. The vulnerable countries to changing climate such as Bhutan, Nepal, and India require a full understanding of carbon dynamics as well as baseline data on carbon stock potential to mitigate anticipated risks and vulnerabilities (RVs) through climate change. The scope of such RVs are trans boundary in nature, however, the comparative studies at regional scale are still scanty. Therefore, the aim of this review is to assess the carbon stock potentials of selected forest types in the eastern Himalayan area, with an emphasis on Bhutan, India, and Nepal. This review paper is based on published articles, information from websites and considerable data from National forestry reports of India and Bhutan; emphasizing on aboveground biomass and soil organic carbon stock. The review showed that carbon stock potential is highly dependent on stand density, above-ground biomass, species richness and forest types. The sub-tropical forest was found to have larger carbon capacity and sequestration potential. SOC concentration and tree biomass stocks were significantly higher at the high altitude where there is less human disturbance. In general, forest coverage has increased compare to previous year in Bhutan, India and Nepal which ultimately leads to higher carbon stock potential. It is mainly due to strong policies and different strategies for conservation of forest management have reduced mass destruction despite a growing population. Despite the rules, deforestation continues to occur at various scales. However, it can be stated that the government and citizens are working hard to increase carbon stock potential, mostly through afforestation and community forest creation. In addition, it is recommended to practice sustainable forest management, regulated and planned cutting of trees and proper forest products utilization.

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Forest succession, management and the economy under a changing climate: coupling economic and forest management models to assess impacts and adaptation options

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1065616/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Van Lantz ◽

Galen McMonagle ◽

Chris Hennigar ◽

Chinmay Sharma ◽

Patrick Withey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Forest Management ◽

Computable General Equilibrium ◽

Forest Succession ◽

Cost Benefit Analysis ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Timber Supply ◽

Changing Climate ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Adaptation Options

Abstract Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on forests by affecting the successional dynamics of tree species and the performance of plantations, among others. Research is needed to better understand how these factors will affect forests and economies in different regions, and how we can best adapt. To shed some light on these issues, we couple an economic (Computable General Equilibrium) model with a forest management (Woodstock) model to analyze the potential climate change impacts and adaptation options on timber supply and the economy over the 2015-95 period in a case-study province of New Brunswick, Canada. We estimate that climate change may have relatively large negative impacts on softwood timber supply (at 26% by 2095), softwood forestry & logging sector output quantity (at 12% by 2095), and softwood-dependent forestry manufacturing sector output (ranging from 6% to 27% by 2095). Negative impacts on GDP may be relatively smaller (at up to a 0.33% reduction by 2095). Adapting to these climate-related changes by planting drought-resistant softwood seedlings or hardwood seedlings in place of failed softwood plantations can reduce these negative impacts. While the former adaptation option is supported using cost-benefit analysis, the latter is not – due to the large incremental costs of growing, planting, and tending hardwood seedlings. Methods developed in this study can be applied in other regions to help guide decision-making around forest management in the face of a changing climate.

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Potential impact of climate change on the spatial distribution of key forest tree species in Italy under RCP4.5 for 2050s

10.21203/rs.3.rs-20281/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Matteo Pecchi ◽

Maurizio Marchi ◽

Marco Moriondo ◽

Giovanni Forzieri ◽

Marco Ammoniaci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Spatial Distribution ◽

Species Richness ◽

Forest Management ◽

Tree Species ◽

Climate Models ◽

Forest Growth ◽

Mixed Stands ◽

Impact Of Climate Change ◽

Potential Impact

Abstract Background: Forests provide a range of ecosystem services essential for the human wellbeing and their ability is influenced by climate background and further connected to forest management strategies. Italy is a well-known biodiversity hotspot but an uncertainty assessment of the potential impact of climate change is still missing in this country. The aim of this paper is model the potential impact of climate change on 19 tree species occurring across the Italian forests using a species distribution modelling approach, six different Global Circulation Models (GCMs) and one Regional Climate Models (RCMs) for 2050s under an intermediate forcing scenario (RCP 4.5). Results: While no sensible variation in the spatial distribution of the total forested area has been predicted with some tree species gaining space and covering the spatial contractions of others, results showed substantial differences between each species and different climate models. The analyses reported an unchanged amount of total land suitability to forest growth in mountain areas while smaller values were predicted for valleys and floodplains than high-elevation areas. Pure woods were predicted as the most influenced when compared with mixed stands which are characterized by a greater species richness and therefore a supposed higher level of biodiversity and resilience to climate change threatens. Pure softwood stands (e.g. Pinus, Abies) were more sensitive than hardwoods (e.g. Fagus, Quercus), probably due to their artificial origin which established pure stands with tree species generally more prone to admixture with others in (semi)-natural ecosystems.Conclusions: Forest management could play a fundamental role to reduce the potential impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. Silvicultural practices should be aimed at increasing the species richness and favouring hardwoods currently growing as dominating species under conifers canopy, stimulating the natural regeneration, gene flow and supporting (spatial) migration processes.

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Threats to terrestrial biodiversity

The Ecology of Tropical East Asia ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198817017.003.0007 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 177-212

Author(s):

Richard T. Corlett

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Human Population ◽

Human Impacts ◽

Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽

Forest Products ◽

Wildlife Trade ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

Non Timber Forest Products ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Terrestrial Biodiversity

More than a billion people inhabit Tropical East Asia today and negative impacts on ecosystems and wild species are pervasive. Historically, the ultimate driver has been human population growth, but while this is now slowing, there is no prospect of an early reduction in human impacts. Poverty, corruption, weak governance, and globalization are additional underlying drivers. The major proximal threats and their consequences—deforestation, habitat fragmentation, mining, urbanization and infrastructure development, logging and the collection of non-timber forest products, hunting and the wildlife trade, fires, invasive species, emerging infectious diseases, air pollution and nutrient enrichment, and anthropogenic climate change—are described in turn in this chapter. Finally, the problems of assessing and predicting extinctions are discussed.

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Spatial Pattern of Climate Change Effects on Lithuanian Forestry

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10090809 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 809 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Gintautas Mozgeris ◽

Vilis Brukas ◽

Nerijus Pivoriūnas ◽

Gintautas Činga ◽

Ekaterina Makrickienė ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Decision Support ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Forest Management ◽

Decision Support Systems ◽

Tree Species ◽

Support Systems ◽

Forest Growth ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Climate Change Effects

Research Highlights: Validating modelling approach which combines global framework conditions in the form of climate and policy scenarios with the use of forest decision support system to assess climate change impacts on the sustainability of forest management. Background and Objectives: Forests and forestry have been confirmed to be sensitive to climate. On the other hand, human efforts to mitigate climate change influence forests and forest management. To facilitate the evaluation of future sustainability of forest management, decision support systems are applied. Our aims are to: (1) Adopt and validate decision support tool to incorporate climate change and its mitigation impacts on forest growth, global timber demands and prices for simulating future trends of forest ecosystem services in Lithuania, (2) determine the magnitude and spatial patterns of climate change effects on Lithuanian forests and forest management in the future, supposing that current forestry practices are continued. Materials and Methods: Upgraded version of Lithuanian forestry simulator Kupolis was used to model the development of all forests in the country until 2120 under management conditions of three climate change scenarios. Selected stand-level forest and forest management characteristics were aggregated to the level of regional branches of the State Forest Enterprise and analyzed for the spatial and temporal patterns of climate change effects. Results: Increased forest growth under a warmer future climate resulted in larger tree dimensions, volumes of growing stock, naturally dying trees, harvested assortments, and also higher profits from forestry activities. Negative impacts were detected for the share of broadleaved tree species in the standing volume and the tree species diversity. Climate change effects resulted in spatially clustered patterns—increasing stand productivity, and amounts of harvested timber were concentrated in the regions with dominating coniferous species, while the same areas were exposed to negative dynamics of biodiversity-related forest attributes. Current forest characteristics explained 70% or more of the variance of climate change effects on key forest and forest management attributes. Conclusions: Using forest decision support systems, climate change scenarios and considering the balance of delivered ecosystem services is suggested as a methodological framework for validating forest management alternatives aiming for more adaptiveness in Lithuanian forestry.

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How Are Managers Making Tree Species Selection Decisions in the Pacific Northwest of the United States?

Arboriculture & Urban Forestry ◽

10.48044/jauf.2020.011 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 148-161

Author(s):

Joshua Petter ◽

Paul Ries ◽

Ashley D’Antonio ◽

Ryan Contreras

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Pacific Northwest ◽

Tree Species ◽

Selection Criteria ◽

Urban Forest ◽

The United States ◽

Species Selection ◽

The Pacific ◽

Educational Campaigns ◽

Urban Forest Management

Trees provide an array of social, economic, and ecological benefits; furthermore, trees on public land are critical for providing those benefits to people who cannot afford their own trees. It is important to know how managers make trade-offs and prioritize different tree selection criteria in order to target educational campaigns at the state or regional level. Primary contacts for Tree City USA designated cities were surveyed across the Pacific Northwest. Of these municipalities, 79 out of 151 responded (52.3% response rate), with 6 municipalities providing responses from different departments for a total of 85 responses. Currently, there are primarily descriptive statistics in relation to tree species selection. This study provides a framework for future statistical analysis and greater exploration of how municipalities and managers are selecting tree species. Results were analyzed with a Mann-Whitney U test to compare International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Certified Arborists® to those who are not certified across various tree species selection criteria. Another Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare small (≤ 50,000) and large (> 50,000) municipalities across the same criteria. ISA Certified Arborists® showed statistically significant differences from those who are not certified in a number of tree species selection criteria. ISA Certified Arborists® also differed in urban forest management on a city-wide scale, particularly in favoring greater tree species diversity. The differences in urban forest management between ISA Certified Arborists® and noncertified—and between municipality sizes—can help to influence future educational campaigns targeted toward increasing urban forest health and resiliency.

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The role of alpha and beta diversity in buffering the effects of intensifying natural disturbance regimes

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8248 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Julius Sebald ◽

Timothy Thrippleton ◽

Werner Rammer ◽

Harald Bugmann ◽

Rupert Seidl

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Forest Management ◽

Species Diversity ◽

Tree Species ◽

Beta Diversity ◽

Alpha Diversity ◽

Tree Species Diversity ◽

Alpha And Beta Diversity ◽

Disturbance Regimes ◽

The Impact

<div> <div> <div> <p>Forests are strongly affected by climatic changes, but impacts vary between tree species and prevailing site conditions. A number of studies suggest that increasing tree species diversity is a potent management strategy to decrease climate change impacts in general, and increase the resilience of forest ecosystems to changing disturbance regimes. However, most studies to date have focused on stand-level diversity in tree species (alpha diversity), which is often difficult to implement in operational forest management. Inter-species competition requires frequent management interventions to maintain species mixture and complicates the production of high-quality stemwood. An alternative option to increasing alpha diversity is to increase tree species diversity between forest stands (beta diversity). Here we quantify the effects of alpha and beta diversity on the impact of forest disturbances under climate change. We conducted a simulation experiment applying two forest landscape models (i.e. iLand and LandClim) in two landscapes with strongly contrasting environmental conditions in Central Europe. Simulations investigate different levels of tree species diversity (no diversity, low diversity and high diversity) in different spatial arrangements (alpha diversity, beta diversity). Subsequently a standard forest management regime and a series of prescribed disturbances are applied over 200 years. By analyzing biomass values relative to a no-disturbance run, variation in biomass over time and the number of trees > 30 cm dbh per hectare, we isolate the effect of tree species diversity on the resistance of forests to disturbances.</p> </div> </div> </div>

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Changes in growth caused by climate change and other limiting factors in time affect the optimal equilibrium of close-to-nature forest management

Central European Forestry Journal ◽

10.2478/forj-2019-0023 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 65 (3-4) ◽

pp. 180-190 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gerhard Rößiger ◽

Ladislav Kulla ◽

Michal Bošeľa

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Forest Management ◽

Tree Species ◽

Transition Probabilities ◽

Sensitivity Study ◽

Ecological Modelling ◽

Limiting Factors ◽

Diameter Distribution ◽

Radial Increment ◽

Optimal Management

Abstract Historical radial increment data based on tree ring analyses from the close-to-nature experimental forest management unit Smolnícka Osada in Central Slovakia were used for retrospective modelling of changes in forest dynamics to estimate the sensitivity of management planning goals under climate change. Four example years representing historical periods with typically different species-specific patterns of radial increment in mixed beech-fir-spruce forest (1910, 1950, 1980, and 2014) served as virtual starting points for the modelling. An advanced density-dependent matrix transition model was utilised for modelling stand dynamics. An integrated tool for nonlinear financial optimisation searched for an optimal management equilibrium. In addition to transition probabilities adjusted from increment data, some assumptions for changes in ingrowth and mortality related to the increment, as well as a case study concerning the reduced ingrowth changed by game browsing intensity, were tested for modelling more realistic historical ecological conditions. The sensitivity study revealed changes in the optimal management equilibrium represented by optimal basal area, tree species composition, diameter distribution and target harvest diameter over time due to the adapted ecological modelling. The main lesson of the past for the future is to avoid placing too much trust in the simple extrapolation of current trends, such as the observed continual decline in spruce related to climate change, but to be aware of temporal and possibly reversible processes, such as the observed extensive fir recovery after the reduction of air pollution. Tree species diversity appears to be the best option for the uncertain future.

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Combining Tree Species Composition and Understory Coverage Indicators with Optimization Techniques to Address Concerns with Landscape-Level Biodiversity

Land ◽

10.3390/land10020126 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 126

Author(s):

Brigite Botequim ◽

Miguel N. Bugalho ◽

Ana Raquel Rodrigues ◽

Susete Marques ◽

Marco Marto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Forest Management ◽

Species Composition ◽

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

Tree Species ◽

Optimization Techniques ◽

Tree Species Composition ◽

Management Models ◽

The Impact ◽

Landscape Level

Sustainable forest management needs to address biodiversity conservation concerns. For that purpose, forest managers need models and indicators that may help evaluate the impact of management options on biodiversity under the uncertainty of climate change scenarios. In this research we explore the potential for designing mosaics of stand-level forest management models to address biodiversity conservation objectives on a broader landscape-level. Our approach integrates (i) an effective stand-level biodiversity indicator that reflect tree species composition, stand age, and understory coverage under divergent climate conditions; and (ii) linear programming optimization techniques to guide forest actors in seeing optimal forest practices to safeguard future biodiversity. Emphasis is on the efficiency and effectiveness of an approach to help assess the impact of forest management planning on biodiversity under scenarios of climate change. Results from a resource capability model are discussed for an application to a large-scale problem encompassing 14,765 ha, extending over a 90-years planning horizon and considering two local-climate scenarios. They highlight the potential of the approach to help assess the impact of both stand and landscape-level forest management models on biodiversity conservation goals. They demonstrate further that the approach provides insights about how climate change, timber demand and wildfire resistance may impact plans that target the optimization of biodiversity values. The set of optimized long-term solutions emphasizes a multifunctional forest that guarantees a desirable local level of biodiversity and resilience to wildfires, while providing a balanced production of wood over time at the landscape scale.

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