scholarly journals Naturalness Assessment of Forest Management Scenarios in Abies balsamea–Betula papyrifera Forests

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 601
Author(s):  
Sylvie Côté ◽  
Louis Bélanger ◽  
Robert Beauregard ◽  
Évelyne Thiffault ◽  
Manuele Margni
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Abies Balsamea ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Betula Papyrifera ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Ecosystem Quality ◽  
Forestry Practices

Research Highlights: This research provides an application of a model assessing the naturalness of the forest ecosystem to demonstrate its capacity to assess either the deterioration or the rehabilitation of the ecosystem through different forest management scenarios. Background and Objectives: The model allows the assessment of the quality of ecosystems at the landscape level based on the condition of the forest and the proportion of different forest management practices to precisely characterize a given strategy. The present work aims to: (1) verify the capacity of the Naturalness Assessment Model to perform bi-directional assessments, allowing not only the evaluation of the deterioration of naturalness characteristics, but also its improvement related to enhanced ecological management or restoration strategies; (2) identify forest management strategies prone to improving ecosystem quality; (3) analyze the model’s capacity to summarize the effect of different practices along a single alteration gradient. Materials and Methods: The Naturalness Assessment Model was adapted to the Abies balsamea–Betula papyrifera forest of Quebec (Canada), and a naturalness assessment of two sectors with different historical management strategies was performed. Fictive forest management scenarios were evaluated using different mixes of forestry practices. The sensitivity of the reference data set used for the naturalness assessment has been evaluated by comparing the results using data from old management plans with those based on Quebec’s reference state registry. Results: The model makes it possible to identify forest management strategies capable of improving ecosystem quality compared to the current situation. The model’s most sensitive variables are regeneration process, dead wood, closed forest and cover type. Conclusions: In the Abies balsamea–Betula papyrifera forest, scenarios with enhanced protection and inclusion of irregular shelterwood cuttings could play an important role in improving ecosystem quality. Conversely, scenarios with short rotation (50 years) could lead to further degradation of the ecosystem quality.

scholarly journals Using Naturalness for Assessing the Impact of Forestry and Protection on the Quality of Ecosystems in Life Cycle Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8859
Author(s):  
Sylvie Côté ◽  
Robert Beauregard ◽  
Manuele Margni ◽  
Louis Bélanger
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Wood Production ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
The Impact

A novel approach is proposed to evaluate the impact of forestry on ecosystem quality in life cycle assessment (LCA) combining a naturalness assessment model with a species richness relationship. The approach is applied to a case study evaluating different forest management strategies involving concomitantly silvicultural scenarios (plantation only, careful logging only or the current mix of both) combined with an increasing share of protected area for wood production in a Québec black spruce forest. The naturalness index is useful to compare forest management scenarios and can help evaluate conservation needs considering the type of management foreseen for wood production. The results indicate that it is preferable to intensify forest management over a small proportion of the forest territory while ensuring strict protection over the remaining portion, compared to extensive forest management over most of the forested area. To explore naturalness introduction in LCA, a provisory curve relating the naturalness index (NI) with the potential disappeared fraction of species (PDF) was developed using species richness data from the literature. LCA impact scores in PDF for producing 1 m3 of wood might lead to consistent results with the naturalness index but the uncertainty is high while the window leading to consistent results is narrow.

scholarly journals Partizipative Erarbeitung von Bewirtschaftungsszenarien für den Tessiner Kastaniengürtel

2018 ◽  
Vol 169 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
Francesca Cellina ◽  
Luca Pampuri ◽  
Marco Conedera ◽  
Davide Bettelini ◽  
Rudy Genazzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Additional Benefit ◽  
Forest Planning ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Management Schemes ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Current Guidelines

Participatory design of management scenarios for the Ticino chestnut belt Current guidelines for forest management ask for multi-functional management schemes, allowing a balance between different forest functions, such as production, protection, recreation and ecology. This requires adoption of multi-criteria processes for forest planning. In such a framework, involving stakeholders from the very beginning of the process might be an additional benefit: it would allow to identify possible broadly accepted forest management strategies, thus facilitating their implementation. In this paper, we present the methodologies and tools we developed between 2013 and 2016, in a process aimed at designing and assessing management scenarios for the chestnut belt forests in the Canton of Ticino (Switzerland). Structured and transparent comparison among the scenarios allowed around twenty representatives of cantonal offices and interest groups to make rational and informed choices, leading to the identification of two low-conflict, compromise management scenarios to be implemented in the near future.

scholarly journals Watershed-level analysis of exceedance frequencies for different management strategies

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Yang ◽  
Glenn Benoy ◽  
Zhengyong Zhao ◽  
Thien Lien Chow ◽  
Charles P.-A. Bourque ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Performance Standards ◽  
Suspended Sediments ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Water Quality Standards ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Canadian Council

Exceedance of water-quality standards is important in assessing water quality. The effectiveness of soil conservation Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) should be measured according to the BMPs' impact on exceedance frequencies. However, estimating exceedance frequencies for different management scenarios with field measurements is practically impossible due to difficulties in obtaining adequate data for analysing different combinations of BMPs. The objective of this modeling research was to analyse exceedance frequencies for different management strategies applied in the Black Brook Watershed (BBW). Daily concentrations of total suspended sediments (TSS) and soluble phosphorous (sol-P) were predicted with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and assessed against water-quality standards from the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) and National Agri-Environmental Standards Initiative-Ideal Performance Standards (NAESI-IPS). The investigated BMPs included conservation tillage, reduced fertilizer application, crop rotation, flow diversion terraces (FDT) and the combination of all four BMPs. The results indicated that FDT was the most effective at reducing exceedance frequencies of TSS and sol-P. Under the different management scenarios, we calculated the annual exceedance frequencies of TSS and sol-P concentrations above the CCME (20–45% and 10–26%) and NAESI-IPS (32–55% and 20–38%).

Impact of the improvements in Fusarium head blight and agronomic management on economics of winter wheat

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Xia ◽  
A.W. Schaafsma ◽  
F. Wu ◽  
D.C. Hooker
Keyword(s):  
Winter Wheat ◽  
Grain Yield ◽  
Fusarium Head Blight ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Head Blight ◽  
Management Scenarios

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a devastating disease to cereal crops worldwide that decreases grain yield, grain quality, and causes mycotoxin contamination. FHB resulted in an estimated $2 billion USD loss in the US between 1993 and 2001, and 520 million Canadian dollars (CAD) in Canada in the 1990s. In the wheat producing areas in Canada and the United States, it is perceived that significant progress has been made to manage FHB, but the economic impact of various innovations has not been quantified. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the economic impact of various practices deployed in the province of Ontario, Canada, on managing deoxynivalenol and improving agronomic performance in winter wheat since an epidemic in 1996. The impacts of four hypothetical FHB management scenarios on total deoxynivalenol (DON) concentration and grain yield were estimated in field experiments that compared old (mid-1990s) and modern era (mid-2010s) production practices. Management scenarios included old and new cultivars varying in susceptibility to FHB, fungicide application and nitrogen rates. These impacts were applied to farm survey data collected in 1996 to estimate farm revenue and profit. A similar economic estimate was conducted for the recent FHB epidemic in 2013. If a modern MR cultivar, a modern fungicide, and the combination were deployed in the epidemic of 1996, farm revenue would have increased by 26-32, 23-36 and 48-60%, and profit increased by 88-157, 42-59 and 165-207 CAD per ha, respectively, depending on the nitrogen rate. In the province of Ontario, up to 68 million CAD of revenue losses could have been avoided in 1996 with the use of modern agronomic and FHB management practices. Our study has quantified some of the major economic advances in managing FHB and DON since 1996, but further research is needed to develop better cultivars and management strategies.

scholarly journals Multiple resource use strategies confer resilience to the socio-ecosystem in a protected area in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Guillermo García Jácome ◽  
Eduardo García-Frapolli ◽  
Martha Bonilla Moheno ◽  
Coral Rangel Rivera ◽  
Mariana Benítez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Yucatan Peninsula ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Charcoal Production ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Network Modelling ◽  
Yucatán Peninsula

ABSTRACTNatural Protected Areas (NPAs) are the main biodiversity conservation strategy in Mexico. Generally, NPAs are established on the territories of indigenous and rural groups driving important changes in their local resource management practices. In this paper we study the case of Otoch Ma’ax Yetel Kooh, an NPA in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, that has been studied in a multidisciplinary way for more than twenty years. This reserve and its buffer zone is homeland to Yucatec Mayan communities that until recently used to manage their resources following a multiple use strategy (MUS), which involves local agricultural practices and has been proposed as resilience-enhancing mechanism. However, due to the restrictions imposed by the decree of the reserve and the growth of tourism in the region, some of these communities have started to abandon the MUS and specialize on tourism-related activities. We build a dynamical computational model to explore the effects of some of these changes on the capacity of this NPA to conserve the biodiversity and on the resilience of households to some frequent disturbances in the region. The model, through the incorporation of agent-based and boolean network modelling, explores the interaction between the forest, the monkey population and some productive activities done by the households (milpa agriculture, ecotourism, agriculture, charcoal production). We calibrated the model, explored its sensibility, compared it with empirical data and simulated different management scenarios. Our results suggest that those management strategies that do not exclude traditional activities may be compatible with conservation objectives, supporting previous studies. Also, our results support the hypothesis that the MUS, throughout a balanced integration of traditional and alternative activities, is a mechanism to enhance household resilience in terms of income and food availability, as it reduces variability and increases the resistance to some disturbances. Our study, in addition to highlighting the importance of local management practices for resilience, also illustrates how computational modeling and systems perspective are effective means of integrating and synthesizing information from different sources.

scholarly journals A landscape-scale assessment of the response of birds to land cover, climate, and forest management

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jaymi J. LeBrun
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
Northern Bobwhite ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Bird Abundance

Climate change will likely increase temperatures across the globe as well as alter regional climates. These climate shifts have the potential to substantially change vegetation and reshape both plant and animal distributions. To mitigate these potential changes, scientists have suggested management strategies focused on forest resilience, response, and carbon sequestration. The goal of this research was to determine the current impacts of land cover and regional climate on birds in the Midwest, and use these current relationships to assess the direct and indirect effects of future climate and management on avian abundance in Missouri. I coupled the Bayesian model with a landscape simulation model (LANDIS PRO) to predict bird abundance 100 years into the future for a range of climate and forest management scenarios. Forest and canopy cover were the primary drivers of current bird abundance, however, temperature was influential for early successional species. In addition, the most significant climate related effect was for the northern bobwhite with higher abundances under warmer winters. For most birds, management had a greater impact on future abundance than climate, however, species currently exhibiting direct effects of climate showed compounded effects associated with management. Even though we expect land cover to change very little due to climate, we did see one bird (i.e., northern bobwhite) affect by climate-induced changes to vegetation. Managing forest cover will be key for mitigating the effects of future climate for birds.

Turning knowledge into practical benefit: a producer case-study increasing the return on investment in science

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 744 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. H. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Subterranean Clover ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Pasture Management ◽  
Systems Model ◽  
Spreadsheet Model ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Grazing Systems

The present paper addresses turning knowledge into practical benefit; acknowledging a critical emphasis of the career of John L. Black. Average efficiency of pasture use by beef enterprises in southern Australia is historically ~35%. Two projects established in 2002 showed that the efficiency of pasture use could approach 90% and the conservative rates observed were due to a low adoption of existing knowledge and the perceived risks from intensification. A risk-control management system, ‘More Beef from Pastures’, was developed from these projects, to identify management practices that had the largest impacts on productivity and profitability, the variables that needed to be measured and the upper and lower limits for those measurements to optimise enterprise performance. The principles from that system were incorporated into a productivity and economic spreadsheet model for a beef enterprise near Blayney on the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. The present paper reports the effects on productivity and profitability of several management scenarios, including current practice with 180 breeding cows and progeny sold in the second year after birth; buying and selling steers; making silage; or combinations of steers and silage, to maintain pasture availability between 1200 and 2600 kg DM/ha. Simulations were conducted for rainfall and growth of a phalaris–subterranean clover pasture predicted for the Blayney climate by the Sustainable Grazing Systems model for the Years 2000–2011. The simulations covered eight consecutive years from 2002 to 2009, when mean pasture growth was only 70% of the average. Results from the simulations for current practice were similar to those observed for the enterprise. The simulations showed the importance on profitability of utilising excess pasture in years of high pasture growth. The highest average profitability across years resulted from the scenario involving purchase and sale of steers, but year-to-year fluctuations were large and significant capital was required. The silage and steer-silage scenarios were intermediate in profitability, and depended on initial silage reserves and numbers of breeding cows. The exercise demonstrated that a simple spreadsheet model based on principles of animal nutrition, pasture management and economics was needed to fully evaluate alternative management strategies for practical benefit on existing beef enterprises.

scholarly journals Simulating Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze Timber Stocks With Liocourt’s Law in a Natural Forest in Southern Brazil

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Emanuel Arnoni Costa ◽  
Veraldo Liesenberg ◽  
André Felipe Hess ◽  
César Augusto Guimarães Finger ◽  
Paulo Renato Schneider ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Permanent Plots ◽  
Araucaria Angustifolia ◽  
Southern Brazil ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Canopy Layer

This paper presents a simulation of the regulation of Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze timber stocks using Liocourt’s law. Although this species is currently protected by law, recent government initiatives are being considered to propose sustainable forest management practices by selecting small rural properties in Southern Brazil. Here, we simulate the applicability of Liocourt’s law in a typical rural property, the size of which is approximately 85 ha. Forest inventory measurements were conducted by estimating the diameter at the breast height (d), total height (h), and annual diameter increments of 308 trees that fit the criteria of d ≥ 10 cm, distributed on 35 permanent plots of 400 m2 each. As a result, a reverse J-shaped d distribution was found. On average, 303 trees can be found per hectare (ha). Local allometric equations showed their basal area (G) to be 21.9 m2∙ha−1, and their commercial volume (V) to be 172 m3∙ha−1, whereas Liocourt’s quotient (q) was 1.31. Based on these attributes, nine different forest management scenarios were proposed by simulating a remaining basal area (Grem) of 10.0, 14.0, and 18.0 m2∙ha−1, and Liocourt’s quotient was changed to 1.1, 1.3, and 1.5. All scenarios consider a d of 62.5 cm. In the less intensive scenario (i.e., q value = 1.5 and larger basal area of 18.0 m2·ha−1) there is greater optimization of space, and higher economic return is ensured to rural producers due to the definition of shorter cutting cycles. This also allows a faster growth rate in both d and h for smaller trees, due to the higher incidence of light onto the lower canopy layer, increasing the natural regeneration implementation of other native species. Forest management should thus be considered a goal in addition to consumer market characteristics for defining the ideal timber stock scenario.

scholarly journals Assessing Forest Structural and Topographic Effects on Habitat Productivity for the Endangered Apennine Brown Bear

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 916
Author(s):  
Angela Anna Rositi ◽  
Giovanna Jona Lasinio ◽  
Paolo Ciucci
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Brown Bear ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Topographic Effects ◽  
Forestry Practices ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
Apennine Brown Bear ◽  
Stand Attributes ◽  
Forest Typology

Any forest management potentially affects the availability and quality of resources for forest-dwelling wildlife populations, including endangered species. One such species is the Apennine brown bear, a small and unique population living in the central Apennines of Italy. The conservation of this relict bear population is hampered by the lack of knowledge of the fine-scale relationships between productivity of key foods and forest structure, as this prevents the design and implementation of effective forest management plans. To address this issue, we sampled the main structural stand attributes within the bear’s range and used multivariate generalized linear mixed models in a Bayesian framework to relate forest structural attributes to proxies of productivity of key bear foods. We found that hard mast was positively associated with both forest typology and high forest system, but negatively related to both the time elapsed since the last forest utilization and the amount of deadwood. The availability of soft-mast producing species was positively related to past forestry practices but negatively associated with steep slopes historically managed with high tree densities and a low silvicultural disturbance. Our findings also suggest that herb cover was negatively affected by terrain steepness and basal area, while herb productivity was positively affected by northern and southern exposure. Additionally, richness of forest ants was associated with forests characterized by low volume and high density. Our findings confirm that the productivity of natural bear foods is strongly affected by forest structural and topographical characteristics and are relevant as preliminary information for forest management practices to support the long-term conservation of Apennine bears.

BİLGİ YÖNETİMİ UYGULAMALARI KAPSAMINDA İNSAN KAYNAKLARI YÖNETİMİNDE MEYDANA GELEN DEĞİŞİMLER

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Ozan Büyükyılmaz
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Management Philosophy ◽  
Management Processes

The development and expansion of knowledge management as an important management philosophy has a significant impact on human resources management as well as on organization as a whole. In this context, knowledge management processes have been used as a strategic tool within human resources management.Therefore, functions of human resources management must adapt itself to this change. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of human resources management in the management of knowledge and to reveal the effects of knowledge management practices on the functions of human resources byexamining the relationship between human resources and knowledge management. In this context, a theoretical investigation was conducted. It has been determined that significant changes occurred on the functions of human resources management such as selection and recruitment, performance management, remuneration and reward, training and development within the framework of the knowledge management strategies.

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