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Adaptive management for competing forest goods and services under climate change
- Source :
- Ecological Applications
- Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- Developing adaptive forest management strategies is essential to maintain the provisioning of forest goods and services (FGS) under future climate change. We assessed how climate change and forest management affect forest development and FGS for a diverse case-study landscape in Central Europe. Using a process-based forest model (LandClim) we simulated forest dynamics and FGS under a range of climate change and management scenarios in the Black Forest, Germany, which is shaped by various management practices. We focused on the interdependencies between timber production and forest diversity, the most valued FGS in this region. We found that the conversion to more drought-adapted forest types is required to prevent climate change-induced forest dieback and that this conversion must be the target of any adaptive management, especially in areas where monocultures of drought-sensitive Norway spruce (Picea abies) were promoted in the past. Forest conversion takes up to 120 years, however, with past and future adaptive management being the key drivers of timber and forest diversity provision. The conversion of drought-sensitive conifer monocultures maintains timber production in the short-term and enhances a range of forest diversity indices. Using uneven-aged forest management that targets a drought-adapted, diverse, and resilient species mixture, high species diversity can be combined with timber production in the long term. Yet, the promotion of mature-stand attributes requires management restrictions. Selecting future adaptive management options thus implies the consideration of trade-offs between forest resource use and environmental objectives, but also the exploitation of synergies between FGS that occur during forest conversion. Lastly, the large impact of past management practices on the spatial heterogeneity of forest dynamics underpins the need to assess FGS provisioning at the landscape scale.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Climate Change
Forest management
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Ecoforestry
Forest restoration
Trees
Forest ecology
Computer Simulation
Forest farming
Intact forest landscape
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
geography.geographical_feature_category
Ecology
Forest dynamics
Agroforestry
Forestry
15. Life on land
Models, Theoretical
Old-growth forest
Geography
13. Climate action
Environmental Monitoring
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10510761
- Volume :
- 22
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e650337e2f5734f4c538aee6d115941b