Forest Dynamics and Disturbance Regimes

Forest Dynamics and Disturbance Regimes PDF Author: Lee E. Frelich
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139439332
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description
Temperate-zone forests are being shaped continuously by wind, fire and grazing. This book considers these disturbances and consequent issues such as recovery from disturbance, the changing composition of tree species within the forest and the formation of mosaics of different forest types across the landscape.

Forest Dynamics and Disturbance Regimes

Forest Dynamics and Disturbance Regimes PDF Author: Lee E. Frelich
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139439332
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description
Temperate-zone forests are being shaped continuously by wind, fire and grazing. This book considers these disturbances and consequent issues such as recovery from disturbance, the changing composition of tree species within the forest and the formation of mosaics of different forest types across the landscape.

Forest Dynamics and Disturbance Regimes

Forest Dynamics and Disturbance Regimes PDF Author: Lee E. Frelich
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521052474
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Lee Frelich provides a major contribution to the study of temperate-zone forest dynamics by considering three important themes: the combined influence of wind, fire, and herbivory on the successional trajectories and structural characteristics of forests; the interaction of deciduous and evergreen tree species to form mosiacs; and the significance of temporal and spatial scale with regard to the overall impact of disturbances. These themes are explored via case studies from the forests in the Lake States of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, where the presence of large primary forest remnants provides a unique opportunity to study the long-term dynamics of near-boreal, pine, and hardwood-hemlock forests.

Disturbance Ecology and Forest Management

Disturbance Ecology and Forest Management PDF Author: Paul Rogers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest dynamics
Languages : en
Pages : 20

Get Book Here

Book Description


Historical Disturbance Regimes as a Reference for Forest Policy

Historical Disturbance Regimes as a Reference for Forest Policy PDF Author: Jonathan R. Thompson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest dynamics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using the historical range of forest conditions as a reference for managing landscapes has been proposed as a "coarse-filter" approach to biodiversity conservation. By emulating historical disturbance processes, it is thought that forest management can produce forest composition and structure similar to the conditions that once supported the native biota. Although several examples of disturbance-based management exist, only recently has this concept been incorporated into policy. This thesis explored hypotheses related to disturbance-based forest policy through a literature review, policy analyses, and simulation experiments. The primary objective of chapter 2 was to examine several examples disturbance-based forest management and evaluate their potential to transition into policy within North America. The review highlighted two Canadian provinces British Columbia and Ontario--that have codified disturbance-based management but used distinct methodologies. Nearly all of the forests in these provinces are government owned, which assisted policy development. In addition, both policy-structures focused on emulating stand-replacing fires that are characteristic in boreal forests; this minimized the costs and the degree of departure from conventional forest management. In much of the U.S., land tenure is complex and disturbance regimes vary widely; this presents difficult challenges for disturbance-based policy development. In the third chapter, disturbance-based policies were developed that attempted to address these challenges. Using datasets from the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS) and the Landscape Management and Policy Simulation model (LAMPS), the economic costs and ecological benefits of several policy structures were explored. The policies included two variants of the current policy structure and three policies reflecting various aspects of the natural disturbance regime. The study area was the 3-million hectare Oregon Coast Range. Four owner groups were recognized--forest industry, nonindustrial private, state, and federal. The management intentions of each group guided the application of policies. Disturbance-based policies were primarily addressed to clearcutting on private lands because it constituted the preponderance of harvesting in the region. Information on the Coast Range's historical fire regime was used as a reference to develop disturbance-based policies. Fire severity was emulated with green-tree retention standards; fire frequency was emulated with annual harvestable area restrictions; and fire extent was emulated with harvest-unit size regulations. LAMPS projected landscape conditions, forest dynamics, management activities (clearcutting, thinning), and harvest volumes over the next century. Simulated disturbance-based policies produced age-class distributions more similar to the historical range than those created by the current policy structure. The proportions of early seral and young forest were within the historical range within 100 yrs; within this timeframe, older forests moved closer to but were still below historical conditions. In contrast, patch size distributions were less similar to historical conditions. This was because, even after a ten-fold increase in the average harvest size, the clearcut size limit remained well below the average historical fire size. Also, this was due to the scale of the analysis, which treated multiple proximate harvest-units as individual disturbance events. Therefore, regions with a high density of clearcuts, which were ubiquitous in the current policy scenarios, more closely resembled the large historical fire size. In the near term, annual revenue produced by the disturbance-based policies was estimated to be 20 to 60 percent lower than the current policy. However, relative costs were reduced significantly through time. This reflected the degree of departure between the modem and historical disturbance regimes. This simulation experiment suggested that policies attempting to reproduce historical conditions in the Coast Range would require federal forests to provide large patches of old forest that were conmon in the historical landscape. Employing public lands for this purpose would dampen costs to private landowners who would continue harvesting and provide young and early seral forest structure, which were also historically abundant. In addition, this experiment illustrated the difficultly of meeting regional-scale conservation goals across multiple private landowners and suggested that distributing costs and benefits equitably across large landscapes could be a significant challenge.

Assessment of a Model of Forest Dynamics Under Contrasting Climate and Disturbance Regimes in the Pacific Northwest

Assessment of a Model of Forest Dynamics Under Contrasting Climate and Disturbance Regimes in the Pacific Northwest PDF Author: Richard T. Busing
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : FORCLIM (Computer program)
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description


Ecosystem Management in the Boreal Forest

Ecosystem Management in the Boreal Forest PDF Author: Sylvie Gauthier
Publisher: PUQ
ISBN: 2760523829
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 574

Get Book Here

Book Description
Forest Ecosystem Management. A management approach that aims to maintain healthy and resilient forest ecosystems by focusing on a reduction of differences between natural and managed landscapes to ensure long-term maintenance of ecosystem functions and thereby retain the social and economic benefits they provide to society.That is the definition of forest ecosystem management proposed in this book, which provides a summary of key ecological concepts supporting this approach. The book includes a review of major disturbance regimes that shape the natural dynamics of the boreal forest and gives examples from different Canadian boreal regions. Several projects implementing the forest ecosystem management approach are presented to illustrate the challenges created by current forestry practices and the solutions that this new approach can provide. In short, knowledge and understanding of forest dynamics can serve as a guide for forest management. Planning interventions based on natural dynamics can facilitate reconciliation between forest harvesting needs and the interests of other forest users.

The Effects of Wind Disturbance on Temperate Rain Forest Structure and Dynamics of Southeast Alaska

The Effects of Wind Disturbance on Temperate Rain Forest Structure and Dynamics of Southeast Alaska PDF Author: Gregory Jay Nowacki
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest dynamics
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book Here

Book Description
Wind disturbance plays a fundamental role in shaping forest dynamics in southeast Alaska. Recent studies have increased our appreciation for the effects of wind at both large and small scales. Current thinking is that wind disturbance characteristics change over a continuum dependent on landscape features (e.g. exposure, landscape position, topography). Data modeling has revealed the existance of fistinct wind disturbance regimes, grading from exposed landscapes where recurrent, large-scale wind events prevail to wind-protected landscapes where small-scale canopy gaps predominate. Emulating natural disturbances offers a way to design future management plans and silvicultural prescriptions consistent with prevailing ecological conditions.

Long-term Forest Dynamics

Long-term Forest Dynamics PDF Author: Ahto Kangur
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest dynamics
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics

The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics PDF Author: Steward T.A. Pickett
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080504957
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ecologists are aware of the importance of natural dynamics in ecosystems. Historically, the focus has been on the development in succession of equilibrium communities, which has generated an understanding of the composition and functioning of ecosystems. Recently, many have focused on the processes of disturbances and the evolutionary significance of such events. This shifted emphasis has inspired studies in diverse systems. The phrase "patch dynamics" (Thompson, 1978) describes their common focus. The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics brings together the findings and ideas of those studying varied systems, presenting a synthesis of diverse individual contributions.

Disturbance regimes and dynamics in old-growth fir-beech forests of the Dinaric mountains

Disturbance regimes and dynamics in old-growth fir-beech forests of the Dinaric mountains PDF Author: Thomas Andrew Nagel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book Here

Book Description
This research examined disturbance processes and forest dynamics in two old-growth Fagus sylvatica - Abies alba forests in the Dinaric mountains. To do this, a combination of method was used, including direct observations of recent windthrow events, sampling of tree fall gaps, and historical reconstruction of disturbancies using dendroecological tehniques. In the Peckaforest reserve in Slovenia, two recent windstorm events caused substantial damage to the canopy, resulting in mortality, and created gaps upto 1500 m2. Furthermore, dendroecological evidence in the same reserve suggests that periodic storms damaged the forest in the past. The pattern of canopy damage in these events was also found to have an important influence on regeneration patterns. In the Perucica forest reserve in Bosnia and Herzegovina, large canopy gaps up to 6000 m2 in size with numerous windthrown gap makers also indicate the occurence of intermediate severity windstorm disturbance. Thus, the results suggest that both small-scale gaps as well as periodic formation of larger openings from wind disturbance play an important role in the dynamics of these forests. These findings challenge the traditional view of central European forest dynamics, which suggests that continuous, endogenous tree mortality processes, causing small canopy gaps, drive forest dynamics.