Are biotic disturbance agents challenging basic tenets of growth and yield and sustainable forest management?

Woods, Alex; Coates, K. David

doi:10.1093/forestry/cpt026

Cited by 26 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Forest managers should recall costly silvicultural interventions that did not meet expectations or were counterproductive when market value for some tree species changed. Some examples include, growth and yield of many intensive plantations being much lower than expected due to unexpected biotic disturbance (Woods and Coates 2013), tropical silvicultural interventions that did not succeed in maintaining yield (Dawkins and Philip 1998), and temporarily low wood prices for one tree species that promoted its replacement by another highervalued tree species (Fig. 6).…”

Section: Uncertaintymentioning

confidence: 99%

Viewing forests through the lens of complex systems science

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Complex systems science provides a transdisciplinary framework to study systems characterized by (1) heterogeneity, (2) hierarchy, (3) self-organization, (4) openness, (5) adaptation, (6) memory, (7) non-linearity, and (8) uncertainty. Complex systems thinking has inspired both theory and applied strategies for improving ecosystem resilience and adaptability, but applications in forest ecology and management are just beginning to emerge. We review the properties of complex systems using four well-studied forest biomes (temperate, boreal, tropical and Mediterranean) as examples. The lens of complex systems science yields insights into facets of forest structure and dynamics that facilitate comparisons among ecosystems. These biomes share the main properties of complex systems but differ in specific ecological properties, disturbance regimes, and human uses. We show how this approach can help forest scientists and managers to conceptualize forests as integrated social-ecological systems and provide concrete examples of how to manage forests as complex adaptive systems.

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Section: Uncertaintymentioning

confidence: 99%

Viewing forests through the lens of complex systems science

et al. 2014

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“…Most forest managers could probably recall costly interventions that did not meet expectations or were counterproductive when market value for some tree species changed. Some examples include growth and yield of many intensive plantations being much lower than expected due to unexpected biotic disturbance [57], tropical silvicultural interventions that did not succeed in maintaining yield [58], and low wood prices for one tree species, such as red alder in the Pacific Northwest of the USA that promoted its replacement by another higher-valued tree species, such as Douglas-fir. After millions of dollars were spent removing red alder, prices increased to the point that several companies actually started to plant red alder.…”

Section: Relaxing and Expanding The Sustained-yield And Single-good Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dealing with Non-linearity and Uncertainty in Forest Management

et al. 2016

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Forest managers today are struggling with the great uncertainties and rapid changes in many biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of their work. We argue in this review that viewing forests and forest management as complex adaptive systems and acknowledging non-linearity and uncertainty in forest dynamics and management provide an alternative for both production-and conservation-oriented forests to the traditional command and control approaches that have been advocated so far in forestry. We first discuss the concepts of nonlinearity and uncertainty in forest dynamics and management. We then propose a set of broad principles and approaches that are required for forest managers to better incorporate these new concepts into practices. These span from (1) relaxing and expanding the sustained-yield and single-good paradigm, (2) moving the target for assessing success in silviculture from predetermined strict outcomes for each and every stand to an envelope of possible outcomes that are acceptable for one or multiple stands, and (3) using approaches and modeling tools to assess as large a range of possible outcomes as possible instead of the traditional mainly deterministic and static modeling tools.

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“…Physical damage to trees may also occur when climatic thresholds are crossed (e.g., [12]), for example heavy wet snow loading causing stem breakage and/or forking in trees [1]. Interactions among multiple disturbance agents have the potential to cause large, nonlinear unexpected changes in ecosystem structure and function [13], including reduced productivity in managed forests (e.g., [14]). Forest productivity responses to interactions between climate and disturbance are difficult to predict, and entail large degrees of uncertainty.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Warning Signals of Adverse Interactions between Climate Change and Native Stressors in British Columbia Forests

Woods

Coates

Watts³

et al. 2017

Forests

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Abstract:We examine the direct effects of multiple disturbance agents on individual tree development and stand productivity in 15-40-year-old managed forests in British Columbia, Canada. Our primary interest was to establish a baseline assessment of damage in these forests and, especially, to focus on the degree to which biotic and abiotic stressors cause physical damage and diffuse mortality. Based on extensive climate data for the study area and the ecology of the disturbance agents we explore possible interactions between individual stressors and climate. Mean annual temperature increased by over 1 • C in the last century and annual precipitation increased by 8%, with that in the summer increasing by 18%. Disturbance agents were a central driver of mortality, growth and physical damage and their combined impact in lodgepole pine stands was as much as four times greater than expected particularly in the dominant trees most counted upon for stand productivity and timber supply. Climate-mediated disturbances accounted for five of the top six damage agent categories in terms of percent of basal area impacted but the lack of long-term disturbance monitoring data, a global information gap, limits our ability to conclusively link high damage rates to climatic changes.

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Are biotic disturbance agents challenging basic tenets of growth and yield and sustainable forest management?

Cited by 26 publications

References 31 publications

Viewing forests through the lens of complex systems science

Viewing forests through the lens of complex systems science

Dealing with Non-linearity and Uncertainty in Forest Management

Warning Signals of Adverse Interactions between Climate Change and Native Stressors in British Columbia Forests

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