Wind damage to forests and trees: a review with an emphasis on planted and managed forests

Abstract

This paper presents a review of our current understanding of the process of wind damage to trees and forests, with a particular, but not exclusive focus, on planted and managed forests. It makes a direct comparison with the state of knowledge just over 50 years ago when systematic research on wind damage to forests was beginning and discusses how our knowledge has changed over that period. The paper starts with a discussion of the types of severe winds that cause damage and then explores the effect of a number of factors on the risk of wind damage. These include species differences, the influence of different tree characteristics, and the effect of tree competition, tree spacing, gaps and edges in the forest, and soil and site preparation. There is then a section dealing with wind damage at a variety of spatial and temporal scales and the processes occurring at these different scales. The penultimate part of the paper describes the actual physical mechanisms of stem damage and uprooting, how this understanding can be used to develop wind damage risk models, and then how the different parts of the overall wind damage problem can be brought together to form a holistic view. Finally, there is a brief review of the advance in our understanding over the last few decades, the continued areas of uncertainty or that require further work, and recommendations of subjects and topics that could be a focus for future research.

Investigating the Correlation between Multisource Remote Sensing Data for Predicting Potential Spread of Ips typographus L. Spots in Healthy Trees

“…stands currently account for 49.2% and 15.9% of forests, respectively, in the Czech Republic [3], and usually grow in homogenous forest stands affected by deer damage and root or stem diseases. Such forest stands are more vulnerable to abiotic factors, particularly strong winds [4]. European spruce bark beetles are capable of eruptive population growth, which usually leads to widespread tree mortality, particularly for Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.)…”

Soils and topography control natural disturbance rates and thereby forest structure in a lowland tropical landscape

“…Our results are subtly different, with a higher correlation between disturbance rates and curvature (reflecting local depressions) than HAND (reflecting broad ridges/valleys). Topography can influence disturbance through a variety of mechanisms: shallow soils on slopes or local depressions with a shallow water table can limit rooting depth (Quesada et al, 2009); local topography prone to waterlogged soils can reduce soil stability in saturated conditions (Défossez et al, 2021); and terrain can influence the exposure of trees to wind stress (but wind exposure is also highly dependent on the position of a tree relative to its neighbours and surrounding gaps, and trees can acclimate to high wind exposure) (Gardiner, 2021). On BCI, increased disturbance rates in local depressions and on steep slopes suggest that soil saturation and wind exposure may both be important in this landscape.…”

On the Potential of Using Air Pressure Fluctuations to Estimate Wind-Induced Tree Motion in a Planted Scots Pine Forest

“…The characteristics of near-ground wind fields are important physical site factors that contribute to the development and survival of trees and forests [1,2]. Local wind fields affect trees' physiological, morphological, and biomechanical adaptations to their atmospheric environment [2][3][4][5][6].…”

“…The characteristics of near-ground wind fields are important physical site factors that contribute to the development and survival of trees and forests [1,2]. Local wind fields affect trees' physiological, morphological, and biomechanical adaptations to their atmospheric environment [2][3][4][5][6]. However, information on above-and below-canopy wind characteristics is limited because the standard weather stations operated in the networks of the national weather services are located outside forests.…”

“…Aerial tree parts respond to different airflow characteristics. The total response to wind excitation is a tree-specific combination of quasi-static and dynamic interactions with effective wind loads [2,21]. The effective wind loads can be determined by separating non-turbulent from turbulent airflow parts measured at the canopy top or above the canopy [22,23].…”