Showing papers in "Forest Ecology and Management in 2010"

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the first global assessment of recent tree mortality attributed to drought and heat stress and identify key information gaps and scientific uncertainties that currently hinder our ability to predict tree mortality in response to climate change and emphasizes the need for a globally coordinated observation system.

TL;DR: In this paper, the most important potential impacts of climate change on forest goods and services are summarized for the Boreal, Temperate Oceanic, TOC, Mediterranean, and mountainous regions.

TL;DR: In this article, a review of tree physiological responses to key environmental stress factors and their combinations are analyzed from seedlings to mature trees, concluding that combined stresses can influence survival of large trees even more than chronic exposure to a single predictable stress such as drought.

TL;DR: The trend in global wildfire potential under the climate change due to the greenhouse effect is investigated in this paper, which is measured by the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI), which is calculated using the observed maximum temperature and precipitation and projected changes at the end of this century (2070-2100) by general circulation models for present and future climate conditions, respectively.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used meta-analysis to test a database of 432 soil C response ratios drawn from temperate forest harvest studies around the world, and found that C concentrations and C pool sizes responded differently to harvesting, and forest floors were more likely to lose C than mineral soils.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the potential growth of clonal Eucalyptus plantations at eight locations across a 1000+ km gradient in Brazil by manipulating the supplies of nutrients and water, and altering the uniformity of tree sizes within plots.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors carried out several simulation experiments to quantify ecosystem net primary productivity (NPP), evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE) (i.e., NPP/ET) in the southern United States (SUS) by employing an integrated process-based ecosystem model (Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model, DLEM).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the effect of short, steep elevational gradients on tropical forest structure and carbon dynamics in the coastal Atlantic Forest in SE Brazil and found that local-scale topographic variation associated with elevation influences the distribution of trees >50 cm dbh and total live AGB.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a sampling methodology and calculation procedures to assess biomass for tropical tree species of contrasted tree shapes in Africa, identifying factors affecting within and between trees wood density, and proposed an allometric model that integrates these factors and evaluated the reliability of using generalized allometric equations in this type of forests.

TL;DR: In this paper, fuel reduction treatments on a 16,000 ha study area in Oregon, US, examine tradeoffs between placing fuel treatments near residential structures within an urban interface, versus treating stands in the adjacent wildlands to meet forest health and ecological restoration goals.

TL;DR: The review is based on chapters of the “Study on impacts of climate change on European forests and options for adaptation” led by the European Forest Institute (Efi) and on results of the EU project “PROMOTH - Global change and pine processionary moth: a new challenge for integrated pest management”.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the biogeochemical cycle of nutrients in tropical Eucalyptus plantations and indicated the importance of carefully managing organic matter in these soils, showing that high growth rates the first months after planting were essential to take advantage of the large amounts of nutrients released into the soil solutions by organic matter mineralization after harvesting.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored impacts of climate change on the geographic distribution of European beech by applying state of the art statistical and process-based models, and assessed possible climate change impacts on both adaptive capacity in the centre of its distribution and adaptive responses of functional traits at the leading and trailing edge of the current distribution.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate the likely biodiversity costs and benefits of replacing Norway spruce (Picea abies) monocultures with polycultures of spruce and birch (Betula spp).

TL;DR: In this article, a mixed-species regression model was developed to estimate the aboveground biomass of a Cameroon forest with an average error of 7.4% using only diameter as input variable, while adding height or wood density did not improve significantly the estimations.

TL;DR: In this article, the impact of harvesting frequency and proportion of post-harvest structural retention on carbon storage in northern hardwood-conifer forests was investigated, and the significance of including harvested wood products in carbon accounting at the stand scale.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the widely used Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to simulate stand-level impacts of climate change, and adjusted predictors in the FVS to account for expected climate effects.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used experimental data from 13 winter environments for 5 genotypes of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menzii) and used them to test various assumptions of starting and stopping dates for accumulating chilling and forcing units and the relationship between budburst and the accumulation of chilling andforcing units.

TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors investigated the effects of planting trees and shrubs, land-use conversions from croplands to pastures and native grasslands on soil water dynamics and water stresses by using long-term field measurements from 1986 to 1999 in the semi-arid loess hilly area.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measured annual carbon flows to wood production, foliage production and total belowground carbon flux (the sum of root production, root respiration, and mycorrhizal production and respiration) from ages three to five years in clonal Eucalyptus plantations at four sites in Brazil to test if fertility, water availability and stand structure changed wood production and by what mechanism.

TL;DR: Wood production of the entire main trunk and whole crown both increased with size and age up to and including the largest and oldest trees the authors measured, and the strongest determinant of tree energy balance was the ratio of aboveground cambium area to leaf area.

TL;DR: The high efficiency of dominant trees underscores the marginal contribution of subordinate trees to total stand growth, and should spur further work on thinning to increase growth and lengthen rotations for dominant trees.

TL;DR: Mixed eucalypt–acacia plantations may be used in water-limited environments to produce a given amount of wood with less water than eucallypt monocultures, and because mixtures can be more productive and use more water per unit land area (but use it more efficiently), they could be utilized in recharge zones where rising water tables and salinity result from the replacement of vegetation that uses higher quantities of water.

TL;DR: Key regeneration characteristics of the genus Fagus as represented by its four most prominent species are described, which suggest its appropriateness as a “model-genus” and the challenges of managing mixed-species stands for high quality timber production in Central European and Caspian beech forests.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the eddy covariance and associated hydrometric methods to construct energy and water budgets along a chronosequence of loblolly pine plantations that included a mid-rotation stand (LP) and a recently established stand on a clearcut site (CC) in Eastern North Carolina.

TL;DR: Sudden aspen decline (SAD), affecting Populus tremuloides, was first observed in Colorado in 2004 and is occurring in areas where early loss of aspen due to climate change has been predicted, and further warm, dry growing seasons will likely lead to recurrence of SAD.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on landscape metrics or indices that are frequently used to assess the structural characteristics of the landscape and to monitor changes in land use: mean patch size (MPS), connectivity (CONN), boundary length (BL) and the patch number (NP).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors collected microclimate data between 1998 and 2003 in a mixed-conifer forest in California's Sierra Nevada and found that spatial variability in microclimate, quantified as standard deviations among monthly values of each microclimatic variable across different locations (n <= 18), was significantly high and was influenced primarily by elevation and canopy cover.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated how road density, land use, and topography affected forest fragmentation, deforestation and forest regrowth in a Brazilian Atlantic Forest region near the city of Sao Paulo.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the results of a series of evaluations of a continentwide soil database (EU/UN-ECE Level I) with the aim to estimate baseline soil carbon concentrations and stocks.