Abstract
BackgroundForest management aims at obtaining a sustainable production of wood to be harvested to generate products or energy. However, the quantitative influence of forest management and of removals by harvest on biomass stocks has rarely been analysed on a large scale based on measurements. Two hypotheses prevail: management induces a reduction of wood stocks due to cuttings, versus no impact because of increased growth of the remaining trees.Using data collected for 2840 permanent plots across Romania from the National Forest Inventory representing ~ 2.5 Mha, we have tested to what extent different management types and treatments can influence the biomass stock and productivity of beech forests, and attempt to quantify these effects both on the short and long terms.Three main types of beech forest management are implemented in Romania with specific objectives: intensive wood production in production forests, protection of ecosystem services (e.g. watersheds, avalanche protection) in protection forests, and protection of the forest and its biodiversity in protected forests. Production forests encompass two treatments differing according to the stand regeneration method: the age class rotation management and the group shelterwood management.ResultsWe show that forest management had little influence on the biomass stocks at a given stand age. The highest stocks at stand age 100 were observed in production forests (the most intensively managed forests). Consequences of early cuttings were very short-termed because the increase in tree growth rapidly compensated for tree cuttings. The cumulated biomass of production forests exceeded that of protected and protection forests. Regarding the treatment, the group shelterwood forests had a markedly higher production over a full rotation period.The total amount of deadwood was primarily driven by the amount of standing deadwood, and no management effect was detected.ConclusionsGiven the relatively low-intensity management in Romania, forest management had no negative impact on wood stocks in beech forests biomass stocks at large scale. Stand productivity was very similar among management types or treatments. However cumulated biomass in production forests was higher than in protection or protected forests, and differed markedly according to treatments with a higher cumulated biomass in shelterwood forests.
Highlights
Forest management aims at obtaining a sustainable production of wood to be harvested to generate products or energy
Large-scale estimations of biomass or carbon stocks have already been successfully derived from national forest inventories (NFI) data (e.g. Hall et al 2001; Goodale et al 2002; Pan et al 2011) and provided important insights into large-scale forest biomass stock dynamics
Forest management and stocks Aboveground woody biomass increased with stand age across all management types and treatments to reach ~ 300 t·ha− 1 at 100 years (Fig. 1)
Summary
Forest management aims at obtaining a sustainable production of wood to be harvested to generate products or energy. The quantitative influence of forest management and of removals by harvest on biomass stocks has rarely been analysed on a large scale based on measurements. Using data collected for 2840 permanent plots across Romania from the National Forest Inventory representing ~ 2.5 Mha, we have tested to what extent different management types and treatments can influence the biomass stock and productivity of beech forests, and attempt to quantify these effects both on the short and long terms. The influence of management on forest carbon stocks has been under discussion in the context of climate mitigation (Schulze et al 2012) in the C-sequestration framework which stresses the need for increased carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystem, potentially conflicting with the increased need for wood supply in the future, bio-bases economy. Large-scale estimations of biomass or carbon stocks have already been successfully derived from NFI data (e.g. Hall et al 2001; Goodale et al 2002; Pan et al 2011) and provided important insights into large-scale forest biomass stock dynamics
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