Abstract
Changing climate conditions are known to influence forest tree growth response and the CO2 cycle. Dendroclimatological research has shown that the climate signal, species composition, and growth trends have changed in different types of forest ecosystems during the last century. Under current and demonstrated changes in climate variability at the geographic, regional, and local levels tree growth shows also variability and trends that can be non-stationary during time even at relatively short distance between sites. In forest planning and management, yield tables, site quality indices, age class, rate of growth, and spatial distribution are some of the most used tools and parameters. However, these methods do not involve climate variability during time although climate is the main driver in trends of forest and tree growth. Previous research warns about the risk that forest management under changing climatic conditions could amplify their negative effects. For example, changing climate conditions may impact on temperature and/or precipitation thresholds critical to forest tree growth. Forest biomass, resilience, and CO2 storage may be damaged unless forest planning and management implement the relationships between climate variability and trends of tree growth. A positive aspect is that, periods of favorable climate conditions may allow harvesting higher amount of wood mass and storing more CO2 than traditional planning methods. And, the average length of both favorable and adverse periods appears to occur within the validity period of a forest management plan. Here, we show a conceptual development to implement climate variability in forest management in the view of continuing the research.
Highlights
Changes of climate conditions influence energy fluxes, cycles of nutrients and materials, primary productivity, How to cite this paper: D’Aprile, F., Tapper, N., & Marchetti, M. (2015)
A real risk for sustainable forest management (SFM) under changing climatic conditions is that negative effects may be amplified
The distribution, rate of growth, and volume of wood in traditional forest planning and management is frequently based on yield tables or similar tools, age classes, site quality indices, and spatial distribution criteria, which do not implement the effects of climate changing conditions on forest growth variability and trends over time
Summary
Changes of climate conditions influence energy fluxes, cycles of nutrients and materials, primary productivity, How to cite this paper: D’Aprile, F., Tapper, N., & Marchetti, M. (2015). The distribution, rate of growth, and volume of wood in traditional forest planning and management is frequently based on yield tables or similar tools, age classes, site quality indices, and spatial distribution criteria, which do not implement the effects of climate changing conditions on forest growth variability and trends over time This kind of approach cannot identify and estimate when, how, and where the forest and its parcels go through periods of increasing (or decreasing) growth, which is driven mainly by climate variability. Its relevance as a physical factor that regulates forest growth, dynamics, and functionality in relation to the effects of climate variables needs to be implemented in SFM for the development of mitigation and adaption strategies under the effects of changing climate conditions, including CO2 storage Under this scenario and the consequent risks, SFM and operations could be planned and/or scheduled in periods when climate variables that influence tree growth responses are within the relative thresholds. Silvicultural operations and harvesting are likely going to be related mainly to climate variability and forest growth responses
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