Abstract
Adaptive forest management (AFM) is an urgent need because of the uncertainty regarding how changes in the climate will affect the structure, composition and function of forests during the next decades. Current research initiatives for the long-term monitoring of impacts of silviculture are scattered and not integrated into research networks, with the consequent losses of opportunities and capacity for action. To increase the scientific and practical impacts of these experiences, it is necessary to establish logical frameworks that harmonize the information and help us to define the most appropriate treatments. In this context, a number of research groups in Spain have produced research achievements and know-how during the last decades that can allow for the improvement in AFM. These groups address the issue of AFM from different fields, such as ecophysiology, ecohydrology and forest ecology, thus resulting in valuable but dispersed expertise. The main objective of this work is to introduce a comprehensive strategy aimed to study the implementation of AFM in Spain. As a first step, a network of 34 experimental sites managed by 14 different research groups is proposed and justified. As a second step, the most important AFM impacts on Mediterranean pines, as one of the most extended natural and planted forest types in Spain, are presented. Finally, open questions dealing with key aspects when attempting to implement an AFM framework are discussed. This study is expected to contribute to better outlining the procedures and steps needed to implement regional frameworks for AFM.
Highlights
This is mainly due to: (a) the inherent uncertainty in the climate regionalization process, which makes it difficult to determine the change in a local climate affecting a particular forest stand; (b) the lack of linearity in the forest responses to changes in climate, including more-extreme climatic events, such as extreme droughts or heat waves, making it necessary to translate these variables into others with greater physiological significance; (c) the high variability in forest responses to extreme climatic values, compared to the means commonly reported and used in models [10,11] and (d) the differential responses that different tree taxa, provenances and genotypes can exhibit in the face of climatic variability, as well as the plasticity within populations according to their size and life stage
With the primary aim of showing the potential benefits of combining different approaches, experimental designs and measurements into a common framework, we describe and try to categorize here the selected action of thinning intensity and its observed impacts in the Mediterranean pines as one of the forest types suffering the worst impacts of recent drought episodes in Spain (Appendix B summarizes the environmental conditions, vegetation, experimental design and Adaptive forest management (AFM) effects observed in the experimental sites with Mediterranean pines)
In this work we have focused on the potential benefits of integrating experimental sites with different designs, measurements, results and approaches for the case of Mediterranean pines growing under a variety of climates, but how would these or different AFM strategies work beyond these sites? It is especially important to firstly focus on the forest types where the climatic impacts are already significantly affecting forest functions, and the worst climatic scenarios are expected in the future [8]
Summary
The current and future consequences of climate change directly affect fundamental climate variables, such as temperature, precipitation, and other components of the water and energy balances (cloudiness, albedo, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, runoff, etc.) [1,2,3,4], influencing water availability, aridity and key plant functional traits [5,6] If these biophysical variables are considered at the biome scale, it would be possible to forecast the evolution of such variables through climate scenarios [7]. Forests 2021, 12, 1807 due to more favorable conditions for the life cycle of pathogens or an increase in magnitude underwater- or heat-stress conditions [31,32]
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