Forest Growth And Timber Quality Crown Models And Simulation Methods For Sustainable Forest Management

Explores the relationships between forest management activities and timber quality. Sessions were organized to explore models and simulation methodologies that contribute to an understanding of tree development over time and the ways that management and harvesting activities can influence the quality of timber products recovered from those trees. Five keynote addresses, 29 plenary presentations, and 16 poster presentations covered the full breadth of forest growth and timber quality issues related to forest management. These proceedings comprise 19 papers based on presentations and posters, plus 28 abstracts for presentations. Also includes abstracts and slides from the presentations prepared by three keynote speakers. Illustrations.

Ecosystems can be modeled at many different hierachical levels. The phenomenin being simulated has a context represented by the next higher level of ecosystem organization, as well as driving mechanisms represented by the next lower level at which mechanisms are represented in models of tree crowns depends on the crown atributes or processes to be simulated. Crown models are reviewed and classified by their attribute resolution and the specific mechanisms driving the crown system to future states.

The purpose of the international conference from which these proceedings are drawn was to explore relationships between forest management activities and timber quality. Sessions were organized to explore models and simulation methodologies that contribute to an understanding of tree development over time and the ways that management and harvesting activities can influence the quality of timber products recovered from those trees. Five keynote addresses, 29 plenary presentations, and 16 poster presentations covered the full breadth of forest growth and timber quality issues related to forest management. These proceedings comprise 19 papers based on presentations and posters, plus 28 abstracts for presentations whose authors chose not to write full papers. In addition, the proceedings include abstracts and slides from the presentations prepared by three keynote speakers who elected not to write papers for the proceedings. The conference was attended by 75 participants from 19 countries who represented universities, private companies, and government research institutes.

Although the majority of the world’s forest ecosystems are dominated by uneven-sized multi-species stands, forest management practice and theory has focused on the development of plantation monocultures to maximize the supply of timber at low cost. Societal expectations are changing, however, and uneven-aged multi-species ecosystems, selectively managed as Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF), are often believed to be superior to monocultures in addressing a wide range of expectations. This book presents methods which are relevant to CCF management and planning: analysing forest structures, silvicultural and planning, economic evaluation, based on examples in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.

Modelling is an important tool for understanding the complexity of forest ecosystems and the variety of interactions of ecosystem components, processes and values. This book describes the hybrid approach to modelling forest ecosystems and their possible response to natural and management-induced disturbance. The book describes the FORECAST family of ecosystem management models at three different spatial scales (tree, stand and landscape), and compares them with alternative models at these three spatial scales. The book will help forest managers to understand what to expect from ecosystem-based forest models; serve as a tool for use in teaching about sustainability, scenario analysis and value trade-offs in natural resources management; and assist policy makers, managers and researches working in assessment of sustainable forest management and ecosystem management. Several real-life examples of using the FORECAST family of models in forest management and other applications are presented from countries including Canada, China, Spain and the USA, to illustrate the concepts described in the text. The book also demonstrates how these models can be extended for scenario and value trade-off analysis through visualization and educational or management games.

Forests grow and their biomass increases; they absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it in plant tissue. Understanding the biomass of forest vegetation is essential for determining the storage of carbon in the dominant tree component and computing carbon cycling at a regional as well as global level. This book consisting of five chapters will give a comprehensive understanding of biomass production vis-à-vis carbon storage in relation to litter and nutrient dynamics of the forest by analyzing the mode and magnitude of biomass production and carbon storage as a function of various silvicultural factors.

Shortlisted for the 2018 TWS Wildlife Publication Awards in the authored book categoryIn recent years, conflicts between ecological conservation and economic growth forced a reassessment of the motivations and goals of wildlife and forestry management. Focus shifted from game and commodity management to biodiversity conservation and ecological fore