Maintaining Biodiversity In Forest Ecosystems

Discusses the ways in which we can continue to benefit from forests, while conserving their biodiversity.

While most efforts at biodiversity conservation have focused primarily on protected areas and reserves, the unprotected lands surrounding those area—the "matrix"—are equally important to preserving global biodiversity and maintaining forest health. In Conserving Forest Biodiversity, leading forest scientists David B. Lindenmayer and Jerry F. Franklin argue that the conservation of forest biodiversity requires a comprehensive and multiscaled approach that includes both reserve and nonreserve areas. They lay the foundations for such a strategy, bringing together the latest scientific information on landscape ecology, forestry, conservation biology, and related disciplines as they examine: the importance of the matrix in key areas of ecology such as metapopulation dynamics, habitat fragmentation, and landscape connectivity general principles for matrix management using natural disturbance regimes to guide human disturbance landscape-level and stand-level elements of matrix management the role of adaptive management and monitoring social dimensions and tensions in implementing matrix-based forest management In addition, they present five case studies that illustrate aspects and elements of applied matrix management in forests. The case studies cover a wide variety of conservation planning and management issues from North America, South America, and Australia, ranging from relatively intact forest ecosystems to an intensively managed plantation. Conserving Forest Biodiversity presents strategies for enhancing matrix management that can play a vital role in the development of more effective approaches to maintaining forest biodiversity. It examines the key issues and gives practical guidelines for sustained forest management, highlighting the critical role of the matrix for scientists, managers, decisionmakers, and other stakeholders involved in efforts to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem processes in forest landscapes.

2009 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice This acclaimed textbook is the most comprehensive available in the field of forest ecology. Designed for advanced students of forest science, ecology, and environmental studies, it is also an essential reference for forest ecologists, foresters, and land managers. The authors provide an inclusive survey of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests with an emphasis on ecological concepts across scales that range from global to landscape to microscopic. Situating forests in the context of larger landscapes, they reveal the complex patterns and processes observed in tree-dominated habitats. The updated and expanded second edition covers • Conservation • Ecosystem services • Climate change • Vegetation classification • Disturbance • Species interactions • Self-thinning • Genetics • Soil influences • Productivity • Biogeochemical cycling • Mineralization • Effects of herbivory • Ecosystem stability

Among terrestrial ecosystems, forests play a dominant role in maintaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem functioning, such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem stability. Over the past several decades, however, global forests are facing unprecedented pressure from climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, resulting in a high rate of biodiversity loss due to deforestation, fragmentation, and degradation. Determining how to maintain biodiversity is extremely urgent if we want to achieve the aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The complex structure, species interaction, heterogenic environment, and regional species pool all affect the spatial and temporal patterns of forest species, but it is still unclear how these effects maintain long-term forest biodiversity as forests undergo rapid variations in habitat features under global change. This reprint includes sixteen published articles related to the dynamics of forest spatial structure, community assembly, forest recovery patterns after disturbance, spatial distribution of species diversity, effects of abiotic and biotic variables on understory species diversity, and above- and below-ground biotic interactions. These studies cover different forest types across varied spatial and temporal scales, as well as different biological groups (plants, birds and microbes). We acknowledge all authors who contributed to this reprint "Maintenance of Forest Biodiversity" of Forests. We hope this reprint can improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of forest biodiversity maintenance.

Limits to expansion of protected area systems underline the importance of seeking new ways to conserve biodiversity. The twelve case studies ranging from the High Andes to Viet Nam support the view that certain traditional agricultural and pastoral systems can succeed in attaining a sustainable level of production while at the same time maintaining both a high level of biodiversity and most functional aspects of the ecosystems.

Maintaining forest biodiversity by combining protection, management and restoration of forest and woodland landscapes is a central component of sustainable development. Evidence that there are threshold levels for how much habitat loss may be tolerated for viable populations of specialised species to be maintained. Policy-makers, businesses and managers pose questions about how to balance use of renewable forest resources and conserve biodiversity. Examples are presented on how biodiversity assessments can be made. Proposes how the critical gaps in our knowledge identified throughout the book could be filled through macroecological research and international co-operation.

This book provides complete, comprehensive, and broad subject-based reviews for students, teachers, researchers, policymakers, conservationists, and NGOs interested in the biodiversity and conservation of woody plants. Forests cover approximately 31 percent of the world’s total landmass; 93 percent is natural forest and only 7 percent consists of planted trees. Forest decline is progressing at an alarming rate worldwide. In addition to human activities (logging, deforestation, and exploiting forest lands for agriculture and industrial use), a number of other factors – including pests and diseases, drought, soil acidity, radiation, and ozone – are cumulatively contributing to global forest decline. The present situation forces us to focus on forest conservation strategies for the present and future. Gene conservation and maintaining genetic diversity in forest ecosystems are crucial to the preservation of forest genetic resources. This calls for integrated action to implement both the in situ (on site) preservation of forest stands and ex situ (distant from the original site) strategies for the conservation of woody plants’ genetic resources. Selected priority areas include: 1) assessing patterns of genetic diversity and threats, 2) understanding the biological processes regulating genetic diversity, 3) assessing the impact of human activities and climate change on genetic diversity, and 5) finding methods for prioritizing species and populations for the conservation of forest trees genetic resources. All chapters were written by leading scientists in their respective fields, which include: woody plant diversity, ecology and evolution; assessment of genetic diversity in forest tree populations; conservation planning under climate change; and in situ and ex situ strategies, including biotechnological approaches, for the conservation of woody plants genetic resources.