Managing Boreal Forests In The Context Of Climate Change

In many places in the world, forests dominate landscapes and provide various products. Future climate change could profoundly alter the productivity of forest ecosystems and species composition. Until now, climate impact research has primarily focused on the likely impacts of rise in temperature, increased atmospheric CO2 concentration, and varying precipitation on unmanaged forests. The issue that now needs to be addressed is how to sustainably manage climate change for timber production and biomass. Though climate change is a global issue, impacts on forests depend on local environmental conditions and management methods, so this book will look at the issue under varying local contexts.

This open access book explores a new conceptual framework for the sustainable management of the boreal forest in the face of climate change. The boreal forest is the second-largest terrestrial biome on Earth and covers a 14 million km2 belt, representing about 25% of the Earth’s forest area. Two-thirds of this forest biome is managed and supplies 37% of global wood production. These forests also provide a range of natural resources and ecosystem services essential to humanity. However, climate change is altering species distributions, natural disturbance regimes, and forest ecosystem structure and functioning. Although sustainable management is the main goal across the boreal biome, a novel framework is required to adapt forest strategies and practices to climate change. This collaborative effort draws upon 148 authors in summarizing the sustainable management of these forests and detailing the most recent experimental and observational results collected from across the boreal biome. It presents the state of sustainable management in boreal forests and highlights the critical importance of this biome in a context of global change because of these forests' key role in a range of natural processes, including carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and the maintaining of biodiversity. This book is an essential read for academics, students, and practitioners involved in boreal forest management. It outlines the challenges facing sustainable boreal forest management within the context of climate change and serves as a basis for establishing new research avenues, identifying future research trends, and developing climate-adapted forest management plans.

This comprehensive textbook explores the boreal forests of Northern Europe, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Students will gain an overview of the forest ecosystem and the services it provides for modern society. From the production of timber, to the supply of food products or their use as a recreational space for human wellbeing – our forests serve many needs. Accordingly, the respective chapters cover various types of ecosystem service, e.g. supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services. The book’s main focus is on the management of boreal forests for the production of these ecosystem services. Addressing modern challenges, e.g. managing vulnerable boreal forests for adaptation to climate change, is an important aspect throughout the volume. Traditional forest management has to adapt and evolve in order to meet the increasing risk of abiotic and biotic damages to our forest biomass. Future forestry graduates will have to face more and more of these challenges; consequently, the book provides them with a wealth of scientific knowhow and possible counter-strategies. Forestry students in the Northern Hemisphere, be it in Europe, North America or Asia, will find this book an excellent reference guide. To make the content more accessible, it has been enriched with a clear structure, numerous illustrations and learning objectives.

Presenting a summary of the development in boreal forest management, this book provides a progressive vision for some of the world's northern forests. It includes a selection of chapters based on the research conducted by the Sustainable Forest Management Network across Canada. It includes a number of case histories.

Climate changes, particularly warming trends, have been recorded around the globe. For many countries, these changes in climate have become evident through insect epidemics (e.g., Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic in Western Canada, bark beetle in secondary spruce forests in Central Europe), water shortages and intense forest fires in the Mediterranean countries (e.g., 2005 droughts in Spain), and unusual storm activities (e.g., the 2004 South-East Asia Tsunami). Climate changes are expected to impact vegetation as manifested by changes in vegetation extent, migration of species, tree species composition, growth rates, and mortality. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has included discussions on how forests may be impacted, and how they may be used to mitigate the impacts of changes in climate, to possibly slow the rate of change. This book provides current scientific information on the biological and economical impacts of climate changes in forest environments, as well as information on how forest management activities might mitigate these impacts, particularly through carbon sequestration. Case studies from a wide geographic range are presented. This information is beneficial to managers and researchers interested in climate change and impacts upon forest environments and economic activities. This volume, which forms part of Springer’s book series Managing Forest Ecosystems, presents state-of-the-art research results, visions and theories, as well as specific methods for sustainable forest management in changing climatic conditions.

This substantially updated new edition reflects the growing recognition that large areas of forests are degraded globally. This edition describes forest restoration in the context of rapid social, economic, environmental, and climate change. Covering the last decade's significant advances in forest restoration concepts and practice, this edition has 16 new chapters and 19 thoroughly revised chapters. This book is an excellent source of information for researchers, managers, policymakers, and graduate students in forestry and ecology.

Acknowledgements -- Background and context -- Climate change and boreal forest fires -- Carbon emissions from boreal fires -- Greenhouse gas emissions accounting and the forest sector -- Managing forested areas to promote carbon storage -- Fire in Ontario's far north -- Summary of fire management-related issues -- References.

Forest Ecosystem Management. A management approach that aims to maintain healthy and resilient forest ecosystems by focusing on a reduction of differences between natural and managed landscapes to ensure long-term maintenance of ecosystem functions and thereby retain the social and economic benefits they provide to society.That is the definition of forest ecosystem management proposed in this book, which provides a summary of key ecological concepts supporting this approach. The book includes a review of major disturbance regimes that shape the natural dynamics of the boreal forest and gives examples from different Canadian boreal regions. Several projects implementing the forest ecosystem management approach are presented to illustrate the challenges created by current forestry practices and the solutions that this new approach can provide. In short, knowledge and understanding of forest dynamics can serve as a guide for forest management. Planning interventions based on natural dynamics can facilitate reconciliation between forest harvesting needs and the interests of other forest users.