The global tree carrying capacity (keynote)

editorial reviewe

Derivation of forest inventory parameters from high-resolution satellite imagery for the Thunkel area, Northern Mongolia. A comparative study on various satellite sensors and data analysis techniques.

With the demise of the Soviet Union and the transition to a market economy starting in the 1990s, Mongolia has been experiencing dramatic changes resulting in social and economic disparities and an increasing strain on its natural resources. The situation is exacerbated by a changing climate, the erosion of forestry related administrative structures, and a lack of law enforcement activities. Mongolia’s forests have been afflicted with a dramatic increase in degradation due to human and natural impacts such as overexploitation and wildfire occurrences. In addition, forest management practices are far from being sustainable. In order to provide useful information on how to viably and effectively utilise the forest resources in the future, the gathering and analysis of forest related data is pivotal. Although a National Forest Inventory was conducted in 2016, very little reliable and scientifically substantiated information exists related to a regional or even local level. This lack of detailed information warranted a study performed in the Thunkel taiga area in 2017 in cooperation with the GIZ. In this context, we hypothesise that (i) tree species and composition can be identified utilising the aerial imagery, (ii) tree height can be extracted from the resulting canopy height model with accuracies commensurate with field survey measurements, and (iii) high-resolution satellite imagery is suitable for the extraction of tree species, the number of trees, and the upscaling of timber volume and basal area based on the spectral properties. The outcomes of this study illustrate quite clearly the potential of employing UAV imagery for tree height extraction (R2 of 0.9) as well as for species and crown diameter determination. However, in a few instances, the visual interpretation of the aerial photographs were determined to be superior to the computer-aided automatic extraction of forest attributes. In addition, imagery from various satellite sensors (e.g. Sentinel-2, RapidEye, WorldView-2) proved to be excellently suited for the delineation of burned areas and the assessment of tree vigour. Furthermore, recently developed sophisticated classifying approaches such as Support Vector Machines and Random Forest appear to be tailored for tree species discrimination (Overall Accuracy of 89%). Object-based classification approaches convey the impression to be highly suitable for very high-resolution imagery, however, at medium scale, pixel-based classifiers outperformed the former. It is also suggested that high radiometric resolution bears the potential to easily compensate for the lack of spatial detectability in the imagery. Quite surprising was the occurrence of dark taiga species in the riparian areas being beyond their natural habitat range. The presented results matrix and the interpretation key have been devised as a decision tool and/or a vademecum for practitioners. In consideration of future projects and to facilitate the improvement of the forest inventory database, the establishment of permanent sampling plots in the Mongolian taigas is strongly advised.2021-06-0

Climate-Smart Forestry in Mountain Regions

This open access book offers a cross-sectoral reference for both managers and scientists interested in climate-smart forestry, focusing on mountain regions. It provides a comprehensive analysis on forest issues, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. This book includes structured summaries of each chapter. Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, CLIMO has brought together scientists and experts in continental and regional focus assessments through a cross-sectoral approach, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. CLIMO has provided scientific analysis on issues including criteria and indicators, growth dynamics, management prescriptions, long-term perspectives, monitoring technologies, economic impacts, and governance tools

Climate-Smart Forestry in Mountain Regions

This open access book offers a cross-sectoral reference for both managers and scientists interested in climate-smart forestry, focusing on mountain regions. It provides a comprehensive analysis on forest issues, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. This book includes structured summaries of each chapter. Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, CLIMO has brought together scientists and experts in continental and regional focus assessments through a cross-sectoral approach, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. CLIMO has provided scientific analysis on issues including criteria and indicators, growth dynamics, management prescriptions, long-term perspectives, monitoring technologies, economic impacts, and governance tools

Forests of the future: ecosystem services in a forest landscape facing significant changes

The natural environment provides a range of benefits to people via ecosystem services. Different types of land management deliver different combinations and amounts of ecosystem services. Traditionally, many landscapes were managed to maximise the delivery of just a few benefits, such as food or timber, but this was often at the expense of other potential benefits, such as carbon sequestration or water supply. The ecosystem services approach aims to improve land management by explicitly recognising and quantifying the full range of benefits, acknowledging that all ecosystem services contribute to human wellbeing. However, despite there being much research, there is as yet limited practical application. This PhD thesis explores ecosystem service delivery in an applied forestry context, using Thetford Forest (East Anglia, UK) as a case study with the aim of generating practical recommendations for future management. As part of the UK Public Forest Estate, the delivery of a wide range of public benefits is today a central objective of forest management. However, the forest is currently facing significant changes in response to a range of issues such as climate change and disease. I quantified the delivery of a comprehensive suite of ecosystem services for a wide range of realistic management options for the Thetford Forest landscape. Working in collaboration with the Forestry Commission (managers of Thetford Forest and my CASE partner), I tailored my research to include all the management options that are under consideration for the future of the forest. I systematically quantified how these different management options deliver nine ecosystem services: timber, carbon, deer (for game but also a management problem), water supply, soil quality, recreation, wildlife, scenic beauty and tranquillity, heritage and educational value. I conducted an in-depth analysis for each ecosystem service, using a combination of novel methodologies and adaptations of existing techniques. It is generally acknowledged that management for ecosystem services does not always align with objectives for biodiversity conservation so I also explored how forest management affects bird diversity (as an indicator of wider biodiversity), using high-resolution remote sensing data to calculate a number of structural characteristics. Overall, wide-scale landscape heterogeneity was more important for bird diversity than within-stand heterogeneity. In my final chapter I collated all the results for the different ecosystem services to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies between them and between different management options. I identified twelve management options that were the most efficient in terms of ecosystem service delivery. I conducted multi-criteria decision analysis to find the landscape configurations that maximise ecosystem service delivery, and investigated the effects of different values and preferences. Results were generally robust to such changes and could also align with strategies for bird conservation. The overall recommendation was for a third of the Thetford Forest landscape to be open space, half to be conifers (with a ratio of mixtures to monocultures of around 1:2) managed through a combination of both rotational clearfell and continuous-cover, and the remainder to be conifer and broadleaved mixtures, broadleaved monocultures and a small broadleaved mixture component. This thesis illustrates a comprehensive assessment of potential ecosystem service delivery to generate recommendations for the future management of a landscape. The approach adopted here has wide application in translating ecosystem services research to practical decision making.NERC; Forestry Englan

Der Zusammenhang zwischen Produktivität und Standortfaktoren analysiert basierend auf Forstinventurdaten

This thesis aims at developing statistical models that describe the relationship between productivity or mortality and site factors, particularly climate factors. The focus lies on predictions for Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Germany. Large-scale forest inventories provide data covering the wide climatic gradients required for model application to future climate scenarios. Thus, at the same time, this thesis explores the potential as well as the limitations of large-scale forest inventories to investigate forest growth.Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es statistische Modelle zu entwickeln, die den Zusammenhang zwischen Produktivität bzw. Mortalität auf der einen Seite und Standortfaktoren auf der anderen Seite beschreiben. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf Vorhersagen für Fichte (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) und Buche (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Deutschland. Die Daten von großräumigen Forstinventuren decken weite Klimagradienten ab, welche die Voraussetzung für eine Anwendung der Modelle auf zukünftige Klimaszenarien bilden. Damit lotet diese Arbeit gleichzeitig sowohl die Möglichkeiten als auch die Grenzen der Verwendung großräumiger Forstinventurdaten für die Waldwachstumsforschung aus

Rangeland Systems: Processes, Management and Challenges

environmental management; environmental law; ecojustice; ecolog