Decision support tools and strategies to simulate forest landscape evolutions integrating forest owner behaviour: a review from the case studies of the European Project, INTEGRAL

For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape scale is considered to be more and more relevant as the stand level approaches its known limitations. This review, which describes the main forest landscape simulation tools used in the 20 European case studies of the European project “Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes” (INTEGRAL), gives an update on existing decision support tools to run landscape simulation from Mediterranean to boreal ecosystems. The main growth models and software available in Europe are described, and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are discussed. Trades-offs between input efforts and output are illustrated. Recommendations for the selection of a forest landscape simulator are given. The paper concludes by describing the need to have tools that are able to cope with climate change and the need to build more robust indicators for assessment of forest landscape sustainability and vulnerability.The INTEGRAL project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 282887. http://www. integral-project.eu/. Moreover, financial support by the Transnational Access to Research Infrastructures activity in the 7th Framework Programme of the EC under the Trees4Future project (No. 284181) for conducting the research is gratefully acknowledged. This research has also received funding from the European Union H2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 691149 (SuFoRun). Researcher Jordi Garcia-Gonzalo was supported by a “Ramon y Cajal” research contract from the MINECO (Ref. RYC-2013-14262) and has received funding from CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. This paper could be achieved thanks to support of EFIATLANTIC donors: Conseil regional d’Aquitaine, Ministère de l’agriculture et de la forêt

Associational resistance to a pest insect fades with time

Tree diversity is one of the drivers of forest resistance to herbivores. Most of the current understanding of the diversity resistance relationship comes primarily from short-term studies. Knowing whether tree diversity effects on herbivores are maintained over time is important for perennial ecosystems like forests. We addressed the temporal dynamics of the diversity resistance relationship by conducting a 6-year survey of pine attacks by the pine processionary moth Thaumetopoea pityocampa (PPM) in a tree diversity experiment where we could disentangle tree composition from host density effects. During the first years after planting the trees, PPM attacks on maritime pine Pinus pinaster were reduced in the presence of birch Betula pendula, a fast-growing non-host tree (i.e. associational resistance). This effect was maintained but faded with time as the pines eventually grew taller than neighbouring birches. The number of repeated attacks on individual pine trees also decreased in mixed pine-birch stands. Pine density had a positive effect on stand colonisation by PPM and a negative effect on the proportion of trees that were attacked. Pines were less likely to be repeatedly attacked as pine density increased, with attacks being spread over a larger number of host trees. Collectively, these results unravel the independent contribution of tree species composition and host density to tree resistance to herbivores. Both processes had directional changes over time. These results indicate that the resistance of planted forests to herbivores can be improved by carefully choosing the composition of mixed forests and the timing of species planting

Decision Support Tools and Strategies to Simulate Forest Landscape Evolutions Integrating Forest Owner Behaviour: A Review from the Case Studies of the European Project, INTEGRAL

For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape scale is considered to be more and more relevant as the stand level approaches its known limitations. This review, which describes the main forest landscape simulation tools used in the 20 European case studies of the European project “Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes” (INTEGRAL), gives an update on existing decision support tools to run landscape simulation from Mediterranean to boreal ecosystems. The main growth models and software available in Europe are described, and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are discussed. Trades-offs between input efforts and output are illustrated. Recommendations for the selection of a forest landscape simulator are given. The paper concludes by describing the need to have tools that are able to cope with climate change and the need to build more robust indicators for assessment of forest landscape sustainability and vulnerabilityVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij