Impact of Intensive Forest Management Practices on Wood Quality from Conifers: Literature Review and Reflection on Future Challenges

Abstract

Purpose of Review Intensive forest management practices are being implemented worldwide to meet future global demand for wood and wood products while facilitating the protection of natural forest ecosystems. A potential decline in wood properties associated with rapid tree growth makes it essential to quantify the potential impact of intensive management on the process of wood formation and, in turn, on its suitability for various end-uses. Recent Findings Wood produced over short rotations is generally of lower quality because wood properties tend to improve with cambial age (i.e. the number of annual growth rings from the pith). The intensification of silvicultural practices can thus have measurable consequences for the forest products value chain. The use of new planting material from tree improvement programs could offset such effects, but questions arise as to the effects of a changing climate on wood produced from these plantations and the best silvicultural approaches to manage them. Summary Based on these recent findings, we provide reflections on the need for a modelling framework that uses the effects of cambial age, ring width and position along the stem to summarise the effects of tree growth scenarios on wood properties. We then present challenges related to our limited understanding of the effects of several drivers of wood properties, such as climate variation, genetic material, and forest disturbances, among others, and highlight the need for further data collection efforts to better anticipate the quality attributes of the future wood fibre resource. We conclude by providing examples of promising new tools and technologies that will help move wood quality research forward by allowing (1) fast, efficient characterisation of wood properties, and (2) up-scaling predictions at the landscape level to inform forest management decisions.

Understanding bark beetle outbreaks: exploring the impact of changing temperature regimes, droughts, forest structure, and prospects for future forest pest management

“…For instance, the significant increase in spruce mortality in Europe from 1970 to 2019 was partly attributed to the frequent drought events and heatwaves, with alterations in the structure and composition of forests accounting for approximately half of the documented increase in bark beetle outbreaks (Seidl et al 2011). Furthermore, ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, water regulation, and habitat provision are compromised in monocultures (Barrette et al 2023) because a higher number of species with diverse functional traits can collectively contribute to a wide range of ecological functions (Lefcheck et al 2015). Apart from the deliberate cultivation of Norway spruce beyond its native range, the augmentation of growing stocks and alterations in age-class distributions have significantly enhanced the susceptibility of spruce forests to Ips typographus attacks (Seidl et al 2011;Hlásny et al 2021).…”