Regeneration failure of Scots pine changes the species composition of young forests

Ara, Mostarin; Barbeito, Ignacio; Kalén, Christer; Nilsson, Urban

doi:10.1080/02827581.2021.2005133

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

Section: The Study Areas and Local Stakeholdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Birch is distributed evenly across the country, but in lower densities (about 10%-15%) [23]. The browsing of ungulates, namely moose (Alces alces L.), roe deer (Capreolus L.), red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) and fallow deer (Dama dama L.) are believed to be the main driver of the "sprucification" of southern Sweden, as a result of failing regenerations with Scots pine and broadleaved tree species [29][30][31]. Most productive forests in Kronoberg County are owned by family forest owners (78%), while the forests in Västerbotten County have a mixed ownership structure (40% is owned by family forest owners, 31% by the state and 23% by private forest companies) [23].…”

Section: The Study Areas and Local Stakeholdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Bringing “Climate-Smart Forestry” Down to the Local Level—Identifying Barriers, Pathways and Indicators for Its Implementation in Practice

Hallberg-Sramek

Reimerson

Priebe

et al. 2022

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The theoretical concept of “climate-smart forestry” aims to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation to maintain and enhance forests’ contributions to people and global agendas. We carried out two local transdisciplinary collaboration processes with the aim of developing local articulations of climate-smart forestry and to identify barriers, pathways and indicators to applying it in practice. During workshops in northern and southern Sweden, local stakeholders described how they would like forests to be managed, considering their past experiences, future visions and climate change. As a result, the stakeholders framed climate-smart forestry as active and diverse management towards multiple goals. They identified several conditions that could act both as barriers and pathways for its implementation in practice, such as value chains for forest products and services, local knowledge and experiences of different management alternatives, and the management of ungulates. Based on the workshop material, a total of 39 indicators for climate-smart forestry were identified, of which six were novel indicators adding to the existing literature. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding the local perspectives to promote climate-smart forestry practices across Europe. We also suggest how the concept of climate-smart forestry can be further developed, through the interplay between theory and practice.

show abstract

Section: The Study Areas and Local Stakeholdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Study Areas and Local Stakeholdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing “Climate-Smart Forestry” Down to the Local Level—Identifying Barriers, Pathways and Indicators for Its Implementation in Practice

Hallberg-Sramek

Reimerson

Priebe

et al. 2022

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Norway spruce canopy is not only denser than Scots pine canopy (Goude et al 2019), but the branches of Norway spruce descend lower down the trunk which may also provide an additional physical barrier, limiting lichen diaspore establishment and growth (Kuusinen 1996b;Lie et al 2009). Furthermore, the stands of Norway spruce located in southern Sweden are often more densely planted than for instance in northern Sweden (Ara et al 2021). This is known to limit the development of understorey vascular plants, bryophytes and terricolous lichens (Hedwall et al 2010;Petersson et al 2019Petersson et al , 2021.…”

Section: Canopy and Light Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conifer tree species and age as drivers of epiphytic lichen communities in northern European production forests

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The epiphytic lichen species richness and community composition was compared for 600 living trees distributed within the interior of 60 Scots pine and Norway spruce monoculture stands in southern Sweden. A higher species richness, and more unique species, was found on trees of Scots pine than of Norway spruce, and distinctive communities were associated with the two tree species. Lichen species composition also shifted between the 30-, 55- and 80-year-old stands, although there was no significant difference in species richness between the different age classes. Tree species and age of the stand explained most of the variation in community composition (41%), with additional variance explained by lichen proximity to the ground (6%) and aspect (1%) (northern/southern side of trunk). Scots pine and Norway spruce share many attributes, such as both being conifers with acidic bark properties and having a similar geographical distribution in Fennoscandia. However, our study showed that species richness and community composition can nevertheless diverge in stands dominated by these two tree species. Since the occurrence of red-listed species was low in these stands, we suggest that 80-year rotations are not long enough for the occurrence of the many rare and specialized lichen species that require old forest structures and long forest continuity in this region.

show abstract

“…These methods are at the moment quite expensive. Evaluating the VOI when a certain within-stand variation is expected after thinning might become an important aspect for management in the future as the tree species composition in normal production forests is likely to change favoring mixtures of conifers and deciduous tree species (Ara, Barbeito, Kalén, et al, 2021).…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The young forests of today help us understand what forest we can expect in a few years at the start of the thinning phase. Ara, Barbeito, Kalén, et al (2021) used nationwide ÄBIN data (survey of moose browsing), covering young forest (1 -4 m in height), to study the regeneration success of Scots pine stands or Norway spruce stands. They found that the dominance of the regeneration species deviated from the intended: for Scots pine only 30-35% of the stands had 1500 trees ha -1 or more and for the Norway spruce, about 60% of the stands had 1500 trees ha -1 or more.…”

Section: Within-stand Variation Before Thinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating thinning practices and assessment methods for improved management in coniferous production forests in southern Sweden

Persson¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Most of our knowledge about wood production of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) and associated silvicultural guidelines are based on field experiments. These have been established in rather small, homogenous stands. In practical forestry there is probably a comparatively larger gradient in within-stand variation due to varying site conditions and less controlled silviculture than in experiments. The extent of the within-stand variation in coniferous production stands and how thinning guides are used in relation to the within-stand variation, is not well understood. Also, the freely available Forest resource maps (sv. Skogliga grunddata) and satellite data offer the possibility to accounts for the within-stand variation in forest management, but this is also poorly researched. This thesis evaluates within-stand variation at first thinning: its extent, its effect on silviculture and its importance for future stand development. Additionally, optical satellite data from Sentinel-2 is used to detect thinning operations, estimate growth after thinning and classify tree species. The thesis is mainly based on a survey carried out in the fall of 2018 in planted conifer-dominated production stands planned for first commercial thinning in which the thinning method of the forest workers was observed. The survey was inventoried directly after thinning and three growing seasons later. The survey showed an unprecedented within-stand variation before thinning in stem volume, stem density, dominant height, mean height quadratic mean diameter and basal area. The thinning operations did not reduce the within-stand variation in any of the attributes measured with the relative standard deviation. The stands were thinned heavily, and the harvested basal area increased with basal area before thinning at sample plot level, which suggest an ambition to reduce the variation. The stands were also monitored using Sentinel-2 satellite data. The thinning detection model separated unthinned, lightly thinned and heavily thinned sample plots with a moderate overall accuracy of 62% (Kappa of 0.34). A set of satellite images over the whole observation period was used estimate the periodical annual volume increment after thinning and did so with a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 1.8 m3 ha-1 y-1 (relative RMSE: 24%). The long-term effects of optimizing the thinning regime on pixel level versus conventional stand-level thinning was evaluated using the Heureka system. No benefits in terms of stand economy or production was found, but the within-stand variation in basal area decreased over the rotation. Tree-species classification, rendering maps with the dominant tree species at pixel level over a forest holding, were made using multi-temporal Sentinel-2 satellite data and the Random Forest classifier. The major tree species in the forest holding were Scots pine, Norway spruce, Pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), Birch (Betula spp.) and Hybrid larch (Larix × marschlinsii). These species were classified with a high overall accuracy of 88.2% (Kappa of 0.82). This thesis illustrates that considerable within-stand variation could be expected before and after first thinning for coniferous dominated stands in southern Sweden. The average stand basal area after thinning was consistently lower than the required basal area in the thinning guides from the Swedish Forest Agency, which means that reduced total production over the rotation may be a result. The increasing harvested basal area with basal area before thinning, suggests an ambition to reduce the within-stand variation in basal area. Thinning at the pixel level by adapting the thinning regime to the within-stand variation did not have any long-term effects on stand economy or volume production compared to conventional stand-level thinning. Despite the non-significant results, high-resolution maps are probably needed anyway to support forest workers in thinning operations to avoid heavy thinning. The Sentinel-2 satellite data proved its relevance for practical forestry for thinning detection, assessing growth after thinning, and classifying tree species. These methods can be used in combination the already existing Forest resource maps to reduce uncertainties for the management of planted forest.

show abstract

Regeneration failure of Scots pine changes the species composition of young forests

Cited by 21 publications

References 32 publications

Bringing “Climate-Smart Forestry” Down to the Local Level—Identifying Barriers, Pathways and Indicators for Its Implementation in Practice

Bringing “Climate-Smart Forestry” Down to the Local Level—Identifying Barriers, Pathways and Indicators for Its Implementation in Practice

Conifer tree species and age as drivers of epiphytic lichen communities in northern European production forests

Evaluating thinning practices and assessment methods for improved management in coniferous production forests in southern Sweden

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About