Silviculture and tree breeding for planted forests

Abstract

One of the main issues facing the forestry sector is balancing the demand for forest products and the sustainable management of forest ecosystems. Efficient plantation management and intensive silviculture practices are needed to grow timber in forest tree plantations. Due to the tangible impact on wood production, the plantations area in the world has constantly increased during the last several decades. The annual increase of plantation was 3.3 million ha in the period of 1990-2015. Over the past decades, tree improvement programs have progressed to the second, third, and fourth cycles to provide genetically improved planting stock to plantations. Substantial genetic gain has been realized from major tree improvement programs around the world. The effect of tree breeding on wood and fiber production per unit area has further increased by the modern plantation silvicultural applications, such as soil preparation, fertilization and thinning. Combination of tree breeding and silvicultural applications shortened the rotation ages of plantations, increasing the wood and fiber output per unit time. In this study, the importance of silvicultural treatments and plantation management has been reviewed and how such practices could enhance sustainable management of natural forests.

Remote Sensing Applied in Forest Management to Optimize Ecosystem Services: Advances in Research

“…The urban population is expected to reach 6.5 billion within a decade [1,2]. This urban growth will affect terrestrial ecosystems and will produce an increase in demands on the services they provide [3]. The United Nations (UN) exposes the importance that environmental services and ecosystems offer to human beings as natural goods and services, and on which social well-being and economic development depend directly, and which are currently declining globally at a dizzying rate [4,5].…”