Trade‐offs of forest management scenarios on forest carbon exchange and threatened and endangered species habitat

McDowell, Nate G.; Tan, Zeli; Hurteau, Matthew D.; Prasad, R. Krishna

doi:10.1002/ecs2.3779

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…At the scale of the pixel, potential species richness responded positively to mechanical thinning across all climate and forest management scenarios and prescribed fire except for when the historical climate was used. This aligns with findings from other studies that have found stable or increasing habitat for species with forest thinning (Demarais et al, 2017;Verschuyl et al, 2011) and prescribed burning McDowell et al, 2021;Sitters et al, 2015). But we observed lower potential species richness at the landscape level for the management scenarios that incorporated more thinning and prescribed burning (BMS and RCMS) compared with the MMS.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…LDSMs have now advanced to predict future vegetation under a changing climate while accounting for stochasticity and uncertainty (Scheller et al, 2018), making them highly effective for understanding the potential outcomes of (1) climate scenarios, (2) management scenarios, and (3) the interaction of climate and management on wildlife habitat and biodiversity (e.g. McDowell et al, 2021; Nitschke et al, 2020). Model outputs can be used to produce spatially explicit maps of vegetation types and conditions, seral stage, biomass, carbon, and disturbance frequency and intensity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Managing for biodiversity: The effects of climate, management and natural disturbance on wildlife species richness

Zeller,

Povak,

Manley

et al. 2023

Diversity and Distributions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AimManagers are increasingly facing an uncertain future given changing climates and ecological trajectories. The interacting effects of climate, natural disturbance, and management actions complicate future projections, and there is a need for approaches that integrate these factors—especially for predicting future vegetation and species richness.LocationCentral Sierra Nevada Mountains, USA.MethodsWe used outputs from a spatially explicit landscape disturbance succession model that incorporated forest management actions, disturbance, and climate to estimate habitat and potential species richness for 202 vertebrate species and five functional groups from 2020 to 2100. We examined species richness outcomes of three forest management scenarios under three climate trajectories. We modelled broadscale drivers of landscape‐level species richness, and proximate effects of management and disturbance at each pixel.ResultsClimate and forest management scenario had significant effects on potential species richness across the landscape, particularly at lower elevations; however, only management had significant effects at higher elevations. We found no effect of the interaction between climate and management scenario. The historical climate and the minimal management scenario generally resulted in higher species richness compared with other scenarios. Positive proximate effects generally included mechanical thinning and prescribed fire, as well as low and medium severity fire and beetle outbreaks. High severity fire had a consistently negative effect on species richness. We also quantified the contribution of protected areas and found that protected areas had higher species richness compared with ecologically similar unprotected lands, especially in climate futures that deviated from the historical climate.Main ConclusionsOur findings highlight that managing for biodiversity is complex, and effects of climate, disturbance, and management differ among species, functional groups, topography and scales. However, landscape disturbance succession models provide a science‐based tool for untangling broadscale drivers and proximate effects of biodiversity and managing for ecological integrity in a changing climate.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing for biodiversity: The effects of climate, management and natural disturbance on wildlife species richness

Zeller,

Povak,

Manley

et al. 2023

Diversity and Distributions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Leveraging data-driven and procedural methods for generating high-fidelity visualizations of real forests

Shahbaz Badr,

Hsiao,

Rundel

et al. 2024

Environmental Modelling & Software

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Forest-Wide Longleaf Pine Restoration Response to Varying Future Management Intensities in a Transitioning Upland Forest

Matusick

Hudson²,

Garrett³

et al. 2022

Journal of Forestry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many public land management programs in the southeastern United States have been restoring the longleaf pine forest for more than 20 years, which includes intensive treatment with fire, thinning, chemical control of competition, and tree planting. A shift to more passive management (prescribed burning alone) is anticipated once a critical level of longleaf pine has been established. It remains unclear whether this longleaf pine threshold has been reached and whether intensive management should continue at Fort Benning, Georgia. Using the Landis-II forest landscape model, changes in tree species and forest types were estimated from 2017 to 2117 under four forest management scenarios, ranging from passive (“burn only”) to intensive (“proactive”). The desired future condition includes 75% of upland forest dominated by longleaf pine (>49.5% composition). The proactive scenario resulted in the desired future forest condition, whereas reactive and passive scenarios did not. These results suggest a critical threshold of longleaf pine forest has not been reached at Fort Benning and therefore intensive management approaches are still required. This study shows that even well-established populations of longleaf pine on public lands require maintenance and continued intensive restoration to reach desired forest-wide conditions. Study Implications: The study illustrates the use of a forest landscape model to examine the implications of multiple practical forest management scenarios. Despite over 20 years of intensive longleaf pine forest restoration across the study forest, proactive management approaches remain necessary to reach desired future forest conditions. A shift to passive management at this point is expected to result in significant areas with no longleaf pine and a substantial population of hardwood forest (representing a departure from desired conditions). The main findings can be extended to other forests in the region where restoration of upland longleaf pine forest is a primary objective.

show abstract

Trade‐offs of forest management scenarios on forest carbon exchange and threatened and endangered species habitat

Cited by 4 publications

References 46 publications

Managing for biodiversity: The effects of climate, management and natural disturbance on wildlife species richness

Managing for biodiversity: The effects of climate, management and natural disturbance on wildlife species richness

Leveraging data-driven and procedural methods for generating high-fidelity visualizations of real forests

Forest-Wide Longleaf Pine Restoration Response to Varying Future Management Intensities in a Transitioning Upland Forest

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About