Forest management and conservation in the face of global change
Although forest management has evolved during the last decades to incorporate different ecological, social and economical services, the tools available for managers to incorporate the uncertainties aassociated to global change are still very limited. In many regions, the current approach proposed is to manage the forest based on emulating the natural disturbances that have occurred in any given area. This approach is a large step forward compared to the previous approach based on simplifying the natural forests, but it still does not consider the rapidly changing environment, particularly forests at climatic ecotones. Given the expected impacts of global change and the uncertainties associated to them, creativity is needed in designing and implementing more diverse forest management policies for the future.
Models are a needed and valuable tool to address the fate of forest communities face to global change, but most models that predict forest dynamics and shifts in species range fail to incorporate the effects of forest management, despite their importance and their potential interaction with other components of global change. We aim to integrate forest management into a suite of models both at the stand and landscape scales to evaluate how different silvicultural strategies could better mitigate the negative impacts of the changes and uncertainties associated with climate change.
Some of the models we use are SORTIE-ND, PPA and others that are currently being developed. Click on each name to know more about these models.
Selected publications
Although forest management has evolved during the last decades to incorporate different ecological, social and economical services, the tools available for managers to incorporate the uncertainties aassociated to global change are still very limited. In many regions, the current approach proposed is to manage the forest based on emulating the natural disturbances that have occurred in any given area. This approach is a large step forward compared to the previous approach based on simplifying the natural forests, but it still does not consider the rapidly changing environment, particularly forests at climatic ecotones. Given the expected impacts of global change and the uncertainties associated to them, creativity is needed in designing and implementing more diverse forest management policies for the future.
Models are a needed and valuable tool to address the fate of forest communities face to global change, but most models that predict forest dynamics and shifts in species range fail to incorporate the effects of forest management, despite their importance and their potential interaction with other components of global change. We aim to integrate forest management into a suite of models both at the stand and landscape scales to evaluate how different silvicultural strategies could better mitigate the negative impacts of the changes and uncertainties associated with climate change.
Some of the models we use are SORTIE-ND, PPA and others that are currently being developed. Click on each name to know more about these models.
Selected publications
- Diversifying sub-Mediterranean pinewoods with oak species in a context of assisted migration
- Assessing tree germination resilience to global warming: A manipulative experiment using sugar maple
- Modelling the effect of climate-induced changes in recruitment and juvenile growth on mixed-forest dynamics: the case of montane-subalpine Pyrenean ecotones
- Cross-scale integration of knowledge for predicting species ranges
- Previous experiences and divergent political views drive perceptions on climate change impacts in the Canadian forest sector