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Forests
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Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) in Mountain Regions
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Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) in Mountain Regions

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2021) | Viewed by 5877

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pietro Panzacchi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, Contrada Fonte Lappone, 86090 - Pesche (IS), Italy
2. Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bolzano piazza Università, 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Interests: forest soil ecology; carbon sequestration; greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; climate change; mountain forest management
Dr. Michal Bosela

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, T.G. Masaryka 24, 96001 Zvolen, Slovakia
Interests: dendroecology; dendrochronology; environmental change; tree growth; growth modelling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mountain forests cover about 900 million hectares of the world’s land surface, constituting 20 percent of the world’s forest cover. They are hotspots of biodiversity and provide important environmental services far beyond the mountains themselves. Most mountain forests are semi-natural or naturally regenerating forests that, through forest management activities, provide a diverse range of ecosystem services (ESs) and livelihood opportunities. Their vulnerability to climate change may offer an opportunity to study the impacts of climate change on forests over shorter periods than in other ecosystems. Mountain forests need specific guidance for protection and management. Climate-smart forestry (CSF) has recently been defined as sustainable adaptive forest management to protect and enhance the potential of forests to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Its aim is to sustain ecosystem integrity and functions and to ensure the continuous delivery of ecosystem goods and services, while minimizing the impact of climate-induced changes on mountain forests. Locally tailored climate-smart forestry measures need to minimize trade-offs between bioeconomy, adaptation (biodiversity, disturbance), and mitigation (carbon, substitution) options.

This Special Issue of Forests explores the different issues related to the management of mountain forests. It aims to: 1) develop mitigation opportunities; 2) advance adaptation strategies that improve the forest’s resilience to climate change; and 3) intensify the socio-ecological sustainability of natural resource management. We invite the submission of original research articles and reviews dealing with the broad range of issues that CSF brings to the attention of the scientific community.

Dr. Pietro Panzacchi
Dr. Michal Bosela
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mountain forests
  • mitigation
  • adaptation
  • forest carbon sequestration
  • managed forests
  • forest monitoring
  • disturbances
  • biodiversity
  • forest ecosystem services

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 5476 KiB  
Article
Declining Growth Response of Siberian Spruce to Climate Variability on the Taiga–Tundra Border in the Putorana Mountains (Northwest Siberia)
by Peter Fleischer, Viliam Pichler, Ján Merganič, Erika Gömöryová, Marián Homolák and Peter Fleischer, Jr.
Forests 2022, 13(1), 131; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f13010131 - 17 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2265
Abstract
Global warming is most pronounced at high latitudes where temperatures increase twice as fast as the global average. Boreal forest growth is generally limited by low temperatures, so elevated temperature is supposed to enhance biomass production and carbon sequestration. A large amount of [...] Read more.
Global warming is most pronounced at high latitudes where temperatures increase twice as fast as the global average. Boreal forest growth is generally limited by low temperatures, so elevated temperature is supposed to enhance biomass production and carbon sequestration. A large amount of evidence has recently shown inconsistent responses of tree growth derived from annual tree rings to increasing temperature. We studied Siberian spruce growth in the remote and isolated Putorana Mts, Western Siberia in populations at its natural distribution limit. Tree ring cores were sampled along vertical transect in 100, 200 and 350 m a.s.l. as the aim was to identify the tree growth rate at different altitudes. Detailed sampling site descriptions served to identify possible factors controlling the growth rate in extremely heterogeneous environments. Monthly climate data for the period 1900–2020 were extracted from the gridded CRU database. Tree ring chronologies confirmed long-lasting limited growth, and despite high year-to-year ring width variability, synchronous growth at vertical study sites dominantly controlled by climate. The positive tree ring growth response to summer temperature was significant for most of the 20th century but dramatically changed in recent decades, when unusually warm summers were reported. There was no, or even a negative growth rate correlation with precipitation, which indicates a sufficient water supply at the study sites. Elevated temperature in this region with a continental climate might turn the study localities to water-limited areas with many negative consequences on tree growth and related ecosystem services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) in Mountain Regions)
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24 pages, 15230 KiB  
Article
From Acid Rain to Low Precipitation: The Role Reversal of Norway Spruce, Silver Fir, and European Beech in a Selection Mountain Forest and Its Implications for Forest Management
by Enno Uhl, Torben Hilmers and Hans Pretzsch
Forests 2021, 12(7), 894; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f12070894 - 08 Jul 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2659
Abstract
Research Highlights: We make use of long term observation data from a selection forest in Bavaria. Despite the changing environmental conditions, stand level productivity remains constant over time. Maintaining species and structural diversity by forest management can contribute to resilient forest ecosystems. Background [...] Read more.
Research Highlights: We make use of long term observation data from a selection forest in Bavaria. Despite the changing environmental conditions, stand level productivity remains constant over time. Maintaining species and structural diversity by forest management can contribute to resilient forest ecosystems. Background and Objectives: Forests in mountains are similarly affected by environmental changes like those in northern latitudes as species are closer to the edge of their ecological niche. There are recent studies that report species-specific responses to climate change in unmanaged, mono-layered mountain mixed forests. We analyze how environmental changes modify the growth of multi-layered, managed selection forest, which are often targeted for stabilization and risk prevention. We pose the central hypothesis that different species-specific susceptibility to disturbances and structural diversity contribute to ecosystem stability. Materials and Methods: Based on the long-term experiment Freyung 129 in the montane zone of the Bavarian Forest, Germany we analyze long term chronologies of periodic single tree and stand growth of Norway Spruce, silver fir, and European beech in dependence of environmental factors and forest management. Results: First, we show that despite environmental changes in terms of air pollution and drought stress, productivity at stand level persists constantly because of structural diversity and species traits. Second, we show that the species-specific contribution to total stand growth and growth distribution among stem diameter classes may change over time; the species interactions balance total growth. Third, we reveal a role reversal of tree species growth pattern. N. spruce was superior in growth in the first half and was replaced by s. fir in the second half of the survey period. Fourth, we identify the interplay of different stress factors on species-specific growth as the main cause for species-specific asynchronous but growth stabilizing reaction pattern. Finally, we show that density regulation was limited in its impacts to mitigate prevailing stress factors. Conclusions: We discuss the reasons for the observed stability of productivity. We interpret results, where especially the diversity of species and structure typical for selection forests result in stable productivity and wider plateau of the density-productivity relationship, and the suitability of the selection forest concept for risk prevention and stress resilience. We conclude that species composition and stand structure of selection forestry in mixed mountain contribute to climate smart forestry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) in Mountain Regions)
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