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Forest Structure and Sustainable Resource Management

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2020) | Viewed by 24691

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Van R. Kane

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Guest Editor

Forest Resilience Laboratory, School of Environmental and Forest Resources, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Box 352100, Seattle, WA 98195-2100, USA
Interests: forest resilience; forest management; fire ecology; lidar; landscape ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Humanity depends on forests for numerous services, including forest products, carbon storage, biodiversity, water, sites for human communities, and recreation. However, managing forests for sustainable resource management is becoming increasingly difficult as people intensify their use of forests, changes wrought by past management impact key ecological processes, and a changing climate threaten the stability of existing forests. Many past studies have established the links between existing forest structures and current ecosystem services. For this Special Issue of Forests, we are seeking papers that address the assessment or management of forest structures to address the current and/or emerging threats to sustainable resource management. A key need is to understand the dynamic interaction of human management with ecological processes and emerging threats. The forest structure can be studied both as a reflection of those interactions and as a template that influences those interactions. The spatial and temporal scale of studies should reflect the scales at which those interactions operate. Authors can focus on the aspects of forest structures such as the species composition and/or physical vegetation structure appropriate to the resource management of their forests. Given the wide range of uses for forests, authors should focus on the resource management issues relevant to the communities that use the forests they study. In some settings, research could focus on improving our understanding the interaction of the forest structure with management, ecological processes, and threats. In other settings, these interactions may be largely understood, and research could focus on the possible management responses to sustain or manipulate a forest structure so as to address threats to sustainable resource management.

Dr. Van R. Kane
Guest Editor

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

Forest structure
Ecosystem services
Sustainable resource management
Forest management
Multiple scales
Climate change

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 3384 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ownership Patterns Drive Multi-Scale Forest Structure Patterns across a Forested Region in Southern Coastal Oregon, USA

by Vivian Griffey, Bryce Kellogg, Ryan Haugo and Van Kane

Forests 2021, 12(1), 47; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f12010047 - 31 Dec 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1844

Abstract

Research Highlights: We used airborne lidar to assess the multi-scalar patterns of forest structure across a large (471,000 hectare), multi-owner landscape of the Oregon Coast Range, USA. The results of this study can be used in the development and evaluation of conservation strategies focused on forest management. Background and Objectives: Human management practices reflect policy and economic decisions and shape forest structure through direct management and modification of disturbance regimes. Previous studies have found that land ownership affects forest cover, patch dynamics, structure, and ecosystem function and services. However, prior assessments of forest structure across landscapes and ownerships have been limited by a lack of high-fidelity forest structure measurements across a large spatial extent. We addressed three research questions: (1) What distinct classes of forest structure exist across our study area? (2) How does the distribution and pattern of forest structure vary among types of owners at scales of patches, ownership types, and subregion, and is this independent of property size? and (3) What implications do the fine and sub-regional scale patterns have for landscape configuration goals under recent updates to the Northwest Forest Plan? Materials and Methods: We examined forest structure patterns by identifying six statistically distinct classes of forest structure and then examining their distribution across and within ownership types. We used these structure classes to examine their area within each ownership class, mean patch size, and intermixing at multiple scales. Results and Conclusion: We found that the six different forest structure classes in the study area can be interpreted as two assemblages: production-style forests, principally on private lands, and structurally complex forests, principally on public lands. We found that land ownership objectives resulted in distinct landscape patterns of forest structure as measured by mean structure class patch size and intermixing of different structure class patches. Finally, we found that forest structure differed between public and private lands but differed comparatively little among ownership types within those two broad categories. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Structure and Sustainable Resource Management)

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12 pages, 1732 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Stump Sprout Characteristics of Three Commercial Tree Species in Suriname

by Donna Ramdial, Artie Sewdien, Jerry Rasdan, Shermaine Critchlow, Noraisah Tjong-A-Hung, Alejandra Ospina, Verginia Wortel and Francis E Putz

Forests 2020, 11(11), 1130; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f11111130 - 24 Oct 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2940

Abstract

We compared stump sprouting by three common timber species in Suriname on the basis of sprout origins on stumps, sprout densities, and sprout height:diameter ratios. We then compared some leaf and stem functional traits of 15–18-month-old resprouts and nearby conspecific saplings of the same height (0.5–3.5 m) but unknown age. Stumps of Dicorynia guianensis Amsh. (29–103 cm in diameter) produced the most sprouts (x = 9.2/stump), followed by the 50–71 cm diameter stumps of Eperua falcata Amsh. (10.6/stump), and the 30–78 cm diameter Qualea rosea Amsh. (5.9/stump); sprout density did not vary with stump diameter. Sprouts emerged from the lower, middle, and upper thirds of the stumps of all three species, but not from the vicinity of the exposed vascular cambium in Qualea. With increased resprout density, heights of the tallest sprout per stump tended to increase but height:diameter ratios increased only in Dicorynia. Compared to conspecific saplings, sprouts displayed higher height-diameter ratios, higher leaf-to-wood mass ratios (LWR), and lower wood densities, but did not differ in leaf mass per unit area (LMA) or leaf water contents. These acquisitive functional traits may reflect increased resprout access to water and nutrients via the extensive root system of the stump. That we did not encounter live stump sprouts from the previous round of selective logging, approximately 25 years before our study, suggests that stump sprouts in our study area grow rapidly but do not live long. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Structure and Sustainable Resource Management)

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15 pages, 3793 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Different Bamboo Forest Spaces on Psychophysiological Stress and Spatial Scale Evaluation

by Wei Lin, Qibing Chen, Xiaoxia Zhang, Jinying Tao, Zongfang Liu, Bingyang Lyu, Nian Li, Di Li and Chengcheng Zeng

Forests 2020, 11(6), 616; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f11060616 - 01 Jun 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2729

Abstract

Forests are large-scale green space resources that may exert a positive impact on human physiology and psychology. Forests can be divided into mixed forest and pure forest, according to the number of dominant tree species. Pure forest offers specific advantages for the study of spatial structure and scale. In this study, a type of pure forest (i.e., bamboo forest) was adopted as a research object to investigate differences in the physiological and psychological responses of psychologically pressured college students to different types of forest space. We recruited 60 participants and randomly assigned them to three experimental groups: forest interior space (FIS), forest external space (FES) and forest path space (FPS). All participants were asked to perform the same pre-test task but different post-test tasks. The pre-test involved performing a pressure-inducing task, whereas the post-test involved viewing photographs of each space type. The same indicators were measured in both the pre- and post-test, including a β/α index from each lobe, positive emotion, negative emotion and total mood disturbance (TMD) values, according to the profile of mood states (POMS), in addition to spatial scale preferences obtained through a questionnaire and interviews. We analysed brain waves and mood indicators through analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), whereby the FES group exhibited the best physiological and psychological relaxation effect. The FPS group displayed a medium effect, and the FIS group exhibited the worst effect. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the spatial scale scores. The FPS and FES types achieved a higher spatial scale preference scores than the FIS type. Based on a comparison of the psychophysiological results with the spatial scale preference results, spatial structure and scale are considered to be important intrinsic factors that influence the health effects of pure forest. The results can provide guidance for forest-related human health activities and their management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Structure and Sustainable Resource Management)

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17 pages, 6386 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Forest Structure and Composition along the Altitudinal Gradient in the State of Sikkim, Eastern Himalayas, India

by Yangchenla Bhutia, Ravikanth Gudasalamani, Rengaian Ganesan and Somidh Saha

Forests 2019, 10(8), 633; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f10080633 - 27 Jul 2019

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 7296

Abstract

Understanding the structure and composition of native forests is a prerequisite in developing an adaptive forest management plan for Himalayan forest ecosystems where climate change is rapid. However, basic information on forest structure and composition are still limited in many places of the Eastern Himalayas. In this study, we aimed to understand the diversity, structure, and composition of forests and their variations along an altitudinal gradient in Himalayan forests. The study was conducted in the Indian federal state of Sikkim, Eastern Himalayas. We carried out a comprehensive and comparative evaluation of species diversity, stand basal area, and stem density along the altitudinal gradient from 900 m a.s.l. to 3200 m a.s.l. We used stratified random sampling to survey eighty-three plots each 0.1 ha in forest communities that occurred along the altitudinal gradient: (a) lower (900–1700 m) altitude forest (N = 24), (b) mid (1700–2500 m) altitude forests (N = 37), and (c) higher (2500–3200 m)altitude forests (N = 22). We measured and identified all living trees with a >3 cm diameter at breast height in each plot. We counted 10,344 individual plants, representing 114 woody species belonging to 42 families and 75 genera. The family Fagaceae and its species Lithocarpus pachyphyllus (Kurz) Rehder. were reported as the most dominant forest trees with the highest Importance Value Index. The Shannon diversity index was recorded as being the highest for the low-altitude forests, whereas measures of structural diversity varied among forests along with altitude: the mid-altitude forests recorded the highest stem density and the high-altitude forests showed the highest mean stem DBH (diameter at 1.3 m height). One significant finding of our study was the disparity of the size class distribution among forests along the altitudinal gradient. Overall, we found a reverse J-shape distribution of tree diameter signifying the uneven-agedness. However, we showed, for the first time, a complete lack of large trees (>93 cm DBH) in the lower altitude forests. Our study highlights conservation concerns for the low-altitude forests that record high species diversity, although lacked large-diameter trees. We anticipate that our study will provide a comprehensive understanding of forest diversity, composition, and structure along the altitudinal gradient to design conservation and sustainable management strategies Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Structure and Sustainable Resource Management)

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18 pages, 4360 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Forest Structure, Wood Standing Stock, and Tree Biomass in Different Restoration Systems in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

by Danila Morena Fidéles Pontes, Vera Lex Engel and John A. Parrotta

Forests 2019, 10(7), 588; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f10070588 - 15 Jul 2019

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5012

Abstract

Reliable estimates of tree growth and wood yield are fundamental to support the management of restored forests and better reconcile the objectives of recovering biodiversity with the provision of ecosystem services. In this study, wood standing volumes and tree biomass stocks were estimated in different ecological restoration systems and at two sites with contrasting soil fertility, in order to evaluate the potential trade-offs between biodiversity and forest production. At each site, a complete randomized block design, with three replications of six treatments, was established in 1997–1998: direct seeding (DIRS), high-diversity tree plantation (HDIV), modified “Taungya” agroforestry system (AFS), mixed plantation with timber and firewood species (MIX), managed agroforestry system (AFSm) and managed mixed plantation (MIXm). We inventoried all trees with diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 5 cm in 450 m² per treatment per plot, 19–20 years after establishment, using site-specific allometric models. Significant site effects were found for tree height, tree density and wood volume. Restoration systems (treatments) affected forest structure and forest productivity. Higher wood stock and biomass tree were observed in the less complex system (DIRS), while AFSm and HDIV reconciled higher species richness and diversity with good wood volume yields and tree biomass. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Structure and Sustainable Resource Management)

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Review

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9 pages, 1508 KiB

Open AccessReview

On the Management of Large-Diameter Trees in China’s Forests

by Chuping Wu, Bo Jiang, Weigao Yuan, Aihua Shen, Shuzhen Yang, Shenhao Yao and Jiajia Liu

Forests 2020, 11(1), 111; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f11010111 - 16 Jan 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4179

Abstract

Large-diameter trees have mainly been used for timber production in forestry practices. Recently, their critical roles played in biodiversity conservation and maintenance of ecosystem functions have been recognized. However, current forestry policy on the management of large-diameter trees is weak. As China is the biggest consumer of large-diameter timbers, how to maintain sustainable large-diameter timber resources as well as maximize ecological functions of the forests is a critical question to address. Here we summarize historical uses, distribution patterns, and management strategies of large-diameter trees in China. We found that large-diameter trees are mainly distributed in old-growth forests. Although China’s forest cover has increased rapidly in the past decades, large-diameter trees are rarely found in plantation forests and secondary forests. We suggest that knowledge of large-diameter trees should be widely disseminated in local forestry departments, especially their irreplaceable value in terms of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functions. Protection of large-diameter trees, especially those in old-growth forests, is critical for sustainable forestry. To meet the increasing demand of large-diameter timbers, plantation forests and secondary forests should apply forest density management with thinning to cultivate more large-diameter trees. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Structure and Sustainable Resource Management)

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