Articles

Adaptive economic and ecological forest management under risk

Forest managers must deal with inherently stochastic ecological and economic processes. The future growth of trees is uncertain, and so is their value. The randomness of low-impact, high frequency or rare cata...

Authors: Joseph Buongiorno and Mo Zhou

Forecasting the development of boreal paludified forests in response to climate change: a case study using Ontario ecosite classification

Successional paludification, a dynamic process that leads to the formation of peatlands, is influenced by climatic factors and site features such as surficial deposits and soil texture. In boreal regions, proj...

Authors: Benoit Lafleur, Nicole J Fenton and Yves Bergeron

Managing project risks and uncertainties

This article considers threats to a project slipping on budget, schedule and fit-for-purpose. Threat is used here as the collective for risks (quantifiable bad things that can happen) and uncertainties (poorly...

Authors: Mike Mentis

Evaluation of sampling strategies to estimate crown biomass

Depending on tree and site characteristics crown biomass accounts for a significant portion of the total aboveground biomass in the tree. Crown biomass estimation is useful for different purposes including eva...

Authors: Krishna P Poudel, Hailemariam Temesgen and Andrew N Gray

Does overshoot in leaf development of ponderosa pine in wet years leads to bark beetle outbreaks on fine-textured soils in drier years?

Frequent outbreaks of insects and diseases have been recorded in the native forests of western North America during the last few decades, but the distribution of these outbreaks has been far from uniform. In s...

Authors: Wendy Peterman and Richard H Waring

Patterns of species dominance, diversity and dispersion in ‘Khasi hill sal’ forest ecosystem in northeast India

The ‘Khasi hill sal’ forest ecosystem in Meghalaya, India represents the easternmost limit of sal distribution. We tested if tree diversity and compositional heterogeneity of this ecosystem was higher than oth...

Authors: Amit Kumar Tripathi and Uma Shankar

Development of monitoring and assessment of forest biomass and carbon storage in China

Addressing climate change has become a common issue around the world in the 21st century and equally an important mission in Chinese forestry. Understanding the development of monitoring and assessment of fore...

Authors: Wei-Sheng Zeng

Demographic variation and habitat specialization of tree species in a diverse tropical forest of Cameroon

Many tree species in tropical forests have distributions tracking local ridge-slope-valley topography. Previous work in a 50-ha plot in Korup National Park, Cameroon, demonstrated that 272 species, or 63% of t...

Authors: David Kenfack, George B Chuyong, Richard Condit, Sabrina E Russo and Duncan W Thomas

Tree survival and maximum density of planted forests – Observations from South African spacing studies

Among the most important aspects of risk and hazard studies relating to forest ecosystems are maximum forest density and density-dependent tree survival.

Authors: Klaus v Gadow and Heyns Kotze

Linking individual-tree and whole-stand models for forest growth and yield prediction

Different types of growth and yield models provide essential information for making informed decisions on how to manage forests. Whole-stand models often provide well-behaved outputs at the stand level, but la...

Authors: Quang V Cao

A spatially-explicit count data regression for modeling the density of forest cockchafer (Melolontha hippocastani) larvae in the Hessian Ried (Germany)

In this paper, a regression model for predicting the spatial distribution of forest cockchafer larvae in the Hessian Ried region (Germany) is presented. The forest cockchafer, a native biotic pest, is a major ...

Authors: Matthias Schmidt and Rainer Hurling

Competition effects in an afrotemperate forest

Information about competition responses is mainly available for monospecific stands or mixed stands with a small number of species. Studies on complex multi-species and highly structured forest ecosystems are ...

Authors: Thomas Seifert, Stefan Seifert, Armin Seydack, Graham Durrheim and Klaus von Gadow

Using a stand-level model to predict light absorption in stands with vertically and horizontally heterogeneous canopies

Forest ecosystem functioning is strongly influenced by the absorption of photosynthetically active radiation (APAR), and therefore, accurate predictions of APAR are critical for many process-based forest growt...

Authors: David I Forrester, Rubén Guisasola, Xiaolu Tang, Axel T Albrecht, Tran Lam Dong and Guerric le Maire

Evaluation of different approaches to individual tree growth and survival modelling using data collected at irregular intervals – a case study for Pinus patula in Kenya

The minimum set of sub-models for simulating stand dynamics on an individual-tree basis consists of tree-level models for diameter increment and survival. Ingrowth model is a necessary third component in uneve...

Authors: Rita Juma, Timo Pukkala, Sergio de-Miguel and Mbae Muchiri

Can plasticity make spatial structure irrelevant in individual-tree models?

Distance-dependent individual-tree models have commonly been found to add little predictive power to that of distance-independent ones. One possible reason is plasticity, the ability of trees to lean and to al...

Authors: Oscar García

A model of seasonal foliage dynamics of the subtropical mangrove species Rhizophora stylosa Griff. growing at the northern limit of its distribution

Progress of forest production in response to the environment requires a quantitative understanding of leaf area development. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the dynamics of seasonal crown foliage in ...

Authors: Sahadev Sharma, A T M Rafiqul Hoque, Kangkuso Analuddin and Akio Hagihara

Assessing citizen science opportunities in forest monitoring using probabilistic topic modelling

With mounting global environmental, social and economic pressures the resilience and stability of forests and thus the provisioning of vital ecosystem services is increasingly threatened. Intensified monitorin...

Authors: Stefan Daume, Matthias Albert and Klaus von Gadow

Modelling of the spread of a potential invasive pest, the Siberian moth (Dendrolimus sibiricus) in Europe

The Siberian moth (Dendrolimus sibiricus) (SM) defoliates several tree species from the genera Larix, Picea and Abies in northern Asia, east of the Urals. The SM is a potential invasive forest pest in Europe beca...

Authors: Timo Möykkynen and Timo Pukkala

Developing a dynamic growth model for teak plantations in India

Tectona grandis (teak) is one of the most important tropical timber speciesoccurring naturally in India. Appropriate growth models, based on advanced modeling techniques,are not available but are necessary for th...

Authors: Vindhya Prasad Tewari, Juan Gabriel Álvarez-gonzález and Oscar García

Forest observational studies-an essential infrastructure for sustainable use of natural resources

This contribution complements Forest Ecosystems’ Thematic Series on “Forest Observational Studies”. We provide essential clarification regarding the definition and purpose of long-term field studies, review some ...

Authors: XiuHai Zhao, Javier Corral-Rivas, ChunYu Zhang, Hailemariam Temesgen and Klaus v Gadow

Unsuspected implications arising from assumptions in simulations: insights from recasting a forest growth model in system dynamics

Familiarity with a simulation platform can seduce modellers into accepting untested assumptions for convenience of implementation. These assumptions may have consequences greater than commonly suspected, and i...

Authors: Jerome K Vanclay

Local and generalized height-diameter models with random parameters for mixed, uneven-aged forests in Northwestern Durango, Mexico

We used mixed models with random components to develop height-diameter (h-d) functions for mixed, uneven-aged stands in northwestern Durango (Mexico), considering the breast height diameter (d) and stand varia...

Authors: Sacramento Corral-Rivas, Juan Gabriel Álvarez-González, Felipe Crecente-Campo and José Javier Corral-Rivas

Ingrowth, survival and height growth of small trees in uneven-aged Picea abies stands in southern Finland

The purpose of the study was to analyse height growth, mortality, and ingrowth of individual small-sized trees in uneven-aged spruce-dominated stands. It was based on experimental data from 16 stands for a 15-...

Authors: Kalle Eerikäinen, Sauli Valkonen and Timo Saksa

Height increment of understorey Norway spruces under different tree canopies

Stands having advance regeneration of spruce are logical places to start continuous cover forestry (CCF) in fertile and mesic boreal forests. However, the development of advance regeneration is poorly known.

Authors: Olavi Laiho, Timo Pukkala and Erkki Lähde

Stand management optimization – the role of simplifications

Studies on optimal stand management often make simplifications or restrict the choice of treatments. Examples of simplifications are neglecting natural regeneration that appears on a plantation site, omitting ...

Authors: Timo Pukkala, Erkki Lähde and Olavi Laiho

Science writing in the real world

The objective of this contribution is to consider guides to technical writing. Since the professional writes what he does and does what he writes, guides to how you execute the one relate to how you perform th...

Authors: Mike Mentis

Editorial – Forest Ecosystems

Authors: Yin Weilun and Klaus v Gadow