Sustaining Forest Ecosystems (Managing Forest Ecosystems, 37)

✍ Scribed by Klaus von Gadow, Juan Gabriel Álvarez González, Chunyu Zhang, Timo Pukkala, Xiuhai Zhao

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 429
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Forest ecosystems include a great variety of communities of organisms interacting with their physical environment: multi-aged natural forests, even-aged monocultures, and secondary forests invaded by foreign species. The challenge is to sustain their ability to function, by adapting to changing climates and satisfying a multitude of human demands. Our first chapter sets the scene with a discussion about the effects of forest management on ecosystem services. Details about forest observational infrastructures are introduced in the second chapter. The third chapter presents methods of analysing forest density and structure. Models for estimating the shape and growth of individual forest trees are introduced in chapter 4, models of forest community production in Chapter 5. Methods and examples of sustainable forest design are covered in chapter 6. New scientific contributions continue to emerge as we are writing, and this work is never finished. We hope to continue with regular updatesreplacing obsolete sections with new ones, but the general aim remains the same, to introduce a range of methods that will assist those interested in sustaining forest ecosystems.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Literature
Contents
1: What Is a Forest ?
1.1 Classifications of Plant Communities
1.1.1 Global Classifications
1.1.2 Regional Classifications
1.1.3 Potential Natural Vegetation
1.1.4 Novel Forests
1.2 Popular Myths
1.2.1 The Myth of the Climax Community
1.2.2 The Myth of the Primeval Forest
1.3 Forest Anthromes: Domesticated Ecosystems
1.3.1 To Act or Not to Act?
Literature
2: Forest Assessment and Observation
2.1 Forest Assessment
2.1.1 Some Selected Issues
2.1.1.1 The Nested Plot Design
2.1.1.2 Simulating a Test Area with Mapped Trees
2.1.1.3 Seedlings, Saplings, and Shrubs
2.1.1.4 The Regeneration Circular Plot
2.1.1.5 The Regeneration Neighborhood
2.1.1.6 Generating a Sampling Scheme on a Regular Grid
2.1.1.7 An Example from Mongolia
2.1.2 Remote Assessments
2.1.2.1 Use of Airborne Laser Scanning in Forest Inventory
Interpretation of ALS Data
Area-Based Interpretation
2.1.2.2 Numerical Delineation of Forest Stands
Segmentation
Automated Stand Delineation
Cellular Automata in Stand Delineation
Other Possibilities for Stand Delineation
2.1.2.3 Landsat
2.1.2.4 Terrestrial Laser Scanning
2.1.2.5 Estimating NPP Based on MODIS
2.1.3 Cost–Benefit Issues
2.2 Field Experiments
2.2.1 Spacing Experiments for Planted Ecosystems
2.2.2 Short-Rotation Coppice Experiments
2.2.3 Ecosystem Functioning and Biodiversity Experiments
2.2.4 Longitudinal, Cross-sectional, and Interval Studies
2.3 Continuous Forest Observation
2.3.1 Early Observational Infrastructures
2.3.2 New Forest Observational Studies
2.3.2.1 China
2.3.2.2 South Africa
2.3.2.3 India
2.3.2.4 Mexico
2.3.2.5 Global Forest Observation
2.3.2.6 Machine Learning
2.3.3 Establishing an Observational Field Plot
2.3.4 Assessment Protocols
2.3.5 Presentation Standards
2.3.5.1 Species Codes and Colors
2.3.5.2 Plot Maps
2.3.5.3 Plot Summaries
Literature
3: Analyzing Forest Ecosystems
3.1 Forest Density
3.1.1 Measuring Forest Density
3.1.1.1 Basal Area
3.1.1.2 Leaf Area Index
3.1.1.3 Stand Density Index
3.1.1.4 Nilson’s Sparsity
3.1.1.5 Relative Spacing
3.1.1.6 Crown Competition Factor
3.1.1.7 Patterns of Density
3.1.2 Estimating Maximum Forest Density
3.1.2.1 Planted Forests
3.1.2.2 Natural Forests
3.2 Forest Heterogeneity and Structure
3.2.1 Species Diversity
3.2.2 The Species–Area Relationship
3.2.3 Nonspatial Structure
3.2.3.1 Unimodal Diameter Distributions
3.2.3.2 Bimodal Diameter Distributions
3.2.3.3 Specific Diameter–Height Relationships
3.2.3.4 Generalized Diameter–Height Relationships
3.2.3.5 Spatially Explicit Diameter–Height Relationships
3.2.3.6 Bivariate Diameter–Height Distributions
3.2.4 Spatial Structure
3.2.4.1 The Uniform Angle Index
3.2.5 The Forest Ecosystem—A Mosaic of Neighborhoods
3.2.6 Species Segregation and Mingling
3.2.7 A System of Nearest Neighbor Statistics
3.2.7.1 Implementing the Neighborhood System in R
3.2.7.2 Extensions of the Mingling Concept
3.3 Assessing Community Dissimilarity
3.3.1 An Example Using Taxonomic Distances
3.4 Analyzing Harvest Events
3.4.1 Linguistic Variables
3.4.2 Simple Numerical Variables
3.4.3 Removal Preferences in a Spatial Context
3.4.4 Simulating a Harvest Event
3.4.5 The Gini Coefficient
3.5 Reconstruction and Simulation
3.5.1 Applications in Spatstat
3.5.2 Developing Your Own R Code
3.5.2.1 Simulating a Planted Forest
Literature
4: The Shape and Growth of Forest Trees
4.1 The Shape of Forest Trees
4.1.1 The Tree Crown
4.1.1.1 Crown Models of Higher Resolution
4.1.1.2 The Crown Window
4.1.2 The Stem
4.1.2.1 Stem Profile Functions
4.1.2.2 The Brink Function
4.1.2.3 Modeling Stem Quality
4.1.3 The Root System
4.1.4 Compatible Biomass Models
4.1.4.1 Developing a System of Compatible Biomass Equations
4.2 Individual Tree Growth Models
4.2.1 Modeling Tree Survival
4.2.2 Competition Effects and Response to Competition
4.2.2.1 Overtopping Basal Area: BAL and BALMOD
4.2.2.2 Local Crowding
4.2.2.3 Area Potentially Available
4.2.2.4 Overlapping Zones of Influence
4.2.2.5 The KKL Index
4.2.2.6 Distance-Weighted Size Ratio
4.2.2.7 Other Competition Indices
4.2.3 Examples of Individual Tree Growth Models
4.3 Selecting Trees for Harvest
4.3.1 The Four-Forester Problem
4.3.2 Spatial Thinning Models
Literature
5: Forest Production
5.1 Site Models
5.1.1 Site Index Systems Based on Dominant Height
5.1.1.1 A Site Index System Based on the Guide Curve Method
5.1.1.2 A Site Index System Based on the Algebraic Difference Equation Method (ADA)
5.1.2 Phytocentric and Geocentric Measures of Site Productivity
5.1.2.1 Plant Communities
5.1.2.2 Indicator Plant Species
5.1.2.3 Climate Indices
5.1.2.4 Soil Parameters
5.1.2.5 Comparison of Methods
5.2 Estimating Forest Production
5.2.1 Estimating Element Content in Forest Production Models
5.2.2 Production in Planted Forests
5.2.3 Production in Continuous Cover Forests
5.2.3.1 Forest Density and Production
5.2.4 Examples of Forest Production Models
5.2.4.1 A Fagus sylvatica Ecosystem
5.2.4.2 A Eucalyptus grandis Ecosystem
5.2.4.3 Estimating Production: No Observations
5.3 Compatible Models of Growth and Production
5.3.1 Transition Function for Tree Number Reduction
5.3.2 Disaggregation Involving Tree Diameters
5.3.3 Disaggregation Involving Height Estimation
5.3.4 Output Functions
5.3.4.1 Total and Merchantable Volume Estimation
5.3.4.2 Biomass Distribution and Carbon Estimations
5.3.4.3 Forest Production and Individual Tree Growth
5.4 Modeling Harvest Events
5.4.1 Separation Parameters
5.4.2 Thinning Rules
Literature
6: Designing Forest Ecosystems
6.1 Risks and Preferences
6.1.1 Estimating Abiotic Risks
6.1.2 Estimating Biotic Risks
6.1.3 Establishing a Preference Order
6.1.4 Constrained Optimization
6.1.4.1 A Pulp-mill with Boiler Constraint
6.1.4.2 Afforestation and Water Yield
6.2 Sustaining Planted Forests
6.2.1 Classical Methods
6.2.2 Age-Class Simulation
6.2.3 Multiperiod Harvest Scheduling
6.3 Sustaining Continuous-Cover Forests
6.3.1 The Inverse J-Shaped Liocourt Curve
6.3.2 Optimum Residual Structures
6.4 Sustaining Green Landscapes
6.4.1 Traditional Methods of Forest Design
6.4.1.1 “Cradle-to-Grave” Design
6.4.2 Multiple-Path Design
6.4.3 Heuristic Combinatorial Optimization
6.4.3.1 Simulated Annealing
6.4.3.2 Tabu Search
6.4.3.3 Genetic Algorithm
6.4.3.4 Ant Colony Optimization
6.4.3.5 Decentralized Heuristics
6.4.3.6 Using Stand-Level Optimization in Forest-Level Planning
6.4.3.7 Spatial Heuristic Optimization
6.4.3.8 Use of Small Spatial Units in Forest Planning
6.4.3.9 Tree Level Planning
6.4.4 Application Examples
6.4.4.1 Indira Gandhi Canal
6.4.4.2 A Forest in Germany
6.4.4.3 A Planted Eucalyptus Ecosystem
6.4.4.4 A Coastal Dune Ecosystem
6.4.4.5 A Mountain Ecosystem
6.4.4.6 A Novel Ecosystem
6.4.4.7 A Forest Farm
Literature
Literature
Index