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Forests
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Forest Management to Optimise Forest Ecosystem Services
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Forest Management to Optimise Forest Ecosystem Services

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 June 2021) | Viewed by 18673

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Venceslas Goudiaby

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal, QC G5L 3A1, Canada
Interests: ecology; forest science; interdisciplinary research; computer and statistical modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forests play a key role in human well-being and economy by providing many goods and services, including provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services.

Unfortunately, forests are vulnerable to continuous anthropogenic and natural pressures such as climate change and disturbances. As a result, the provisioning of forest ecosystem services is being deeply modified, affecting the well-being of humans who rely on them. It is therefore crucial to provide insight into strategies that are more likely to allow forests to cope with all these pressures. From a forest management perspective, this translates into performing, for example, timber harvesting, planting, regeneration, protection, and nurturing, aiming to optimize one or several forest services while safeguarding the others. In this context, this Special Issue invites papers that propose forest management strategies aiming to optimize one or several forest functions as follows:

  • Provisioning of goods such as wood, food, biomass for fuel, or other bioproducts.
  • Ecological function such as carbon storage; nutrient cycling; air, soil, and water purification; and habitat.
  • Cultural benefits such as recreation. 

We also welcome papers not specifically focusing on forest management whose outcomes could contribute to improving current forest management. 

Dr. Venceslas Goudiaby
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

  • ecosystem services
  • carbon
  • forest management
  • biodiversity
  • biomass
  • regeneration
  • wood

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2541 KiB  
Article
Understanding Effects of Competition and Shade Tolerance on Carbon Allocation with a Carbon Balance Model
by Venceslas Goudiaby, Robert Schneider, Suzanne Brais, Frédéric Raulier and Frank Berninger
Forests 2022, 13(4), 572; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13040572 - 5 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2305
Abstract
A carbon-balance model based on mechanistic and allometric relationships (CroBas) was used to assess the effects of competition in C allocation in jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.), a shade-intolerant species, and black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.), a moderately shade-tolerant species. [...] Read more.
A carbon-balance model based on mechanistic and allometric relationships (CroBas) was used to assess the effects of competition in C allocation in jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.), a shade-intolerant species, and black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.), a moderately shade-tolerant species. For both species, model efficiencies ranged from 36 to 99%. The average model bias was lower than 11% and 18% for jack pine and black spruce, respectively. For both jack pine and black spruce, the total tree C increased over the years, with greater increases noted for decreasing competition. When considering a C compartment as a ratio of the total tree C, decreasing competition resulted for both species in decreasing stem C and increasing C in branches and foliage. When considering the amount of C in a given compartment, for jack pine, decreasing competition led to greater C stem, branches, foliage, and roots, whereas, for black spruce, it also increased its stem C but lately shifted at about 20 years, following thinning; thus, the changing C allocation over time results from both “passive plasticity”, reflecting environmentally induced variations in growth, and “ontogenetic plasticity”, referring to variations in the ontogenetic trajectory of a trait. Overall, the C allocation to stem and foliage relative to the total tree C generally decreased as competition decreased, supporting the optimal partitioning theory. These C-allocation patterns were related to the species’ shade tolerance and illustrated how jack pine and black spruce maximize their competitive fitness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management to Optimise Forest Ecosystem Services)
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16 pages, 5383 KiB  
Article
Assessing Burned Areas in Wildfires and Prescribed Fires with Spectral Indices and SAR Images in the Margalla Hills of Pakistan
by Aqil Tariq, Hong Shu, Alexandre S. Gagnon, Qingting Li, Faisal Mumtaz, Artan Hysa, Muhammad Amir Siddique and Iqra Munir
Forests 2021, 12(10), 1371; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101371 - 9 Oct 2021
Cited by 43 | Viewed by 6185
Abstract
The extent of wildfires cannot be easily mapped using field-based methods in areas with complex topography, and in those areas the use of remote sensing is an alternative. This study first obtained images from the Sentinel-2 satellites for the period 2015–2020 with the [...] Read more.
The extent of wildfires cannot be easily mapped using field-based methods in areas with complex topography, and in those areas the use of remote sensing is an alternative. This study first obtained images from the Sentinel-2 satellites for the period 2015–2020 with the objective of applying multi-temporal spectral indices to assess areas burned in wildfires and prescribed fires in the Margalla Hills of Pakistan using the Google Earth Engine (GEE). Using those images, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), which are often used to assess the severity of fires, were calculated for wildfires and prescribed fires. For each satellite image, spectral indices values were extracted for the 5th, 20th, 40th, 60th, 80th and 95th percentiles of pixels of each burned area. Then, boxplots representing the distribution of these values were plotted for each satellite image to identify whether the regeneration time subsequent to a fire, also known as the burn scar, and the severity of the fire differed between the autumn and summer wildfires, and with prescribed fires. A statistical test revealed no differences for the regeneration time amongst the three categories of fires, but that the severity of summer wildfires was significantly different from that of prescribed fire, and this, for both indices. Second, SAR images were obtained from the Sentinel-1 mission for the same period as that of the optical imagery. A comparison of the response of 34 SAR variables with official data on wildfires and prescribed fires from the Capital Development Authority revealed that the 95th percentile of the Normalized Signal Ratio (NSR p_95) was found to be the best variable to detect fire events, although only 50% of the fires were correctly detected. Nonetheless, when the occurrence of fire events according to the SAR variable NSR p_95 was compared to that from the two spectral indices, the SAR variable was found to correctly identify 95% of fire events. The SAR variable NSR p_95 is thus a suitable alternative to spectral indices to monitor the progress of wildfires and assess their severity when there are limitations to the use of optical images due to cloud coverage or smoke, for instance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management to Optimise Forest Ecosystem Services)
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20 pages, 2173 KiB  
Article
Evaluating the Recreation Value of Alishan National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan
by Wan-Yu Liu, Bo-Sheng Fang and Chi-Ming Hsieh
Forests 2021, 12(9), 1245; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12091245 - 14 Sep 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3046
Abstract
This study aimed to construct an effective model to estimate the recreation value and total annual recreation benefits of the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area (ANFR) through the travel cost method. Negative binomial regression was also employed to estimate the demand function. This [...] Read more.
This study aimed to construct an effective model to estimate the recreation value and total annual recreation benefits of the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area (ANFR) through the travel cost method. Negative binomial regression was also employed to estimate the demand function. This study sorted participants based on gender, age, level of education, personal monthly income, occupation, and place of residence to examine their differences in perceived recreation value and recreation demand. The survey responses revealed that most tourists were mainly middle aged, and took family vacations. The findings indicate that the recreation benefits of traveling to Alishan per person each year equaled NTD 1703. Furthermore, the annual recreation benefits of Alishan were approximately between NTD 2,157,121,944 and NTD 2,452,136,112 based on a total of 1,353,276 visits traveling to Alishan in 2019. Recommendations and suggestions are drawn for ANFR based the results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management to Optimise Forest Ecosystem Services)
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17 pages, 1020 KiB  
Article
Saving the Forest from the Trees: Expert Views on Funding Restoration of Northern Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forests through Registered Carbon Offsets
by Brett Alan Miller, William D. Pearse and Courtney G. Flint
Forests 2021, 12(8), 1119; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12081119 - 21 Aug 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2829
Abstract
Ponderosa pine forests in the southwestern United States of America are overly dense, increasing the risk of high-intensity stand-replacing wildfires that result in the loss of terrestrial carbon and release of carbon dioxide, contributing to global climate change. Restoration is needed to restore [...] Read more.
Ponderosa pine forests in the southwestern United States of America are overly dense, increasing the risk of high-intensity stand-replacing wildfires that result in the loss of terrestrial carbon and release of carbon dioxide, contributing to global climate change. Restoration is needed to restore forest structure and function so that a more natural regime of higher frequency, lower intensity wildfires returns. However, restoration has been hampered by the significant cost of restoration and other institutional barriers. To create additional revenue streams to pay for restoration, the National Forest Foundation supported the development of a methodology for the estimation and verification of carbon offsets generated by the restoration of ponderosa pine forests in northern Arizona. The methodology was submitted to the American Carbon Registry, a prominent carbon registry, but it was ultimately rejected. This paper presents a post-mortem examination of that methodology and the reasons it was rejected in order to improve the development of similar methodologies in the future. Using a mixed-methods approach, this paper analyzes the potential atmospheric carbon benefits of the proposed carbon offset methodology and the public and peer-reviewed comments from the associated review of the methodology. Results suggest a misalignment between the priorities of carbon registries and the context-specific ecosystem service benefits of this type of restoration; although findings confirm the potential for reductions in released carbon due to restoration, these results illuminate barriers that complicate registering these reductions as voluntary carbon offsets under current guidelines and best practices, especially on public land. These barriers include substantial uncertainty about the magnitude and timing of carbon benefits. Overcoming these barriers will require active reflexivity by the institutions that register voluntary carbon offsets and the institutions that manage public lands in the United States. Such reflexivity, or reconsideration of the concepts and purposes of carbon offsets and/or forest restoration, will allow future approaches to better align objectives for successfully registering restoration-based voluntary carbon offsets. Therefore, the results of this analysis can inform the development of future methodologies, policies, and projects with similar goals in the same or different landscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management to Optimise Forest Ecosystem Services)
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15 pages, 3461 KiB  
Article
Does Differentiation by Certified Raw Wood Change the Average Price at the Tama Roundwood Market Center in Tokyo, Japan?
by Shohei Kameyama and Katsuaki Sugiura
Forests 2021, 12(3), 264; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12030264 - 25 Feb 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3282
Abstract
It is important to understand price premiums related to certified raw wood to predict the future of forest certifications from the perspective of forestry enterprises. We focused on identifying the trading roundwood market data in the economic center of power in Tokyo. This [...] Read more.
It is important to understand price premiums related to certified raw wood to predict the future of forest certifications from the perspective of forestry enterprises. We focused on identifying the trading roundwood market data in the economic center of power in Tokyo. This study aimed to clarify Tama-certified raw wood prices under the local area certification scheme, forest-certified raw wood prices, and the handling volumes at the Tama Roundwood Market Center in Tokyo. Sales details of the Tama Roundwood Market Center were used to identify the handling volumes, Tama-certified raw wood prices, and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or SGEC (Japan-specific Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council)-certified raw wood prices. The FSC and SGEC have operated from the center since 2016. Data were collected from the 2006–2018 fiscal years. Our results showed that the volume of raw wood handled increased due to the regeneration-cutting project conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. On the other hand, there was no price premium for Tama-certified raw wood under the local certification scheme or for FSC- or SGEC-certified raw wood. Price premiums for forest certifications are necessary for ongoing sustainable forest management. There is a need to increase consumer awareness of forest certifications and to differentiate quality certifications further, and these would likely create price premiums. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management to Optimise Forest Ecosystem Services)
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