Identifying, managing and monitoring conflicts between forest biodiversity conservation and other human interests in Europe

In this paper, circumstances where various human activities and interests clash with the conservation of forest biodiversity are examined, with particular focus on the drivers behind the conflicts. After identifying past and current human-related threats potentially leading to conflicts in forests, the paper will focus on conflict management and monitoring, with an emphasis on inclusionary stakeholder networks and a range of approaches towards sustainable land use. Three dimensions of conflicts are examined: substance (‘how things are’), procedure (‘how things are done’), and relationships (‘how people behave’). These relations will relate to three conflict management approaches: (1) technical, which may contribute to reduce or solve the conflict acting on the ‘substance’ dimension, (2) political, which may influence the ‘procedure’ dimension of the conflict establishing principles or rules, and (3) cultural, which may affect the ‘relationship’ dimension of the conflict. Finally, a general model of adaptive conflict management emphasising communication among the parties and a participatory approach that involves monitoring of the conflict resolution outcomes is proposed. The recognition that strong perceptions among stakeholders have the potential to aggravate conflicts is central to the concept of a inclusionary conflict management framework, improved communication between all stakeholders, and better awareness of the context of the conflicts is emphasised.     

Optimising the management of maize — Grevillea robusta fields in Kenya

The study optimised the management of a Grevillea robusta (A. Cunn.) stand growing in the central highlands of Kenya. The optimisations were conducted separately for even-aged and uneven-aged management system of trees. The management was also optimised with the requirement that maize production under the tree cover must be profitable every year. Technically, the optimisation problems were solved by linking a simulation program with the non-linear optimisation algorithm of Hooke and Jeeves. The simulation program calculated the tree growth, volumes of harvested trees, and maize yields with a given set of management parameters (decision variables). The maize yield predictions and simulated timber yields were converted into gross incomes of which the production costs were subtracted. In even-aged management the objective variable was the soil expectation value with 5% discounting rate. In uneven-aged management the mean annual net income was maximised. The optimal solutions indicated that with both management systems it is optimal to concentrate on wood production. The optimal stand densities were so high that profitable maize production was not possible under the tree cover. The mean annual wood production of the optimal management schedule was more than 50m³ ha^–1. Forcing profitable maize production in the solution decreased the wood production by 57% (even-aged forestry) or 27% (uneven-aged forestry) and net income by 45% (even-aged forestry) or 24% (uneven-aged forestry).This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition in southern and northern areas of the boreal forest zone

Much effort has been made to improve understanding of factors controlling the temperature dependence of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition. The question of how soils formed in different geographical locations and conditions respond to temperature changes is still open. In addition to climate, residence times of soil organic matter are controlled by its decomposability and microbial community. In this work we hypothesized that the decomposition of SOM is adapted to the prevailing SOM quality and climatic conditions. This should result in different temperature vs. decomposition curves for northern and southern soils. We studied short-term temperature dependence of SOM decomposition near the northern and southern borders of the boreal forest zone using a Gaussian model. As carbon mineralization rate is driven by microbial activity, we focused on organic carbon fractions available to microbes and the size, composition and functioning of microbial communities in the soil. Despite differences in microbial community structure and behavior, similar amounts and qualities of the microbially available carbon led to similar temperature dependences of carbon mineralization in the north and south. The overall soil respiration rate level was higher in spruce forest sites than in pine forest sites irrespective of climate conditions. Our results do not mean that there is no risk of carbon losses from northern soils due to warming climate conditions. As temperature sensitivity of the decomposition increases with decreasing temperature regime, the proportional increase in the decomposition rate in northern latitudes might lead to significant carbon losses from the soils.     

Temperature sensitivity of young and old soil carbon – Same soil,slight differences in 13C natural abundance method,inconsistent results

Predictions of future climate change critically depend on the temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon decomposition. One question of debate is whether temperature sensitivity differs between young or labile and old or more stable carbon pools. We re-analysed soil that has previously led to the conclusion that old soil carbon is more temperature sensitive. The re-analysis gave different results compared to the earlier study, most likely due to small differences in an otherwise very similar experimental approach. This study illustrates how conclusions may depend upon details of the experimental setting.     

Price integration for domestic and imported sawlogs and pulpwood in Finland: an update

This paper provides an analysis on the integration of prices for imported coniferous pulpwood and sawlogs, and respective domestic stumpage prices in the Finnish wood market. Eight real price series were investigated during 2002–2014 using monthly observations. The bounds testing approach by Pesaran et al. [(2001) Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships. J Appl Econom. 16: 289–326. doi:10.1002/jae.616], indicates there are long-run relationships between prices of domestic and imported wood. For more detailed information, the vector error correction model (VECM) approach was used. Estimation of a system with all eight prices with interpretable results did not succeed; therefore, we estimated models for prices of sawlogs and for pulpwood separately. For sawlogs, two co-integrating vectors, one for pine and one for spruce, were found. For pulpwood prices, one co-integrating vector was identified. The estimated VECMs confirm the results of bounds testing approach, suggesting that causation in the Finnish wood market runs from domestic prices to prices of imported wood. We conclude that prices of domestic and imported coniferous logs and pulpwood are closely connected. The question of full integration remains open, as border prices and stumpage prices by definition differ, at least, by logging and transportation costs.     

Reconstructing forest canopy from the 3D triangulations of airborne laser scanning point data for the visualization and planning of forested landscapes

Key message

We present a data-driven technique to visualize forest landscapes and simulate their future development according to alternative management scenarios. Gentle harvesting intensities were preferred for maintaining scenic values in a test of eliciting public’s preferences based on the simulated landscapes.

Context

Visualizations of future forest landscapes according to alternative management scenarios are useful for eliciting stakeholders’ preferences on the alternatives. However, conventional computer visualizations require laborious tree-wise measurements or simulators to generate these observations.

Aims

We describe and evaluate an alternative approach, in which the visualization is based on reconstructing forest canopy from sparse density, leaf-off airborne laser scanning data.

Methods

Computational geometry was employed to generate filtrations, i.e., ordered sets of simplices belonging to the three-dimensional triangulations of the point data. An appropriate degree of filtering was determined by analyzing the topological persistence of the filtrations. The topology was further utilized to simulate changes to canopy biomass, resembling harvests with varying retention levels. Relative priorities of recreational and scenic values of the harvests were estimated based on pairwise comparisons and analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

Results

The canopy elements were co-located with the tree stems measured in the field, and the visualizations derived from the entire landscape showed reasonably realistic, despite a low numerical correspondence with plot-level forest attributes. The potential and limitations to improve the proposed parameterization are discussed.

Conclusion

Although the criteria to evaluate the landscape visualization and simulation models were not conclusive, the results suggest that forest scenes may be feasibly reconstructed based on data already covering broad areas and readily available for practical applications.

     

Effects of organic carbon and clay contents on structure-related properties of arable soils with high clay content

Understanding of factors governing soil structural features is necessary for managing key processes affecting crop productivity and environmental impacts of agriculture, for example, soil water balance, aeration, and root penetration. Organic matter is known to act as a major binding agent in soil aggregation and thus constitutes a central pillar in soil structure formation. However, knowledge of the structural role of organic matter or carbon (OC) in soils highly rich in clay-sized particles (<0.002 mm) is limited. In this study, the effects of clay and OC contents on aggregate stability, water holding capacity, near-saturated hydraulic conductivity, total porosity, and pore size distribution were assessed in cultivated fields with high clay content located in private crop production farms in southern Finland. Significant positive correlations were found between OC content and proportion of water stable aggregates and specific pore sizes from the range of 30 μm up to 1 mm diameter determined by image analysis. Porosities on a smaller size range derived from water retention measurements likewise showed a positive correlation with OC in <0.2 μm sizes. On the range of 0.2–1 μm, a negative relationship was observed, which induced a negative effect of OC on soil plant available water reserves. In line with the positive correlation between OC and larger soil pores, free water, representing the amount of water that can be drained by gravity, exhibited a positive relationship with OC suggesting that OC content can enhance aeration of soils with high clay content. Compared to OC, clay content tended to have an adverse effect on soil structural properties. Clay correlated negatively with pores larger than 30 μm, free water content, and extrapolated field saturated hydraulic conductivity. Further, our imaging results showed how saturated hydraulic conductivity was controlled by pore morphology, and there was a power law relationship between the conductivity and critical pore diameter. $K\propto d_c^2$ in agreement with the percolation theory. Overall, the structural impacts and hydrological implications of OC and clay in heavy clay soils vary by pore size ranges and their emergent practical impacts are thus not straightforward.