Spatial heterogeneity of factors influencing forest fires size in northern Mexico

In Mexico, forest fires are strongly influenced by environmental, topographic, and anthropogenic factors. A government-based database covering the period 2000-2011 was used to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the factors influencing forest fire size in the state of Durango, Mexico. Ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regression models were fit to identify the main factors as well as their spatial influence on fire size. Results indicate that fire size is greatly affected by distance to roads, distance to towns, precipitation, temperature, and a population gravity index. The geographically weighted model was better than the ordinary least squares model. The improvement of the former is due to the influence of factors that were found to be non-stationary. These results suggest that geographic location determines the influence of a factor on fire size. While the models can be greatly improved with additional information, the study suggests the need to adopt fire management policies to more efficiently reduce the effect of anthropogenic factors. These policies may include more training for landowners who use fire for clearing, closure of roads, application of thinning, prescribed burning, and fire breaks in perimeters adjacent to roads.     

A review of the roles of forest canopy gaps

Treefall gap, canopy opening caused by the death of one or more trees, is the dominant form of disturbance in many forest systems worldwide. Gaps play an important role in forest ecology helping to pre- serve bio- and pedo-diversity, influencing nutrient cycles, and maintain- ing the complex structure of the late-successional forests. Over the last 30 years, numerous reviews have been written describing gap dynamics. Here we synthesize current understanding on gap dynamics relating to tree regeneration with particular emphasis on gap characteristics consid- ered critical to develop ecologically sustainable forest management sys- tems and to conserve native biodiversity. Specifically, we addressed the question： how do gaps influence forest structure？ From the literature re- viewed, the size of gaps induces important changes in factors such as light intensity, soil humidity and soil biological properties that influence tree species regeneration and differ in gaps of different sizes. Shade- tolerant species can colonize small gaps; shade-intolerant species need large gaps for successful regeneration. Additionally, gap dynamics differ between temperate, boreal, and tropical forests, showing the importance of climate differences in driving forest regeneration. This review summa- rizes information of use to forest managers who design cutting regimes that mimic natural disturbances and who must consider forest structure, forest climate, and the role of natural disturbance in their designs.     

Adaptive economic and ecological forest management under risk

Background: 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 catastrophic shocks in forest growth has significant implications in shaping the mix of tree species and the forest landscape. In addition, the fluctuations of wood prices influence greatly forest revenues.Methods: Markov decision process models(MDPs) offer a rigorous and practical way of developing optimum management strategies, given these multiple sources of risk.Results: Examples illustrate how such management guidelines are obtained with MDPs for combined ecological and economic objectives, including diversity of tree species and size, landscape diversity, old growth preservation, and carbon sequestration.Conclusions: The findings illustrate the power of the MDP approach to deal with risk in forest resource management.They recognize that the future is best viewed in terms of probabilities. Given these probabilities, MDPs tie optimum adaptive actions strictly to the state of the forest and timber prices at decision time. The methods are theoretically rigorous, numerically efficient, and practical for field implementation.     

Performance evaluation of forest co-management: a case study of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary,Bangladesh

The objective was to evaluate the performance of the co-management of Nishorgo Support Project at Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary in Bangladesh. I adopted the Focus Groups Discussion method for opinion survey and applied the SWOTAHP technique for data analysis. Local people did not participate in the decision-making process of forest management and they perceived co-management as a threat to their livelihoods. Moreover, mistrust and misunderstanding among different stakeholders, political and ethical conflicts, lack of property rights of tribal communities, and lack of accountability and transparency were identified as the drawbacks of co-management.     

Willingness of Farmer Households for Forest Management and Its Impact Factor Analysis after Collective Forest Tenure Reform

The study was conducted in Mangling Village under Dehong Perfecture, Yunnan Province, for thorough investigation of forest tenure structure, management mode and forestland transfer of collective forests as well as of farmers’ preference for management and transfer intention. The impact factors of management orientation of farmer households were analyzed with Logistic Model. The results showed that tenure structure and management modes of collective forest have been diversified after the collective forest tenure reform, and 87.5% of farmer households preferred to independent or joint management while 12.5% of them would rather to transfer their forestland. The choice of farmer household for management mode was mainly influenced by their education background, production skill, household labors and household income sources. The main factors influencing farmer households’ forestland transfer activities include the proportion of forestry revenues to the total revenues, farmers’ experiences, amount of household labor and forest land area.     

Development and evaluation of local communities incentive programs for improving the traditional forest management: A case study of Northern Zagros forests,Iran

We examined the local community incentive programs to improve traditional forest management in three forested villages in Baneh city, Kurdistan province in the northern Zagros forests of western Iran. Zagros forests cover 6.07 million ha and support rich plant and animal diversity. Changes in local community social and economic sys-tems and the inefficiency of traditional forest management led to a criti-cal situation in the stability of forest regeneration in recent decades. Due to a shortage of productive and arable lands and resulting unemployment and poverty, people overexploited the Zagros forests. Outside interven-tion in traditional forest management creates conflicts between local peoples and forest management organizations. To achieve sustainable forest management, including forest resources conservation and im-provement of natural resource based livelihoods of communities, it is desirable to implement Forestry Incentive Programs （FIP） based on the important functions of forests. Detailed information on the so-cio-economics of communities, the effect of forests on local livelihoods, and lists of products extracted from the forest were obtained from a sur-vey of local communities though questionnaire, interview and observa-tion. We studied 276 households in three villages and completed 76 ques-tionnaires by householders in the quantitative analysis. Sampling was performed by simple random sampling （SRS）. The needs of rural com-munities, such as livestock husbandry, mainly arise from the characteris-tics and environmental features of villages. We identified the driving forces, pressures, status, impacts and responses （DPSIR） to design incen-tive programs, by DPSIR analysis and interaction analysis. Evaluation of local community benefits from forests showed that in order to improve forest management, 319 dollars per year would be needed by each family as an incentive in 2010 to prevent lopping and firewood collecting, the main causes of forest degradation.     

Past,present and future of industrial plantation forestry and implication on future timber harvesting technology

Plantation forests are established,and expanding,to satisfy increasing global demand for timber products.Shifting societal values,such as safety,productivity,environmental,quality and social are influencing the plantation forestry sector.This is primarily driven through an ever increasing world population,which in turn influences the way nations view the value systems by which they live.More people require more resources—also forest products.Also,the availability of information is influencing the pace of technological development.These changes could result in a difference in the management of plantations that could affect the forest engineering systems of the future.This review aimed to summarize the current status of plantation forests;summarize future developments and possible scenarios in forest plantation management for the various products;and assess whether these developments in a plantation environment could affect the harvesting systems used.Factors influencing the form of plantations include the type and nature of the plantation owner;the change in demand for different and new forest products;climate change factors,including the use of biomass for energy,carbon sequestration and trading;ecosystem services and other products and services;and sustainability certification of forest management.The impact and influence of these factors were summarised into a series of key drivers that will influence the technology used in harvesting machines,as well as the choice of harvesting machines,systems and methods.These drivers were the effect of variations in tree size,the expansion of plantation areas onto more difficult terrain,diversity in plantation design,increased attention towards site impacts and the increased use of biomass for energy.Specific information is provided regarding how the harvesting systems could be affected.     

Analysis on Impact Factors for Forest Management Income of Forest Farmers in China

Based on the investigation in Anji County of Zhejiang Province and Ba'nan District of Chongqing, this paper analyzed the characteristics of forest management behaviors of forest farmers in China and the impact factors for forest management income, and then came up with some policy recommendations to increase the forest management income of forest farmers. It argued that the factors to impact on forest management income of forest farmers in China include the choice of forest products type, the elements in fo...     

Synergistic effects of tropical cyclones on forest ecosystems:a global synthesis

Tropical cyclones are large-scale strong wind disturbance events that occur frequently in tropical and subtropical coastal regions and often bring catastrophic physical destruction to ecosystems and economic disruption to societies along their paths. Major tropical cyclones can infrequently move into the midaltitudes and inland areas. Ecologically, tropical cyclones have profound impacts on diversity, structure, succession and function of forest ecosystems. The ecological effects are both dramatic and subtle. The dramatic effects can be visible, noticeable and to some extent predictable over the short-term and relatively well documented in the literature. However, the subtle effects are often invisible, complex and at smaller scale relatively unpredictable in the long-term. Many factors, meteorologic, topographic and biologic, simultaneously interact to influence the complexity of patterns of damage and dynamics of recovery. I present a global synthesis on the effects of tropical cyclones on forest ecosystems and the complexity of forest responses, with particular attention on the response to large hurricanes in the neotropics and the temperate North America, and strong typhoons on the subtropical and temperate forests in the East and Southeast Asia. Four major aspects provide on organizational framework for this synthesis:(1) consistent damage patterns,(2) factors that influence response patterns and predict damage risks,(3) complexity of forest responses and recovery, and(4) the long-term effects. This review reveals highly variable and complex effects of tropical cyclones on forest ecosystems. A deep understanding of the synergistic effects of tropical cyclones is essential for effective forest management and biodiversity conservation.     

Assessing current stocks and future sequestration potential of forest biomass carbon in Daqing Mountain Nature Reserve of Inner Mongolia,China

Assessment of regional forest carbon stocks and underlying controls is critical for guiding forest management in the context of carbon sequestration. We investigated the variations in tree biomass carbon stocks relating to forest types, and estimated the total tree biomass carbon stocks and projected gains through natural stand development by 2020 and 2050 in the Daqing Mountain Nature Reserve based on Category II data of the Forest Inventory of Inner Mongolia for the period ending 2008. Over a total area of 388,577 ha,this nature reserve currently stores an estimated 2221 Gg C in tree aboveground biomass alone, with potential to grow by more than 30 % to reach 2938 Gg C by 2020 and nearly double to 4092 Gg C by 2050 through natural development of the existing forest stands. The tree biomass carbon density and potential gain in tree biomass carbon stocks vary markedly among forest types and with stand development.The variations in the potential change of tree biomass carbon density for the periods 2008–2020 and 2008–2050 among forest types partly reflect the varying relationships of tree biomass carbon density with stand age for different tree species, and partly are attributable to variations in the stand age structure among different forest types. Of the major forest types, the ranking of projected changes in tree biomass carbon density are not consistent with variations in the relationship between tree biomass carbon density and stand age, neither are they explainable by variations in stand age structures, implying the interactive effect between forest type and stand dynamics on temporal changes in tree biomass carbon density. Birch rank highest for future biomass carbon sequestration because of its dominance in cover area and better age structure for potential gain in tree biomass carbon stocks. Poplar and larch were out-performers compared to other forest types given their greater contribution to total tree biomass carbon stocks relative to their distributional areas. Findings in this study illustrate that protection and proper management of under-aged forests can deliver marked gains in biomass carbon sequestration. This is of great importance to policy-makers as well as to scientific communities in seeking effective solutions for adaptive forest management and mitigation of anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions using forest ecosystems.     

Spatial pattern analysis for quantification of landscape structure of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve,Central India

Landscape structure is often regarded as an important factor that governs the distribution and abundance of species.Therefore it is critical to understand the landscapes and their dynamics.Patterns of landscape elements strongly influence the ecological characteristics.This study was designed to document and map the current status of the tropical dry deciduous forest of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve(TATR),Central India,(using IRS P6 LISS IV data)and to describe its landscape structure at three levels of organization viz.landscape,class,and patch.The study area was classified into 10 land cover classes that include 6vegetation classes.The landscape structure was analyzed using FRAGSTATS using 12 set of indices.The TATR landscapes have a total of2,307 patches with a mean patch size of 25.67 ha and patch density of 1.7patches per km2.Amongst all land cover classes,mixed bamboo forest is dominant—it occupied maximum area(77.99%)—while riparian forest is least represented(0.32%).Mixed forest has maximum number of patches among all vegetation classes.Results have shown that despite being dominant in the area,mixed bamboo forest has low patch density(0.25/100 ha).Dominance of mixed bamboo forest is attributed to large patch sizes and not to the number of patches.This study has focussed on the approach of integrating satellite forest classification and forest inventory data for studying forest landscape patterns.     

Effects of environmental factors on species richness patterns of herb layer in Eastern Zhongtiao Mountain

The species richness of herb layer was investigated among 43 plots of forest vegetation in the eastern Zhongtiao Mountain, in southern Shanxi Province, China. The forest vegetation was divided into two major vegetation types such as the deciduous forest and the coniferous forest by the two-way indicator species analysis （TWINSPAN）. The species richness of herb layer was fitted in the topographic and soil feature factors, as well as the topographic relative moisture index （TRMI） by the generalized linear models （GLM）. The results showed that canopy cover and altitude were the most significant environmental factors. Soil pH value and soil nutrients index such as total N, organic matter content had no significant influence. The effect of environment factors on species richness of herb layer had significant difference in vegetation types. For the broad-leaved forest, litter depth and TRMI were the important environment factors. For the coniferous forest, soil clay content was another important environment factor. The range of environmental gradient such as altitude may contribute to the difference.     

Legal Issues of Rights to Manage Understory Land

Management of the understory land is an economic form to develop cultivation and breeding in making use of the forest ecological environment.It is also an important means to increase the income of forest farmers in the forestry regions after the reform of forestry real rights.This paper investigated the management status of understory land,and analyzed the impacts and destruction of its improper management upon the forest ecology environment.The management right of the understory land is a restricted right of property,because the management is related to the ecology protection of forest and woodland.In addition to private property rights,it should also comply with the arrangement of national forest management.Therefore,while encouraging and developing the understory land management,it’s important to establish a legal system for executing the management rights,and the management of the understory land should be included in the scope of the forestry management.     

Disentangling the factors that contribute to variation in forest biomass increments in the mid-subtropical forests of China

Mid-subtropical forests are the main vegetation type of global terrestrial biomes, and are critical for maintaining the global carbon balance. However, estimates of forest biomass increment in mid-subtropical forests remain highly uncertain. It is critically important to determine the relative importance of different biotic and abiotic factors between plants and soil, particularly with respect to their influence on plant regrowth. Consequently,it is necessary to quantitatively characterize the dynamicspatiotemporal distribution of forest carbon sinks at a regional scale. This study used a large, long-term dataset in a boosted regression tree(BRT) model to determine the major components that quantitatively control forest biomass increments in a mid-subtropical forested region(Wuyishan National Nature Reserve, China). Long-term,stand-level data were used to derive the forest biomass increment, with the BRT model being applied to quantify the relative contributions of various biotic and abiotic variables to forest biomass increment. Our data show that total biomass(t) increased from 4.62 9 106 to 5.30 9 106 t between 1988 and 2010, and that the mean biomass increased from 80.19 ± 0.39 t ha-1(mean ± standard error) to 94.33 ± 0.41 t ha-1in the study region. The major factors that controlled biomass(in decreasing order of importance) were the stand, topography, and soil. Stand density was initially the most important stand factor, while elevation was the most important topographic factor. Soil factors were important for forest biomass increment but have a much weaker influence compared to the other two controlling factors. These results provide baseline information about the practical utility of spatial interpolationmethods for mapping forest biomass increments at regional scales.     

Ethical Dimensions of Payment for Forest Environmental Services

The market-based incentive mechanism of payments for forest environmental services （PFES） seeks to capture part of the benefits derived from forest environmental services and channels them to forest resource owners/managers who generate these services, thus increases their incentives to conserve and manage forest resources. This paper examines some of the most important ethical issues entailed by PFES mechanism. The analysis shows that PFES may not always benefit the poor due to the comparative disadvantages of the poor and the complicated characteristics of forest ecosystem services. It is important and urgent to take ethical dimensions into account in the PFES approaches and design and develop the propoor payment mechanism in order to achieve the two objectives of forest conservation and economic development.     

Competition effects in an afrotemperate forest

Background： 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 scarce. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to quantify competition effects and analyse competition responses in a species-diverse afrotemperate forest in South Africa, based on an observational study with mapped tree positions and long-term diameter increment records. Methods： The sensitivity to competition was analysed for individual species and involved the calculation of the slope of the linear relation between the value of a competition index （CI） and diameter growth as a measure of sensitivity. In a next step different competition indices were combined and tree diameters were grouped in three classes as surrogates for canopy status and ontogenetic stage. Results： Five competition indices were found to be effective in showing sensitivity to competition for a number of canopy and sub-canopy species. Significant linear regressions were fitted for 18 of a total of 25 species. Species reactions varied significantly in their sensitivity to the different CIs. The indices were classified as belonging to two groups, those that responded more to local crowding and those that are more sensitive to overtopping, which revealed species-specific sensitivities to both factors. The analysis based on diameter classes revealed that species clearly changed their sensitivity to crowding or overtopping depending on diameter. Canopy and sub-canopy species showed distinct differences in their reactions. Conclusions： The application of multiple CIs brought novel insights relating to the dynamics of afrotemperate forests. The response patterns to different competition indices that focus on crowding and overtopping are varied and tree diameter dependent, indicating that oversimplified assumptions are not warranted in the interpretation of Cl- growth relations.     

Effect of species composition on ecosystem services in European boreal forest

Forest management in several boreal countries is strongly focused on conifers because they are more productive,the technical quality of their stems is better,and their wood fibers are longer as compared to broadleaves.Favoring conifers in forest management leads to simple forest structures with low resilience and diversity.Such forests are risky in the face of climate change and fluctuating timber prices.Climate change increases the vitality of many forest pests and pathogens such as Heterobasidion spp.and Ips typographus L.which attack mainly spruce.Wind damages are also increasing because of a shorter period of frozen soil to provide a firm anchorage against storms.Wind-thrown trees serve as starting points for bark beetle outbreaks.Increasing the proportion of broadleaved species might alleviate some of these problems.This study predicts the long-term(150 years) consequences of current conifer-oriented forest management in two forest areas,and compared this management with silvicultural strategies that promote mixed forests and broadleaved species.The results show that,in the absence of damages,conifer-oriented forestry would lead to 5–10% higher timber yields and carbon sequestration.The somewhat lower carbon sequestration of broadleaved forests was counteracted by their higher albedo(reflectance).Mixed and broadleafforests were better providers of recreational amenities.Species diversity was much higher in mixed stand and broadleaf-oriented silviculture at stand and forest levels.The analysis indicates that conifer-oriented forest management produces rather small and uncertain economic benefits at a high cost in resilience and diversity.     

Factorial analysis on forest canopy density restoration in the burned area of northern Great Xing＇an Mountains, China

The restoration of forest landscape has drawn much attention since the catastrophic fire took place on the northern slope of Great Xing‘an Mountains in 1987. Forest canopy density, which has close relation to forest productivity, was selected as a key factor to find how much the forest quality was changed 13 years after fire, and how fire severity, regeneration way and terrain factors influenced the restoration of forest canopy density, based on forest inventory data in China, and using Kendall Bivariate Correlation Analysis, and Distances Correlation Analysis. The results showed that fire severity which was inversely correlated with forest canopy density grade was an initial factor among all that selected. Regeneration way which did not remarkably affect forest canopy density restoration in short period, may shorten the cycle of forest succession and promote the forest productivity of conophorium in the future, Among the three terrain factors, the effect of slope was the strongest, the position on slope was the second and the aspect was the last.     

Influence of climatic conditions,topography and soil attributes on the spatial distribution of site productivity index of the species rich forests of Jalisco,Mexico

This paper presents an approach based on field data to model the spatial distribution of the site productivity index （SPI） of the diverse forest types in Jalisco, Mexico and the response in SPI to site and cli-matic conditions. A linear regression model was constructed to test the hypothesis that site and climate variables can be used to predict the SPI of the major forest types in Jalisco. SPI varied significantly with topog-raphy （elevation, aspect and slope）, soil attributes （pH, sand and silt）, climate （temperature and precipitation zones） and forest type. The most important variable in the model was forest type, which accounted for 35% of the variability in SPI. Temperature and precipitation accounted for 8 to 9% of the variability in SPI while the soil attributes accounted for less than 4% of the variability observed in SPI. No significant differences were detected between the observed and predicted SPI for the individual forest types. The linear regression model was used to develop maps of the spatial variability in predicted SPI for the individual forest types in the state. The spatial site productivity models developed in this study provides a basis for understanding the complex relationship that exists between forest productivity and site and climatic conditions in the state. Findings of this study will assist resource managers in making cost-effective decisions about the management of individual forest types in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.     

Climate change impacts and forest adaptation in the Asia–Pacific region: from regional experts' perspectives

Expert opinions have been used in a variety of fields to identify relevant issues and courses of action. This study surveys experts in forestry and climate change from the Asia–Pacific region to gauge their perspectives on the impacts of climate change and on the challenges faced by forest adaptation in the region, and explores recommendations and initiatives for adapting forests to climate change. There was consensus regarding the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems and on economic sectors such as agriculture and forestry. Respondents also indicated a lack of public awareness and policy and legislation as challenges to addressing climate change. However, the results indicate differences in opinion between regions on the negative impacts of climate change and in satisfaction with actions taken to address climate change,highlighting the need for locally specific policies and research. The study presents specific recommendations to address issues of most concern, based on subregion and professional affiliation throughout the Asia–Pacific region.The results can be used to improve policy and forest management throughout the region. This research will also provide valuable suggestions on how to apply research findings and management recommendations outside of the AP region. The conclusions should be communicated relative to the level of the research and the target audience,ensuring that scientific findings and management recommendations are effectively communicated to ensure successful implementation of forest adaptation strategies.