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Heart-pine Russia : walking and writing the nineteenth-century forest
\"Russia has more woodlands than any other country in the world, and its forests have loomed large in Russian culture and history. Historical site of protection from invaders but also from state authority, by the nineteenth century Russia's forests became the focus of both scientific scrutiny and poetic imaginations. The forest was imagined as alternately endless and eternal or alarmingly vulnerable in a rapidly modernizing Russia. For some the forest constituted an imaginary geography of religious homeland; for others it was the locus of peasant culture and local knowledge; for all Russians it was the provider of both material and symbolic resources. In Heart-Pine Russia, Jane T. Costlow explores the central place the forest came to hold in a century of intense seeking for articulations of national and spiritual identity. Costlow focuses on writers, painters, and scientists who went to Russia's European forests to observe, to listen, and to create; increasingly aware of the extent to which woodlands were threatened, much of their work was imbued with a sense of impending loss. Costlow's sweep includes canonic literary figures and blockbuster writers whose romances of epic woodlands nourished fin-de-siلecle opera and painting. Considering the work of Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Korolenko in the company of scientific foresters and visual artists from Shishkin and Repin to Nesterov, Costlow uncovers a rich and nuanced cultural landscape in which the forest is a natural and national resource, both material and spiritual\"--Publisher's Web site.
Book
Breakfast in the rainforest : a visit with mountain gorillas
Powerful but shy, the African mountain gorilla struggles for survival in the rainforests of Uganda's national parks. Follow wildlife photographer Richard Sobol on an arduous journey to these hidden habitats and take a hushed, close-up look at the gentle giants. Learn about the efforts being made to preserve these magnificent creatures.
Book
An assessment of data sources, data quality and changes in national forest monitoring capacities in the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005–2020
Globally, countries report forest information to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) at regular intervals. While the status and trends of national forest monitoring capacities have been previously assessed for the tropics, this has not been systematically done worldwide. In this paper, we assess the use and quality of forest monitoring data sources for national reporting to the FRA in 236 countries and territories. More specifically, we (a) analyze the use of remote sensing (RS) for forest area monitoring and the use of national forest inventory (NFI) for monitoring forest area, growing stock, biomass, carbon stock, and other attributes in FRA 2005–2020, (b) assess data quality in FRA 2020 using FAO tier-based indicators, and (c) zoom in to investigate changes in tropical forest monitoring capacities in FRA 2010–2020. Globally, the number of countries monitoring forest area using RS at good to very good capacities increased from 55 in FRA 2005 to 99 in FRA 2020. Likewise, the number of countries with good to very good NFI capacities increased from 48 in FRA 2005 to 102 in FRA 2020. This corresponds to ∼85% of the global forest area monitored with one or more nationally-produced up-to-date RS products or NFI in FRA 2020. For large proportions of global forests, the highest quality data was used in FRA 2020 for reporting on forest area (93%), growing stock (85%), biomass (76%), and carbon pools (61%). Overall, capacity improvements are more widespread in the tropics, which can be linked to continued international investments for forest monitoring especially in the context of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries (REDD+). More than 50% of the tropical countries with targeted international support improved both RS and NFI capacities in the period 2010–2020 on top of those that already had persistent good to very good capabilities. There is also a link between improvements in national capacities and improved governance measured against worldwide governance indicators (WGI). Our findings—the first global study—suggest an ever-improving data basis for national reporting on forest resources in the context of climate and development commitments, e.g. the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.
Journal Article
Multiple factors modulate tree growth complementarity in Central European mixed forests
1. Mixed species forests can often be more productive and deliver higher levels of ecosystem services and functions than monocultures. However, complementarity effects for any given tree species are difficult to generalize because they can vary greatly along gradients of climatic conditions and resource availability. Identifying the conditions where species diversity can positively influence productivity is crucial. To date, few studies have examined how growth complementarity across species and mixture types is modulated by stand and environmental factors, and fewer have considered more than one or two factors. 2. We investigated how complementarity effects for several major Central European tree species change with climatic and edaphic conditions, and with stand structural characteristics, including species composition. We used data from the Swiss National Forest Inventory, which is based on 3,231 plots of pure and mixed stands (19 mixture types) across a broad environmental gradient, to test (i) how mixing effects change depending on the identity of the admixed species and (ii) if complementarity consistently increases when environmental conditions become harsher. 3. The magnitude, whether positive or negative, of complementarity increased with increasing stand density and stand developmental stage, but no general pattern could be identified across mixture types. Complementarity for many species increased as drought intensity and temperature increased, but not for all species and mixture types. While soil conditions, nitrogen and site topography influenced complementarity for many species, there was no general pattern (increases and decreases were observed). 4. Synthesis. Our study indicates that complementarity varies strongly with stand density and stand development as well as with topographic, climatic and soil conditions. This emphasizes the need to account for site-dependent conditions when exploring mixture effects in relation to forest productivity. We found that under certain conditions (i.e. increasing drought, higher temperature), mixed forests can promote individual tree growth in Central European temperate forests. However, careful assessments depending on the species composing the stands are required under changing resource availability as well as under different levels of stand density and development.
Journal Article
Congo tales : told by the people of Mbomo = Racontâes par les gens de Mbomo
The Congo Basin in Central Africa harbors approximately one quarter of the world's rainforest. In the heart of this forest is Odzala-Kokoua National Park, an ecological wonderland that is home to untold numbers of rare gorillas, forest elephants, and birds. It is also home to people who have lives vastly different from much of the rest of the world. In this photographic series, Pieter Henket presents images of the children of Odzala-Kokoua telling the oral history of the Congo in enchanting and creative ways. Shot over the course of a month, Henket documented the children of this remote region as they designed, planned, created costumes for, and acted out a series of myths - about their tribes, their landscape, and the animals and plants that they live among. Their stories will educate others unfamiliar with a way of life that is so completely in harmony with nature. Filled with vibrant images that highlight the area's magnificent flora and fauna, this photographic project, which was three years in the planning and execution, offers an exciting opportunity to learn about nature and the environment and it delivers an optimistic message about trust, cooperation, and conservation for the next generation of policy makers. Exhibition: Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany (30.6-21.10.2018).
Book
Use of Remote Sensing Data to Improve the Efficiency of National Forest Inventories: A Case Study from the United States National Forest Inventory
Globally, forests are a crucial natural resource, and their sound management is critical for human and ecosystem health and well-being. Efforts to manage forests depend upon reliable data on the status of and trends in forest resources. When these data come from well-designed natural resource monitoring (NRM) systems, decision makers can make science-informed decisions. National forest inventories (NFIs) are a cornerstone of NRM systems, but require capacity and skills to implement. Efficiencies can be gained by incorporating auxiliary information derived from remote sensing (RS) into ground-based forest inventories. However, it can be difficult for countries embarking on NFI development to choose among the various RS integration options, and to develop a harmonized vision of how NFI and RS data can work together to meet monitoring needs. The NFI of the United States, which has been conducted by the USDA Forest Service’s (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program for nearly a century, uses RS technology extensively. Here we review the history of the use of RS in FIA, beginning with general background on NFI, FIA, and sampling statistics, followed by a description of the evolution of RS technology usage, beginning with paper aerial photography and ending with present day applications and future directions. The goal of this review is to offer FIA’s experience with NFI-RS integration as a case study for other countries wishing to improve the efficiency of their NFI programs.
Journal Article
Can Forest Managers Plan for Resilient Landscapes? Lessons from the United States National Forest Plan Revision Process
The United States Forest Service, a federal agency entrusted with managing 78 M hectares of national forestlands under a broad multiple-use mandate, has seen recent shifts in policy direction emphasizing ecological restoration, consideration of climate change impacts, and a focus on managing for resilient landscapes. The process of revising the comprehensive plans guiding national forest management presents opportunities to reorient objectives, activities, and commitments toward these goals. Here we analyze case studies of three national forests that have completed the forest plan revision process since 2014: the Francis Marion National Forest in coastal South Carolina, the Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona, and the Rio Grande National Forest in southern Colorado. We analyze plan revision participants’ perspectives on the opportunities and barriers to reorienting national forest management toward resilient landscapes and the broader political, social, and institutional factors that influence these dynamics. Key opportunities included better promoting resilient landscape objectives by revising fire management guidelines, incorporating scientific data and modeling from multiple agency and non-agency partners, and building opportunities for adaptive management via long-term trust networks. Major barriers included inconsistent higher-level support for resilience objectives, an emphasis on meeting narrow quantitative performance targets, and under-investments in monitoring.
Journal Article
Tree growth response to drought partially explains regional-scale growth and mortality patterns in Iberian forests
Tree-ring data has been widely used to inform about tree growth responses to drought at the individual scale, but less is known about how tree growth sensitivity to drought scales up driving changes in forest dynamics. Here, we related tree-ring growth chronologies and stand-level forest changes in basal area from two independent data sets to test if tree-ring responses to drought match stand forest dynamics (stand basal area growth, ingrowth, and mortality). We assessed if tree growth and changes in forest basal area covary as a function of spatial scale and tree taxa (gymnosperm or angiosperm). To this end, we compared a tree-ring network with stand data from the Spanish National Forest Inventory. We focused on the cumulative impact of drought on tree growth and demography in the period 1981?2005. Drought years were identified by the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, and their impacts on tree growth by quantifying tree-ring width reductions. We hypothesized that forests with greater drought impacts on tree growth will also show reduced stand basal area growth and ingrowth and enhanced mortality. This is expected to occur in forests dominated by gymnosperms on drought-prone regions. Cumulative growth reductions during dry years were higher in forests dominated by gymnosperms and presented a greater magnitude and spatial autocorrelation than for angiosperms. Cumulative drought-induced tree growth reductions and changes in forest basal area were related, but initial stand density and basal area were the main factors driving changes in basal area. In drought-prone gymnosperm forests, we observed that sites with greater growth reductions had lower stand basal area growth and greater mortality. Consequently, stand basal area, forest growth, and ingrowth in regions with large drought impacts was significantly lower than in regions less impacted by drought. Tree growth sensitivity to drought can be used as a predictor of gymnosperm demographic rates in terms of stand basal area growth and ingrowth at regional scales, but further studies may try to disentangle how initial stand density modulates such relationships. Drought-induced growth reductions and their cumulative impacts have strong potential to be used as early-warning indicators of regional forest vulnerability.
Journal Article