Summary Forest Ecology & Forest Management
Lecture 1 | Introduction
Need for transformative change
Transformative change: a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation across technological, economic
and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.
Needed because:
- 1,000,000 species face extinction risk
- 10 -100 times faster extinction rates than the past 10 million years
- 75% decline in the abundance of insects in NL in 30 years
- 75% of the earth surface strongly influenced by humans
- 33% of the terrestrial surface used for agriculture or cattle ranching
o 23% of the agricultural area is degraded
→ resulting in the decline of ecosystem services
Causes (from largest to smallest):
1. Land use change
2. Over exploitation
3. Climate change
4. Pollution
5. Invasive species
How to change? IPBES: policy with the largest impact
- Change ‘welfare’ (economical perspective) to ‘wellbeing’ (emotional state)
- Less consumption
- Balance: economic equality and justice
- Internalize ‘external’ costs (ecological, social)
- Education, knowledge generation and sharing
Embrace multiple values:
- Worldviews (anthropogenic, biocentric, pluricentric)
- Knowledge systems (scientific, local, indigenous)
- Moral values
- Specific values (instrumental, relational, intrinsic)
,
,Reader L1 | Unit 1 & 2
Disturbance: a sudden event in time that removes biomass, disrupts ecosystems, communities, or
population structures and causes a rapid release or reallocation of environmental resources such as
light, water or soil nutrients.
Key aspects of disturbances:
- Size
- Frequency
- Intensity
The responsibility of foresters is to minimise deleterious changes while maintaining future stand
productivity and management options.
Foresters distinguish between monocyclic and polycyclic harvesting systems
Monocyclic harvesting system: all the standing timber is cut at once.
→ future harvest depend on regeneration from the seedbank or form the seed rain
(often relies on animal dispersal or remnant seed trees)
Polycyclic harvesting system (selective system): only a limited proportion of the stems is cut
→ same stand will be revisited when the remaining young small trees have grown sufficiently
(advanced regeneration or seedling bank)
Advanced regeneration: regeneration by seedlings or saplings established naturally without the
influence of harvesting under a forest canopy
→ canopy gaps are generally small and quickly filled by advanced regeneration
Control of canopy size is important for regeneration:
- Excessive opening up the canopy can lead to regeneration problems, especially in exposed
conditions (soil dries out rapidly and nutrient loss by run-off)
- Occurrence of herbaceous vegetation can interfere with regeneration and hinder forest
recovery
- Areas with abundant regrowth may attract herbivores, which may damage regrowth and
maintain open areas
, Factors and practices that link ecology to forest management
Lecture 1 | Introduction
Need for transformative change
Transformative change: a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation across technological, economic
and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.
Needed because:
- 1,000,000 species face extinction risk
- 10 -100 times faster extinction rates than the past 10 million years
- 75% decline in the abundance of insects in NL in 30 years
- 75% of the earth surface strongly influenced by humans
- 33% of the terrestrial surface used for agriculture or cattle ranching
o 23% of the agricultural area is degraded
→ resulting in the decline of ecosystem services
Causes (from largest to smallest):
1. Land use change
2. Over exploitation
3. Climate change
4. Pollution
5. Invasive species
How to change? IPBES: policy with the largest impact
- Change ‘welfare’ (economical perspective) to ‘wellbeing’ (emotional state)
- Less consumption
- Balance: economic equality and justice
- Internalize ‘external’ costs (ecological, social)
- Education, knowledge generation and sharing
Embrace multiple values:
- Worldviews (anthropogenic, biocentric, pluricentric)
- Knowledge systems (scientific, local, indigenous)
- Moral values
- Specific values (instrumental, relational, intrinsic)
,
,Reader L1 | Unit 1 & 2
Disturbance: a sudden event in time that removes biomass, disrupts ecosystems, communities, or
population structures and causes a rapid release or reallocation of environmental resources such as
light, water or soil nutrients.
Key aspects of disturbances:
- Size
- Frequency
- Intensity
The responsibility of foresters is to minimise deleterious changes while maintaining future stand
productivity and management options.
Foresters distinguish between monocyclic and polycyclic harvesting systems
Monocyclic harvesting system: all the standing timber is cut at once.
→ future harvest depend on regeneration from the seedbank or form the seed rain
(often relies on animal dispersal or remnant seed trees)
Polycyclic harvesting system (selective system): only a limited proportion of the stems is cut
→ same stand will be revisited when the remaining young small trees have grown sufficiently
(advanced regeneration or seedling bank)
Advanced regeneration: regeneration by seedlings or saplings established naturally without the
influence of harvesting under a forest canopy
→ canopy gaps are generally small and quickly filled by advanced regeneration
Control of canopy size is important for regeneration:
- Excessive opening up the canopy can lead to regeneration problems, especially in exposed
conditions (soil dries out rapidly and nutrient loss by run-off)
- Occurrence of herbaceous vegetation can interfere with regeneration and hinder forest
recovery
- Areas with abundant regrowth may attract herbivores, which may damage regrowth and
maintain open areas
, Factors and practices that link ecology to forest management
