Search for projects with tag "forest management"
[ID: 349] ERICA: The influence of forest management, climate and browsing on the nutritional quality of key ungulate forage plants
PI: Annika Felton
Production forestry and large herbivores strongly affect the delivery of forest ecosystem services in Sweden. Mediating these affects are ericaceous shrubs (family Ericaceae), which include bilberry (V. myrtillus), cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), and heather (Calluna vulgaris). These species dominate the understory of northern forests and are a key food resource for large wild herbivores. Despite this importance, knowledge is lacking regarding how forest management and large herbivores interact to determine the occurrence and food provision of ericaceous shrubs, and in-turn, how these relationships are affected by climate change. Without this knowledge, the effectiveness of integrated game and forest management is curtailed, as we cannot accurately project the feedbacks and interactions between forest management decisions, game food resources, and forest damage. Likewise, forest owners and managers lack the ability to make evidence-based decisions when deciding among alternative production tree species and silvicultural prescriptions. The aim of this project is to assess how forest management, climate and browsing affects the nutritional quality of forage for large wild herbivores of the family Cervidae (including moose, roe deer and other deer species; hereon cervids). We focus on the ericaceous dwarf shrubs as they constitute a significant share of the cervids’ diet in boreal and boreo-nemoral landscapes (up to 30% of annual diet) and are expected to have substantial effects on their foraging behaviour. To achieve our aim, we will use surveys and experiments to quantify the nutrients that these dwarf shrubs provide ungulates under different site conditions, microclimate, canopy characteristics, seasons and multispecies cervid browsing pressure, across Sweden. This study is part of a larger research program called ERICA, in which we focus on the quantity of forage produced by the ericaceous shrubs, and how this is affected by forest management and browsing. The project proposed here complements ERICA well by filling knowledge gaps regarding the quality of the forage. In combination, our results will decipher how different production forest alternatives change the long-term availability, quality and distribution of cervid forage in Sweden.
[ID: 298] The landscape-atmosphere-industry greenhouse gas budget of forest biomass production: Does sustainable forestry result in negative emissions?
PI: Matthias Peichl
The main goal of this project is to develop an integrated estimate of the landscape-atmosphere-industry greenhouse gas budget for a managed forest landscape (i.e. Krycklan) in boreal Sweden. This will be based on a landscape-scale GHG flux estimate using tall tower eddy-covariance and stream discharge measurements, >500 forest inventory plots, and a life cycle assessment of forest product emissions.
Landscape carbon balancetall tower eddy covarianceforest managementlife cycle analysis
[ID: 213] Wetland restoration and its effect on brownification of surface waters
PI: Marcus Wallin
The focus is on the wetland restoration project at Trollberget. Monitoring of ground and stream water will start prior to the operations and last for the full project period. The restored wetlands will be compared with two non-restored wetland catchments in order to detect any effects on water quality. The spatial dimension of the project will be explored by additional sampling (synoptic surveys) of restored and non-restored wetlands over large geographical regions of Sweden. The results will be fundamental for future management and conservation strategies of boreal wetlands and for keeping good water quality of water resources in Sweden.
[ID: 212] Forest ditch cleaning and its effect on mobilization of an old soil carbon store
PI: Marcus Wallin
To investigate the effects of ditch cleaning on mobilization of aged C we will combine state-of-the-art hydrochemical measurements with novel isotopic tools. Measurements of quantity and age composition of different C species will be made in ground and stream water of the different catchments.
[ID: 174] Birch spruce replacement
PI: Emma Holmström
The purpose of the experiment is to have long term measurements of growth and stand development of the two species in monoculture vs mixture. The first treatments are initiated after regeneration on sites with planted Norway spruce and naturally regenerated birch where the two species are within the same average heights. First treatment is a pre-commercial thinning aiming for stand composition in four different levels : Every block is divided in four treatments with 100 % Norway spruce (NS), 100 % Birch, mixture 33 % NS and 66 % Birch, mixture 66 % NS and 33 % birch.