Sustainability: five steps for managing Europe's forests. Fares, S., Mugnozza, G. S., Corona, P., & Palahí, M. Nature, 519(7544):407--409, March, 2015.
Sustainability: five steps for managing Europe's forests [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
[Excerpt] Europe's varied climates support some of the most biodiverse woodlands on Earth. More than 40% of the continent's land area is wooded. In the north, evergreen forests host Norway spruces and Scandinavian pines; around the Mediterranean, tough-leaved trees such as the holm oak and Aleppo pine withstand heat and drought. Dense beech and oak forests blanket Eastern Europe, and thin strands of dwarf pine mark the Alpine timberline. [\n] Woodlands in Europe have been harvested for timber for thousands of years, but today their roles are multiplying. Wood can substitute for fossil fuels and carbon-intensive materials such as steel. And growing trees sequester carbon — photosynthesis absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and puts it in wood and soil. Forests remove around 9% of Europe's anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the air. [\n] But European forests face an uncertain future. More frequent heat waves, droughts and fires are reducing their health and productivity, with the region warming faster than the global average2. Urban sprawl, pollution and the expansion of transport, commercial and industrial infrastructure compound the climatic threats3. [\n] Such damage is offsetting gains from planting programmes and the natural reforestation of abandoned agricultural land, which have boosted Europe's woodland area by 9% since 1990. Disturbances also outpace the extra plant growth that arises under higher concentrations of atmospheric CO2. Since 2005, the amount of wood produced annually across Europe has decreased by around 0.3% a year (in 2010, it was 620 million cubic metres over 157 million hectares in 27 countries)1. [\n] The resulting picture has two sides: new forests are gaining ground and pushing up overall forest area, but existing stands are becoming less productive with age and damage. [\n] We outline five key issues that European forestry managers should address to develop Europe's forests sustainably and with resilience in mind. Policies and plans must account for the trade-offs between forests' capacity to store carbon, adapt to climate change and yield wood products and other ecosystem services.
@article{citeulike:13562122,
    abstract = {[Excerpt] Europe's varied climates support some of the most biodiverse woodlands on Earth. More than 40\% of the continent's land area is wooded. In the north, evergreen forests host Norway spruces and Scandinavian pines; around the Mediterranean, tough-leaved trees such as the holm oak and Aleppo pine withstand heat and drought. Dense beech and oak forests blanket Eastern Europe, and thin strands of dwarf pine mark the Alpine timberline.

[\n] Woodlands in Europe have been harvested for timber for thousands of years, but today their roles are multiplying. Wood can substitute for fossil fuels and carbon-intensive materials such as steel. And growing trees sequester carbon — photosynthesis absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and puts it in wood and soil. Forests remove around 9\% of Europe's anthropogenic {CO2} emissions from the air.

[\n] But European forests face an uncertain future. More frequent heat waves, droughts and fires are reducing their health and productivity, with the region warming faster than the global average2. Urban sprawl, pollution and the expansion of transport, commercial and industrial infrastructure compound the climatic threats3.

[\n] Such damage is offsetting gains from planting programmes and the natural reforestation of abandoned agricultural land, which have boosted Europe's woodland area by 9\% since 1990. Disturbances also outpace the extra plant growth that arises under higher concentrations of atmospheric {CO2}. Since 2005, the amount of wood produced annually across Europe has decreased by around 0.3\% a year (in 2010, it was 620 million cubic metres over 157 million hectares in 27 countries)1.

[\n] The resulting picture has two sides: new forests are gaining ground and pushing up overall forest area, but existing stands are becoming less productive with age and damage.

[\n] We outline five key issues that European forestry managers should address to develop Europe's forests sustainably and with resilience in mind. Policies and plans must account for the trade-offs between forests' capacity to store carbon, adapt to climate change and yield wood products and other ecosystem services.},
    author = {Fares, Silvano and Mugnozza, Giuseppe S. and Corona, Piermaria and Palah\'{\i}, Marc},
    citeulike-article-id = {13562122},
    citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://mfkp.org/INRMM/article/13562122},
    citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/519407a},
    day = {25},
    doi = {10.1038/519407a},
    issn = {0028-0836},
    journal = {Nature},
    keywords = {acid-deposition, carbon-cycle, climate-change, disturbances, droughts, ecosystem-services, europe, forest-fires, forest-resources, sustainability},
    month = mar,
    number = {7544},
    pages = {407--409},
    posted-at = {2015-03-25 20:39:40},
    priority = {2},
    title = {{Sustainability: five steps for managing Europe's forests}},
    url = {http://mfkp.org/INRMM/article/13562122},
    volume = {519},
    year = {2015}
}

Downloads: 0