Effects of diversity on forest production and wood properties and implications for forest management practices

多样性对森林生产和木材特性的影响以及对森林管理实践的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05946
• 负责人: Schneider, Robert
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Université du Québec à Rimouski
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=588713
• 关键词: Effects; diversity; forest; production; wood

Forest management decisions take many factors into account. One of these factors is how the forest will react to the decision taken in terms of growth. More fundamentally, even if tree growth and development have been studied for over a century, a lot of questions remain on how trees interact. For example, several studies have shown that forests with several tree species can grow more than forests composed by only one of the species. If we can understand why multi-species forests grow better, management practices could be redefined in order to take advantage of the increased growth. Researchers have however only proposed hypotheses to explain these observations, without thoroughly testing them. The long term objective of this research programme is thus to improve management practices in multi-species forests by understanding how trees interact. Among the ressources used by trees, light is important as it determines the amount of carbon dioxide gas that is transformed into sugars which are used for growth. The amount of light a tree receives is influenced by its neighbours’ size and species. For example, the crown of deciduous species such as sugar maple will not intercept light in the same way that evergreen species like balsam fir do. Trees also need nutrients and water that are picked up by the roots, the availability of both which are influenced by the soil processes. These processes are affected by the forest tree composition since the forest litter, made up by tree leafs and other organic material, will differ in nutrient composition between single species forests and multi-species forests. Within this research programme, the interaction between trees will be studied by looking at both aboveground and belowground dynamics. Using terrestrial laser scanners, which yield high precision 3D information, the interaction between trees will be quantified in order to assess how efficiently trees transform light to biomass growth, and how this efficiency changes from forests with only one species to multi-species forests. Nutrient availability and cycling will also be investigated as to evaluate the differences between single and multi-species forests. The light use efficiency will then be related to soil characteristics in order to fully understand why mixed forests have better growth. Finally, the growth allocation between each compartment of a tree (e.g. stem, branches, foliage, roots) will also be examined within this programme since the forest industry has historically been interested in the stem of the tree, and not the parts such as the branches, foliage or roots. With the development of other industries such as biofuels and biochemicals using the forest as a supply sources, there will be an increase in the need for knowledge on how much biomass is available from each compartment. The findings on aerial interactions, soil processes and allocation will be synthesized into a modeling framework based on the metabolic theory of ecology and biomechanics. The theory relates the metabolic rate of an organism to its size. When applied to forest ecosystems, the metabolic theory does not seem to hold. The underlying hypotheses of the theory will be adapted in light of the results obtained from each component of the programme. This adaptation will then be included in a tree growth simulator which will be developed in order to help forest managers take sound decisions when managing multi-species forests. These results will thus help the Canadian forest industry stay competitive. Furthermore, the programme will help to identify the processes which explain why multi-species stands have better growth, and if the increased biomass growth of multi-species stands can lead to increases in forest industry timber supply.

森林管理从根本上考虑了许多因素，即使已经研究了一个世纪的树木和开发，例如，关于树木相互作用的许多问题都表明，与树种相互作用。通过物种。 Sprestang teract的多种物种森林中的管理人员。 在树木中使用的含量是在用来使用的糖的含量像糖枫（Sugar Maple）这样的落叶冠状的冠状，就像诸如Balsam fir一样的常绿物种。综合构成以来单个物种森林和多物种森林之间的杂物组成。 在该研究计划中，将通过在地上和地下动力学上研究树木之间的相互作用。到投掷，一个物种到多物种的森林也可以评估单角Alti种类森林之间的差异。为什么混合森林的增长更好。 最后，树木的每个隔室（例如茎，树枝，叶子，根部）之间的生长分配也将对树的茎以及分支，叶子或根部等部分感兴趣使用前面的供应源的生物化学物质的开发是对每个隔室都有多少生物质的知识的增加。 关于空中相互作用，土壤过程和分配的结果将被合成为生物力学。 ADA。多种物种的林分具有更好的生长物种摊位，可能会导致林业木材供应的增加。