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Plantation forests, climate change and biodiversity

Biodiversity and Conservation volume 22, pages 1203–1227 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

Nearly 4 % of the world’s forests are plantations, established to provide a variety of ecosystem services, principally timber and other wood products. In addition to such services, plantation forests provide direct and indirect benefits to biodiversity via the provision of forest habitat for a wide range of species, and by reducing negative impacts on natural forests by offsetting the need to extract resources. There is compelling evidence that climate change is directly affecting biodiversity in forests throughout the world. These impacts occur as a result of changes in temperature, rainfall, storm frequency and magnitude, fire frequency, and the frequency and magnitude of pest and disease outbreaks. However, in plantation forests it is not only the direct effects of climate change that will impact on biodiversity. Climate change will have strong indirect effects on biodiversity in plantation forests via changes in forest management actions that have been proposed to mitigate the effects of climate change on the productive capacity of plantations. These include changes in species selection (including use of species mixtures), rotation length, thinning, pruning, extraction of bioenergy feedstocks, and large scale climate change driven afforestation, reforestation, and, potentially deforestation. By bringing together the potential direct and indirect impacts of climate change we conclude that in the short to medium term changes in plantation management designed to mitigate or adapt to climate change could have a significantly greater impact on biodiversity in such plantation forests than the direct effects of climate change. Although this hypothesis remains to be formally tested, forest managers worldwide are already considering new approaches to plantation forestry in an effort to create forests that are more resilient to the effects of changing climatic conditions. Such change presents significant risks to existing biodiversity values in plantation forests, however it also provides new opportunities to improve biodiversity values within existing and new plantation forests. We conclude by suggesting future options, such as functional zoning and species mixtures applied at either the stand level or as fine-scale mosaics of single-species stands as options to improve biodiversity whilst increasing resilience to climate change.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute), Forestry Rd, Ilam, P.O. Box 29-237, Fendalton, Christchurch, New Zealand

    S. M. Pawson & E. G. Brockerhoff

  2. UMR INRA/INPT 1201 Dynafor, University of Toulouse, Purpan Engineering School, 75 voie du T.O.E.C., 31 076, Toulouse, France

    A. Brin

  3. Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    D. Lamb

  4. Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute), Private Bag 3020, Rotorua, 3046, New Zealand

    T. W. Payn

  5. Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Montréal, PO Box 8888, Centre-Ville Station, Montréal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada

    A. Paquette

  6. U.S. Forest Service, Research & Development, 1601 N. Kent Street, Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

    J. A. Parrotta

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  1. S. M. Pawson
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  6. A. Paquette
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Pawson, S.M., Brin, A., Brockerhoff, E.G. et al. Plantation forests, climate change and biodiversity. Biodivers Conserv 22, 1203–1227 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013-0458-8

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Keywords

  • Conservation
  • Forestry
  • Landscape ecology
  • Indirect effects
  • Climate/global change