A Life Cycle Analyses (LCA) assessment was evaluated comparing three harvesting systems on intensively managed Pinus radiata (radiata pine) plantations growing in the Biobío Region, Chile. Evaluated ...systems considered semi-mechanized, mechanized, and tower logging in steep slope forest operations. Our LCA study focused on CO
2
e emissions from six harvesting activities: felling, logging, processing, sorting, loading, and transportation, all under the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. The average and maximum monthly production scenarios were the highest for the semi-mechanized system with 24 and 25.2 kg CO
2
e m
−3
, followed by the tower logging with 23.2 and 24.5 kg CO
2
e m
−3
and, lastly, the mechanized system with 11 and 12.1 kg CO
2
e m
−3
. Similar to other studies, harvesting phases that contributed the most were logging, loading and transport. Concerning LCA stages, forest equipment operation generated the highest CO
2
e level across the three harvesting systems where fuel consumption was the activity that contributed with 76% of CO
2
e for the mechanized system, and 50% in the case of the tower logging and semi-mechanized systems. The mechanized system had the highest fuel use efficiency and the lowest CO
2
e emissions.
Over the last decade, renewable energy expansion, driven by legislation such as the Renewable Energy Directives passed by the European Union (EU) member states has generated a surge in demand for ...sustainable feedstock alternatives, notably woody biomass in the form of wood pellets. Expansion of woody biomass harvesting in the southeastern United States (US) has raised concerns regarding removal, distribution, and spatial allocation of forest residues following harvesting, and potential ramifications for nutrient depletion, biodiversity, accelerated erosion, and water quality impairment. This study evaluated the current state of knowledge regarding the sustainability of woody biomass and wood pellet feedstock harvesting on the effects of woody residue, soil characteristics, biodiversity, carbon, and water quality. Our survey of existing literature revealed a lack of research evaluating the effects of forest residue removal across the southeastern US. Limited field studies have assessed biomass harvesting in general, and effectively no studies assessed wood pellet feedstock operations specifically. Primary recommendations include completing field studies on wood pellet feedstock harvests in the southeastern US to better understand resource utilization, changes in forest land allocation, and the potential effect on site sustainability. Current management standards such as biomass harvesting guidelines (BHGs) and best management practices (BMPs) appear effective at managing base recommended thresholds in specific regions, but should further evaluate what criteria are necessary, appropriate, and operationally feasible for sustainable biomass production. These studies should be conducted regionally to evaluate potential effects of increased residual removal for wood pellet feedstock as compared to conventional practices.
•Biomass demand can be met, but long-term influence on forest structure is unknown.•Field studies necessary to further characterize the effects of biomass harvests.•Best management practices can maintain water quality on biomass harvests.•Limited data available supporting practices past conventional application.
Industrial economic models of natural resource management often incentivize the sequential harvesting of resources based on profitability, disproportionately targeting the higher-value elements of ...the environment. In fisheries, this issue is framed as a problem of "fishing down the food chain" when these elements represent different trophic levels or sequential depletion more generally. Harvesting that focuses on high grading the most profitable, productive, and accessible components of environmental gradients is also thought to occur in the forestry sector. Such a paradigm is inconsistent with a stewardship ethic, entrenched in the forestry literature, that seeks to maintain or enhance forest condition over time. We ask 1) how these conflicting paradigms have influenced patterns of forest harvesting over time and 2) whether more recent conservation-oriented policies influenced these historical harvesting patterns. We use detailed harvest data over a 47-y period and aggregated time series data that span over a century on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada to assess temporal changes in how logging is distributed among various classes of site productivity and terrain accessibility, corresponding to timber value. Most of this record shows a distinct trend of harvesting shifting over time to less productive stands, with some evidence of harvesting occurring in increasingly less accessible forests. However, stewardship-oriented policy changes enacted in the mid-1990s appear to have strongly affected these trends. This illustrates both a profit-maximizing tendency to log down the value chain when choices are unconstrained and the potential of policy choices to impose a greater stewardship ethic on harvesting behavior.
•We examine eight steep slope forested headwater catchments (15–100 ha).•Bedload organic carbon (OC), soil carbon and dissolved OC was measured.•OC in the bedload was found to be significantly ...related to catchment area.•Dissolved OC export in stream water declined with catchment area.•There was no difference in OC export from the harvested and non-harvest catchments.
Qualitative and quantitative understandings of the origin, transport and fate of organic carbon (OC) in forest systems is needed to advance our understanding of biogeochemical cycling as well as catchment management and forest harvesting. Here we present the findings from eight steep slope forested catchments dominated by headwater streams (size range 15–100 ha) in south eastern Australia where bedload, organic carbon in bedload, hillslope soil carbon together with dissolved organic carbon has been measured over multiple years. OC in the bedload was found to be significantly related to catchment area (p < 0.02). Dissolved organic carbon export in stream water declined with catchment area. Combined bedload organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon export was significantly related to catchment area. There was no significant difference between hillslope soil organic carbon and bedload organic carbon concentration. When corrected for area, OC export by bedload was not significantly different to that of dissolved OC export. Using the environmental tracer 137Cs it was found that there was no significant difference in tracer concentration between bedload and hillslope soil. This suggests a direct link between hillslope and channel and delivery of organic carbon to the channel. Of the eight catchments examined here, six had been harvested for timber in previous decades (with area of forest removed ranging from 25 to 60%) while two catchments had minimal disturbance (Control catchments- no harvest). There was no difference in organic carbon export from the harvested and Control catchments. The results demonstrate that although land disturbance had previously occurred the management practices employed in each catchment were effective in the long term.
Soil microbial communities regulate the fate of soil organic matter and allow plants to adjust to external conditions, tolerate stresses and modulate their nutrition in forest ecosystems. Yet, the ...long-lasting effects of different forest harvesting intensities on soil microbial communities remain poorly understood. We assessed even-aged (clear-cuts) and uneven-aged (partial harvests; 30% by single-tree selection) management effects on bacterial and fungal abundance and fungal community composition in the forest floor 5, 15 and 30 years after harvesting, relative to unmanaged old-growth controls, in a shade-tolerant hardwood forest in southern Quebec, Canada. Bacteria abundance in even-aged managed forests was significantly higher than in unmanaged forests over both the short- and long-term. Five years after harvesting, fungal species richness in even-aged (331 OTU) and uneven-aged (323 OTU) managed forests was significantly lower than in unmanaged forests (380 OTU). At the same time, fungal community dissimilarity and the proportion of fungal pathogens and parasites in even-aged managed forests were significantly higher than in unmanaged forests. The significant differences in fungal community composition between unmanaged forests and managed forests observed in the short-term (5 years after harvesting) become negligible in the long-term (30 years after harvesting). No significant effect of forest harvesting treatments on the proportion of saprotrophic fungi or fungal phylogenetic diversity was observed. Uneven-aged managed forests and unmanaged forests were associated with higher concentrations of P and C in the forest floor, higher forest density and diversity, and higher proportions of symbiotic fungi.
•Forest harvesting altered soil fungal communities, especially over the shorter-term.•Forest harvesting altered more importantly bacteria than fungi in the forest floor.•Long-undisturbed forests were associated with higher proportions of symbiotic fungi.
Forests provide a series of ecosystem services that are crucial to our society. In the European Union (EU), forests account for approximately 38% of the total land surface
. These forests are ...important carbon sinks, and their conservation efforts are vital for the EU's vision of achieving climate neutrality by 2050
. However, the increasing demand for forest services and products, driven by the bioeconomy, poses challenges for sustainable forest management. Here we use fine-scale satellite data to observe an increase in the harvested forest area (49 per cent) and an increase in biomass loss (69 per cent) over Europe for the period of 2016-2018 relative to 2011-2015, with large losses occurring on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Satellite imagery further reveals that the average patch size of harvested area increased by 34 per cent across Europe, with potential effects on biodiversity, soil erosion and water regulation. The increase in the rate of forest harvest is the result of the recent expansion of wood markets, as suggested by econometric indicators on forestry, wood-based bioenergy and international trade. If such a high rate of forest harvest continues, the post-2020 EU vision of forest-based climate mitigation may be hampered, and the additional carbon losses from forests would require extra emission reductions in other sectors in order to reach climate neutrality by 2050
.
•Industrial forest harvesting changes forest structure and composition.•Studied diet of moose across range of logging intensity.•Forest harvesting can affect diet of moose.
Human-caused landscape ...disturbance is one of the major threats to large herbivores, globally. Across central British Columbia (BC), Canada, industrial forest harvesting has resulted in rapid change to forest structure and composition. Concurrent with the increase in forest harvesting, moose (Alces alces) populations across central BC have declined, some dramatically. We studied moose diet across three seasons in two regional study areas that represented a range of logging intensity and rate of apparent starvation of moose. We used microhistological analysis of pellets to identify the proportional consumption of major plant groups that were known forage for moose across the study areas, as well as the diversity of the diet of moose. We used regression models to test whether the composition and diversity of moose diet in two study areas were consistent with the Niche Expansion Hypothesis or the Niche Shrinkage Hypothesis. In areas of increased density and size of clearcuts, moose consumed fewer shrubs and fir trees and their diet was more diverse. Where application of herbicides was common, moose consumed fewer forbs and their diet was more diverse. Both responses were consistent with the Niche Expansion Hypothesis. In areas of increased disturbance by wildfire, moose consumed less fir and more shrubs. Our results suggest that landscape disturbance in the form of extensive and rapid forest harvesting can influence the composition and diversity of the diet of moose.
•Effective governance measures are necessary for sustainable forestry.•There is little focus on governance of harvesting effects on soil organic carbon.•The long-term impact of intensified forest ...harvesting on SOC stocks is unclear.•Long-term experiments are needed to identify key processes.•Expert opinion can bridge the gap to practical management guidelines.
Effective forest governance measures are crucial to ensure sustainable management of forests, but so far there has been little specific focus in boreal and northern temperate forests on governance measures in relation to management effects, including harvesting effects, on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. This paper reviews the findings in the scientific literature concerning the effects of harvesting of different intensities on SOC stocks and fluxes in boreal and northern temperate forest ecosystems to evaluate the evidence for significant SOC losses following biomass removal. An overview of existing governance measures related to SOC is given, followed by a discussion on how scientific findings could be incorporated in guidelines and other governance measures. The currently available information does not support firm conclusions about the long-term impact of intensified forest harvesting on SOC stocks in boreal and northern temperate forest ecosystems, which is in any case species-, site- and practice-specific. Properly conducted long-term experiments are therefore necessary to enable us to clarify the relative importance of different harvesting practices on the SOC stores, the key processes involved, and under which conditions the size of the removals becomes critical. At present, the uncertainty gap between the scientific results and the need for practically useable management guidelines and other governance measures might be bridged by expert opinions given to authorities and certification bodies.
