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The paper presents a systemic and participatory assessment approach and scrutinizes how methodological changes necessitated during the Covid-19 pandemic implicated the process and its outcomes. The approach was applied in rural Tajikistan to evaluate changes effected by a development project that promoted the enhancement of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agrarian landscapes. The central building block of the assessment consisted of participatory workshops in 2018 and 2020 with farmers and other stakeholders to develop a systemic knowledge map and to evaluate the promoted strategies based on local expertise. The methodological basis was MARISCO (adaptive MAnagement of vulnerability and RISk at COnservation sites), a holistic and participatory approach to ecosystem-based assessment and management that requires well-trained facilitators. While the activities in 2018 could be implemented as planned, major changes in the work plan were necessary in 2020 due to severe travel restrictions and social distancing rules. Conducting virtual workshops was not possible, as it would have excluded key stakeholders from the process. Instead of conducting a comprehensive assessment workshop guided by two German MARISCO facilitators as originally planned, a series of short and small workshops could be realized. These workshops were facilitated by Tajik scientists after receiving virtual training from their German colleagues. Although it was possible to bring the assessment to a satisfactory conclusion, the methodological changes revealed significant drawbacks. Radical simplifications of the methods were necessary that led to reduced depth of the assessment and missed learning opportunities for participants. Limited experience in workshop guidance by the new facilitators posed challenges to the participatory process and the quality of its outcomes. While the adapted method created training effects that would otherwise have been missed, it also put additional pressure on the capacities of local partners. Our experience during the pandemic offers valuable lessons learned for future applications of systemic-participatory approaches. Whereas, a complete shift to remote applications is problematic, there is a need to put greater emphasis on capacitating local partners. Methodological trade-offs are necessary for partially remote working processes, but principles of participation and systemic thinking should not be compromised.
Background: Over the last 25 years, the prominent forest certification system established by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has used by many companies worldwide for claiming responsible forest management. The objectives of the Russian National FSC standard to decrease the size of clearcuts and the retention of forest elements such as residual seed trees need on-site validation to proof the effectiveness of FSC. To assess the ecological impacts of harvesting practices and benefits of FSC certification, we geospatially compared logging activities with and without FSC certification. Within a sample area covering approximately 3,000 km 2 in the east of the Russian Arkhangelsk Region, we used available data on tree cover loss and satellite images to assess secondary impacts of clearcuttings
on adjacent remnant forests and to quantify the logging intensity. Additionally, the size and structure as well as the density of skidding trails of ten specific clearcuttings located within the sample area were surveyed using satellite images and in the field observation to delineate the boundaries of clearcuts and forested remnants within the clearcuts.
Results: We found a significant increase of small-scale tree cover loss in the proximity of the clearcuts. Patchy dieback is possibly linked to the scale and intensity of logging in the surroundings. On the investigated clearcuts, FSC failed to reduce the size, to increase the retention of forest remnants including seed trees on logged areas, and to maintain larger tracts of undisturbed ground and soil compared to clearcuts that were logged before they received FSC-certification.
Conclusions: Trees and forest remnants remaining inside an increasingly stressed forest ecosystem matrix may not resist further harvesting-related and climate change-induced stresses and disturbances. Large-scale clearcuttings seem to have negative impacts even in adjacent forests and undermine the ecological effectiveness of FSC certification in the study area. The Russian FSC standard is not clearly setting effective guidelines that induce a change in clearcutting practices in order to reduce ecological risks.
In Eastern Europe, several UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) have been important promoters of transnational and transboundary nature conservation and sustainable development. Nevertheless, political and institutional barriers and scarcity of resources have hindered successful cross-border cooperation. The prospects for BRs in Eastern Europe are mixed, especially in relation to the challenges of ecosystem degradation and climate change, as well as socioeconomic and (geo)political crises. Based on our own experience of one and a half decades of growing cooperation between partners in Ukraine and Germany, we conclude that transnational cooperation between BRs and science is particularly rewarding and mutually beneficial.
1. Forest management influences a variety of ecosystem structures and processes relevant to meso- and microclimatic regulation, but little research has been done on how forest management can mitigate the negative effects of climate change on forest ecosystems.
2. We studied the temperature regulation capacity during the two Central European extreme summers in 2018 and 2019 in Scots pine plantations and European beech forests with different management-related structural characteristics.
3. We found that the maximum temperature was higher when more trees were cut and canopy was more open. Logging 100 trees per hectare increased maximum temperature by 0.21–0.34 K at ground level and by 0.09–0.17 K in 1.3 m above ground. Opening the forest canopy by 10% significantly increased Tmax, measured 1.3 m above ground by 0.46 K (including pine and beech stands) and 0.35 K (only pine stands). At ground level, Tmax increased by 0.53 K for the model including pine and beech stands and by 0.41 K in pure pine stands. Relative temperature cooling capacity decreased with increasing wood harvest activities, with below average values in 2018 (and 2019) when more than 656 (and 867) trees per hectare were felled. In the pine forests studied, the relative temperature buffering capacity 1.3 m above ground was lower than average values for all sample plots when canopy cover was below 82%. In both study years, mean maximum temperature measured at ground level and in 1.3 m was highest in a pine-dominated sample plots with relatively low stand volume (177 m3 ha−1) and 9 K lower in a sample plot with relatively high stock volumes of Fagus sylvatica (>565 m3 ha−1). During the hottest day in 2019, the difference in temperature peaks was more than 13 K for pine-dominated sample plots with relatively dense (72%) and low (46%) canopy cover.
4. Structural forest characteristics influenced by forest management significantly affect microclimatic conditions and therefore ecosystem vulnerability to climate change. We advocate keeping the canopy as dense as possible (at least 80%) by maintaining sufficient overgrowth and by supporting deciduous trees that provide effective shade.
Introduction
The effects of climate change are exacerbating the fire risk in forests worldwide. Conifer plantations in particular are especially vulnerable to fire outbreaks. At the end of the extraordinarily hot and dry summer of 2018, a forest pine plantation burned in Brandenburg, NE Germany. Different forestry interventions were carried out after the fire, while one area of the damaged plantation remained untouched.
Methods
We investigated the resilience of the forest ecosystem and the effectiveness of different active and passive forest restoration measures during the subsequent relatively warm and dry years 2019–2021.
Results
One year after the fire, Populus tremula showed strong spontaneous colonization at all sites. In contrast, the majority of planted Pinus sylvestris plantlets died on the plots that had been salvage-logged after the fire. Three years after the fire, Populus tremula successfully established itself as the dominant tree species on all plots, with the highest abundance on the plot where the overstorey of the dead pines was left. Betula pendula, Salix caprea, and Pinus sylvestris showed lower abundance, with their proportion increasing with decreasing cover by dead trees. The distribution of regrowing trees is very heterogeneous across the different treatments and plots. In the clear-cut plots, the extreme microclimatic conditions expose the young trees to additional heat and drought, while the retention of deadwood measurably buffers the temperature and water stress.
Discussion
The resilience and adaptability of naturally regenerating forests that develop into ecosystems that are more diverse seem more promising than restoration through intervention. Apart from hampering restoration under extreme weather conditions, post-fire salvage logging contributes to soil degradation and loss of organic carbon.
Intact forests contribute to the ecosystem functionality of landscapes by storing and sequestering carbon, buffering and cooling the microclimate, and providing a range of related ecosystem functions. Forest fragmentation not only poses a threat to many organisms but also reduces the resistance and resilience of the ecosystem, which is especially relevant to the ongoing climate crisis. The effects of recent extreme heat years on forests in Germany have not been studied in detail for the influence of fragmentation. We investigate the relation of forest fragmentation with temperature and vitality in Germany per ecoregion at the canopy level using satellite imagery at 1-km and 30-m resolution. We compiled and correlated forest maps for connectivity based on Thiessen polygons, canopy temperatures on the hottest days based on land surface temperature, and forest vitality based on the maximum normalized difference vegetation index per growing season. We differentiated between ecoregions and main forest types. In 2022, larger intact tree-covered areas that are less fragmented have relatively low temperatures on hot days and higher overall vitality. Nearly 98% of the almost 1.95 million forest fragments at 30-m resolution in Germany are smaller than 1 km2, which cover nearly 30% of the total forest area. To counteract the forest crisis, forest and landscape management should aim to reduce fragmentation and maintain tree biomass and forest cover in the landscape. Increasing the size of continuous forest fragments contributes to ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change.
Primary forests, defined here as forests where the signs of human impacts, if any, are strongly blurred due to decades without forest management, are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear. Despite these losses, we know little about where these forests occur. Here, we present a comprehensive geodatabase and map of Europe’s known primary forests. Our geodatabase harmonizes 48 different, mostly field-based datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. When available, we provide information on each patch (name, location, naturalness, extent and dominant tree species) and the surrounding landscape (biogeographical regions, protection status, potential natural vegetation, current forest extent). Using Landsat satellite-image time series (1985–2018) we checked each patch for possible disturbance events since primary forests were identified, resulting in 94% of patches free of significant disturbances in the last 30 years. Although knowledge gaps remain, ours is the most comprehensive dataset on primary forests in Europe, and will be useful for ecological studies, and conservation planning to safeguard these unique forests.
Expectations of what forests and woodlands should provide vary among locations, stakeholder groups, and over time. Developing multifunctional forests requires understanding of the dynamic roles of traditions and cultural legacies in social-ecological systems at multiple levels and scales. Implementing policies about multifunctional forests requires a landscape and social-ecological perspective, and recognition of both spatial and temporal features at multiple scales. This study explores the dissemination of even-aged silviculture in central, eastern and northern Europe, and the consequences of choosing different vantage points in social-ecological systems for mapping of barriers, and to identify levers, towards multifunctional forest landscapes. Using a narrative approach, we first summarise the development of even-aged silviculture in four European regions. Next, we focus on Sweden as a keen adopter of even-aged silviculture, and identify levers at three groups of vantage points. They were (1) biosphere with biodiversity as short-hand for composition, structure and function of ecosystems, which support human well-being at multiple scales; (2) society in terms of different levels of stakeholder interactions from local to global, and (3) economy represented by value chain hierarchies and currencies. The emergence of even-aged silviculture >200 years ago formed an expanding frontier from central to northern Europe. Sustained yield wood production and biodiversity conservation encompass different portfolios of ecosystem aspects and spatio-temporal scales. Ignorance and lack of knowledge about these differences enforce their mutual rivalry. An exploratory review of six groups of stakeholders at multiple levels in the traditional industrial forest value chain highlights inequalities in terms of distribution of income and power across different levels of governance. This effectively marginalises other than powerful industrial actors. The distribution of financial results along the value chain is dynamic in space and time, and not all benefits of forest ecosystems can be measured using monetary valuation. There are also other currencies and incentives. A discussion of cultural trajectories in central and eastern European, Russian and Swedish forest management illustrates that forest history patterns repeat themselves. Longitudinal case studies of countries and regions can help foster holistic multi-dimensional and multi-level systems thinking. Application of deep levers of change is likely to require external drivers. A key challenge is to handle the manufacturing of doubt and decay of truth, i.e., the appearance of alternative facts, and the diminishing role of evidence and systems analyses in political and civic discourses. This transition is fuelled by new and rapidly evolving digital arenas.
Applying a Regional Integrated Vulnerability Assessment (RIVAS), this study aims to identify the local farming system characteristics of 54 smallholder agroforestry farms in Kafa Zone (Ethiopia), their climate change vulnerability, and how they are affected by current land-use changes. The study combines semi-structured interviews with a biophysical characterization of farm systems. The results show that the assessed farming systems’ multifunctionality is essential to rural livelihoods while sustaining crop and tree diversity. While dry season crop diversity drives household’s sufficiency and capacity to respond to crop failure, medium-low sufficiency of production in more than a third of the assessed systems, as well as soil degradation in cereal fields lessen adaptive capacity. For their contribution to climate resilience, diverse and perennial cropping regimes should be supported and maintained.
Quantifying the mitigation of temperature extremes by forests and wetlands in a temperate landscape
(2021)
As a result of ongoing climate change and more frequent heat events, the regulating services of land cover in terms of moderating and mitigating local temperatures are increasingly important. While the reduced temperatures found in forests and wetlands are recognized, their wider contribution to regional landscape cooling remains largely uncharacterized and unquantified. Herein, we propose and test a new method that estimates the temperature response and inertia of landscapes in high temperatures, based on land cover share. In order to achieve this goal, we combined the MODIS daytime land surface temperature (henceforth LST) time series and CORINE land cover data. We classified the time series in two ways, i.e. by stepwise temperature range (−10/−5 °C to +35/+40 °C) and by the occurrence of hot days (days with a mean LST ≥ 30 °C). As an explanatory variable, we developed and used a greenest pixel composite of the MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series. In our study area, covering parts of northeastern Germany and western Poland, the fragmented landscape has heterogeneous temperature patterns, including urban heat islands, warm agricultural areas, cool forests and cold wetlands. We found that at high temperature ranges only forests and wetlands remained comparably cool, with LSTs up to 20.8 °C lower than the maximum LST in the study area. The analysis of land cover shares and LSTs revealed the substantial cooling effect of forests and wetlands in line with increasing land cover share in higher temperature ranges, as well as on hot days. The relation between LST and the NDVI indicated vegetation cover as the cause. We propose the corresponding metrics to quantify landscape-level temperature regulation. Equally, we advocate for management to identify these ecosystem services and their current and potential contributions, along with implications for sustaining and increasing, both tree cover and wetlands and thereby adapting landscapes to climate change.