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 ISSN 0015-749X Editor: W. Keith Moser
Special IssuesCarbon in Northern ForestsChrist Swanston and Andrew Burton, editors Vol. 57, No. 6 (December 2011) View Online Northern forests store substantial amounts of carbon in biomass and soils, and carbon is receiving increased emphasis in forest management. In addition, climate change intensifies the need not only for a better scientific understanding of the interactive role of carbon in forested ecosystems but also for management strategies that increase carbon sequestration and fossil fuel substitution. In June 2009, several organizations jointly hosted a conference entitled “Carbon in Northern Forests: Integration of Research and Management.” The 2-day conference was attended by more than 80 people and included 25 oral and 33 poster presentations in sessions on forest carbon cycles, disturbance and climate effects on carbon, carbon quantification, bioenergy, and management interaction with carbon. This special issue of Forest Science includes several of the papers presented at the conference.
The articles in this special issue span a range of ideas, techniques, scales, and ecosystems. These data and ideas will help inform decisions on carbon management as it continues to emerge as an objective within broader forest management goals. This range is itself informative, however. Even this small group of studies shows not only the breadth of ideas that can be considered in carbon science and management but also the importance of context and detail in these considerations.
Deep Soils Although soils are a key component of the critical zone that sustains life on earth, they remain one of the least understood components of terrestrial ecosystems. Though recognized by many scientists as the most biocomplex component of the ecosystem, a greater understanding of the soil is key to understanding ecosystem function for developing sustainable management practices. For example, any effort to mitigate the impacts of global change must address management impacts on the soil because the largest carbon pool in the biosphere is found in the soil, and any substantial changes in those larger pools will have a higher relative impact on global C than changes in aboveground biomass. Soil is also the primary source of water and essential elements for plant growth, and the availability of water and nutrients often limits ecosystem productivity, and thus can affect plant response to global change. Soils are also dynamic systems where the processes affecting water, carbon, and nutrient dynamics are influenced by geochemical and biological reactions. The biodiversity in soils is often greater than that in the aboveground ecosystem, and often these soil organisms also have major impacts on the growth and health of plants. The eight articles in this special volume of Forest Science give readers insight into the importance of deep soil from a variety of standpoints. Each contribution is unique and varied, but the articles document the importance of deep soil carbon as a pool and sink for atmospheric carbon, the impacts of management on deep soil carbon, deep rooting as a response to seasonal water availability and resistance to fire, methods for rapid, accurate estimation of soil depth, and the potential for changes in conclusions of studies of ecosystem response to management and global change seen by sampling the soil profile more deeply. The articles in this special edition of Forest Science present a significant body of work that greatly increases our understanding of the role of properties and processes deep in the soil and their impact on terrestrial ecosystems.
Ecological Consequences of Alternative Fuel Reduction Treatments in Seasonally Dry Forests: The National Fire and Fire Surrogate Study Science and Management of Forest Headwater Streams Robert J. Danehy and George G. Ice, editors Vol. 53, No. 2 (April 2007) View Online Purchase Best management practices for forestry and forest practice rules have historically focused on protecting high-order fish bearing streams, but foresters and watershed managers are now recognizing that headwater streams comprise the majority of stream networks and are often strongly influenced by adjacent land. As a result, aquatic stewardship approaches and requirements for headwater streams in managed forests have recently received considerable attention. This attention, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, is focused on anadromous salmonids and the perception that lack of protection to headwater streams leads to deleterious impacts on the physical habitat and water quality of downstream reaches. There is also an emerging recognition that headwater reaches can support important non-fish communities including amphibians. To address these concerns, the Headwaters Research Cooperative (HRC) was founded in 2001 to augment the body of science on headwater streams. The Cooperative, formed by private and public organizations, hosted a meeting in the fall of 2001 to identify ongoing research and research needs related to forest headwater streams. The meeting attracted approximately 100 researchers and policy makers from throughout the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and across the United States, who interacted in focus groups on specific topics to develop lists of research priorities. The larger group then developed overall research priorities through consensus. This list became the roadmap for HRC to fund research efforts. HRC-funded research and other research that addressed the priorities list became the material for this special issue of Forest Science. A valuable reference for foresters and watershed managers. US-Canada Forest Products Trade Runsheng Yin, editor Vol. 52, No. 4 (August 2006) View Online Purchase The US lumber industry has long claimed that Canada's administratively determined stumpage prices are a subsidy to Canadian producers, prompting the United States to impose restrictions and tariffs on Canadian imports. Canadian strategic responses have included increasing exports to offset losses and pursuing legal remedies. Against this background, a symposium was held jointly by bilateral academic and governmental institutions in the eastern United States and Canada on March 7-8, 2005. It addressed North American market relationships and industry trends; impacts of past, current, and future US trade restrictions; and views of and approaches to US and Canadian stumpage pricing. The goal was to lend scholarship to the discussion and enhance the understanding of any related policy actions. This special issue of Forest Science includes 14 thought-provoking articles from this symposium. A must-read for industry executives, policymakers, business analysts, and academic researchers. Forest Growth and Yield Chris J. Cieszewski and Mike Strub, editors Vol. 52, No. 2 (April 2006) View Online Purchase This special issue of Forest Science showcases selected articles from the Second International Conference on Forest Measurements and Quantitative Methods and Management, which took place on June 15-18, 2004 at Hot Springs, Arkansas. The aim of this conference series is to conglomerate the diverse aspects of the quantitative methods used in forest inventory and management under a general umbrella of quantitative forestry. This collection includes articles on:
A valuable reference for inventory specialists, quantitative silviculturalists, quantitative ecologists, and biometricians. Sierran Mixed-Conifer Research Malcolm North and Jiquan Chen, editors Vol. 51, No. 3 (June 2005) View Online Purchase Many of the forests of the western United States have been severely altered by a century of fire suppression, prompting both regional and national restoration efforts. The success of these efforts requires a better understanding of past forest conditions and the ecological processes that affect forest health. This special issue of Forest Science, collected from a coordinated ecosystem-level experiment, investigates the connections between structure, composition, and function on 72 hectares of old-growth mixed-conifer in California's Sierra Nevada. Articles include:
Canopy Research
Remote Sensing Randolph Wynne, Editor Vol. 49, No. 3 (June 2003) View Online Purchase Although remote sensing has been an integral part of forestry since the operational integration of aerial photographs into forest inventory in Canada in the 1920s, the rapid pace of sensor development and information needs in the past three decades has led to an explosion of forestry remote sensing research and applications. "Demands on forests are increasing and the information required to sustainably manage forests in the face of this demand must also increase," writes Randolph Wynne, associate professor of forestry at Virginia Tech and editor of the special issue. "Foresters are being asked to increase production of wood and fiber on an ever-decreasing land base while concomitantly maintaining the important supplies of public goods (viable fish and wildlife populations, clean water, and recreational opportunities) that well-managed forests have always provided. To meet this challenge, forest managers will require new types of information, and remote sensing will be an important piece of the overall information puzzle. The research results reported in this special issue of Forest Science will eventually lead to better information on, and therefore better management of, our forest resources." The papers in this special issue are a cross-section of the scope of data and applications in forestry remote sensing. Remotely sensed data types include aerial photographs, lidar data, hyperspectral images, radar data, and Earth resource satellite data. The data is being used for forest inventory, ecological land type delineation, harvest detection, chlorophyll mapping and monitoring, windthrow detection and mapping, and global forest cover mapping. Forest Wildlife-Habitat Relationships: Population and Community Responses to Forest Management Stephen DeStefano and Robert G. Haight, editors Vol. 48, No. 2 (May 2002) View Online Purchase This new book from the Society of American Foresters presents current research on the interface between forests and wildlife. The 26 papers, which cover work being conducted by state and federal agencies, private industry and institutions, and universities across America, are divided into seven sections representing major research topics:
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