Understanding forest dynamics and plantation transformation using a simple size-structured model

TL;DR

This paper presents a size-structured model to understand forest dynamics and the transformation of plantations into more natural, uneven-aged stands, aiding forest management strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, generic size-structured model to simulate forest stand evolution from plantations to old-growth states, incorporating spatial and growth rules.

Findings

Model captures key aspects of forest stand evolution.

Predicts outcomes of silvicultural interventions.

Provides insights into naturalization of plantations.

Abstract

Concerns about biodiversity and the long-term stability of forest ecosystems have lead to changing attitudes with respect to plantations. These artificial communities are ubiquitous, yet provide reduced habitat value in comparison to their naturally established counterparts, key factors being high density, homogeneous spatial structure, and their even-sized/aged nature. Transformation (manipulation of plantations to produce stands more reminiscent of natural ones) represents a major challenge for forest managers, and the shift from even- to uneven-aged stand management is far from simple. Tree species' attributes, too, vary dramatically. This study aims to identify generic aspects of forest population dynamics, in order to understand the temporal evolution of single species forest stands from an initial plantation lattice structure, into an ``old-growth'' state. This is achieved using a size-structured model, which implements simple rules to simulate the growth and fate of individuals in a spatial arena. We parameterise and discuss model behaviour in the context of available plantation and semi-natural data from Caledonian Scots Pine stands. We move on to illustrate the use of the model in predicting the outcome of silviculture, and discuss results in the context of stand transformation.