Massimo; forest management strategies; multi-criteria Decision Support System; forest stand model; climate change; SwissStandSim; scenario simulations
Mey Reinhard, Zell Jürgen, Thürig Esther, Stadelmann Golo, Bugmann Harald, Temperli Christian (2022), Tree species admixture increases ecosystem service provision in simulated spruce- and beech-dominated stands, in
European Journal of Forest Research.
Stadelmann Golo, Portier Jeanne, Didion Markus, Rogiers Nele, Thürig Esther (2021), From Paris to Switzerland: Four Pathways to a Forest Reference Level, in
Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4, 1-13.
Thrippleton Timothy, Blattert Clemens, Bont Leo Gallus, Mey Reinhard, Zell Jürgen, Thürig Esther, Schweier Janine (2021), A Multi-Criteria Decision Support System for Strategic Planning at the Swiss Forest Enterprise Level: Coping With Climate Change and Shifting Demands in Ecosystem Service Provisioning, in
Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4.
Mey Reinhard, Stadelmann Golo, Thürig Esther, Bugmann Harald, Zell Jürgen (2021), From small forest samples to generalised uni‐ and bimodal stand descriptions, in
Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 12(4), 634-645.
Portier Jeanne, Wunder Jan, Stadelmann Golo, Zell Jürgen, Abegg Meinrad, Thürig Esther, Rohner Brigitte (2021), ‘Latent reserves’: A hidden treasure in National Forest Inventories, in
Journal of Ecology, 109(1), 369-383.
Global trends such as climate change and energy change challenge the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services (ES). Although timber in the Swiss forests has a high potential economic value, the range of ES provided by Swiss forests goes far beyond timber, including, e.g., protection against natural hazards, mitigate climate change, reduce soil erosion, regulate water discharge, provide recreation areas and biodiversity. Some of those ES can be provided simultaneously or even synergistically within the same stand while others need to be balanced against each other. Therefore, forest owners and policy-makers often have to make crucial decisions about the importance and weight of future ES. In particular public enterprises are responsible for the management of the Swiss forests consequently playing an important role for the environmental footprint of the Swiss forestry. Due to the relatively slow growth of forests, today’s forest management decisions will affect forest development and ES provision for several decades. This long response time and the possible management-related trade-offs complicate the estimation and prediction of future ES provision.Scenario analyses based on dynamic forest simulation models allow to quantify ecological and economic effects over long time periods (10-100 years) and can be used to support decision making by depicting monetary and non-monetary outcomes of different management strategies and possible environmental changes. Although a large scientific basis is available to assess forest ES provision at various spatial and temporal scales, a comprehensive framework that combines stand-scale accuracy with regional- to national-scale statistical representation including the effects of climate change is currently missing.The project SessFor will link advantages of the long term growth and yield research at the stand scale (summarized in the stand simulator SwissStandSim) with representative national-scale data of the National Forest Inventory (NFI) and the projection thereof (forest scenario model Massimo). We will assess the sensitivity of ES and potential trade-offs and synergies among them in response to different management scenarios and a range of climate change scenarios.To ensure the linkage of the stand and the national model, sample plots from NFI data will be classified for typical forest types and forest stands based on species mixture and site information. Together with the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and decision-makers from policy and economy, we will define management scenarios at the stand-scale relevant for operational forest management decisions, and will iteratively simulate their effects on forest development and ES provision using the forest stand simulator SwissStandSim. Based on SwissStandSim and the assembled knowledge and tools we will develop a prototype for a multi-criteria Decision Support System (DSS) for forest practice. As a last step, we will up-scale the scenarios based on the stand-scale results by implementing them in the forest management scenario model Massimo that is representative at the national level.SessFor will be the first initiative to deliver an estimate of climate change effects on forest development and ES for the whole of Switzerland based on nationally representative data and models. Results will provide decision-makers with 1) a comprehensive and integrated evaluation of different forest management strategies and climate change scenarios in terms of trade-offs and synergies among all relevant ES and 2) a prototype for an IT-based decision support system (DSS) for forest practice for planning of future management decisions.