Download FOREST ENVIRONMENT - Division 8

FOREST ENVIRONMENT - Division 8
Coordinator:
Jean-Michel Carnus, France
Deputy coordinators:
Robert Jandl, Austria; Alex Mosseler, Canada; John Parrotta, USA
Major research & discussion topics
Division 8 has focused on two thematic areas in relation with IUFRO global strategy and task forces:
Climate Change and Forestry, and Forests and Water interactions. In addition, Division 8 has cosponsored several international events in relation with natural hazards and risk management, has
initiated in this area some new partnership that will be expanded in 2012, and has conducted,
following the Japanese tsunami, a brief review on the fate on radionuclides in forest ecosystems.
The 2011 International Conference on Responses of Forests and Adaptation Management to
Climate Change, held in North-East China (cf photo), showed evidence of how climate change
affects forest ecosystems around the world and, consequently, jeopardize forest carbon sink services
with a loss of forests and forest degradation resulting from increasing occurrences of biotic and abiotic
hazards. However, with uncertainty on climate change effects at local levels, proactive forest
management is urgently needed for enhancing forest resilience and capacity to adapt to climate
change. Science should form the bedrock of the adaptive management, and the conference showed the
benefits of multidisciplinary dialogue and multiple scale approaches combining knowledge from
biology, ecology, forestry, climatology, socio-economics and political sciences to address the
challenge of adaptation of forests and forestry sector to rapid global changes. 2011 has been the
warmest year ever measured in Western Europe.
Forests are equally important in the regulation of water cycles, on any scale from tree and stand
level, over the landscape and region, up to the global scale. Climatic and other environmental changes
and the various forest management options influence forest growth, structure and the concomitant
water redistribution between tree, forest ecosystem and atmosphere. Those changes and their impacts
need to be further understood and considered when assessing the overall future of forest-water
interactions as highlighted in the international conference in North-West Spain sponsored by division
8 and in the resulting synthesis book on forest management and the water cycle 1(WP 8.01.04 - water
supply and quality).
List of activities
meetings
07-09 March 2011, Vienna, Austria : Final Workshop of COST Action 639: Greenhouse Gas Budgets
of Soils under Changing Cllimate and Land Use. IUFRO 8.01.00
27-29 May 2011, Santiago De Compostela, Spain: Final Conference on COST Action FP601:
managed Forests in Future Landscapes - Implications for Water and Carbon Cycles. IUFRO 8.01.04
08-11 May 2011, Quebec, Canada: International Symposium on Dynamics and Ecological Services of
Deadwood in Forest Ecosystems. IUFRO 8.02.02
1
Bredemeier, M.; Cohen, S.; Godbold, D.L.; Lode, E.; Pichler, V.; Schleppi, P. (Eds.) 1st Edition., 2011. Forest
Management and the Water Cycle: An Ecosystem-Based Approach. Series: Ecological Studies, Vol. 212.
06-08 June 2011, Avignon, France: MEDPINE 4: 4th International Conference on Conservation,
Regeneration, Restoration and Management of Mediterranean Pines and their Ecosystems. IUFRO
8.03.05 (+ others)
14-17 June 2011, Padua, Italy: 5th International Conference on Debris-Flow Hazards Mitigation:
Mechanics, Prediction and Assessment. IUFRO 8.03.00
31 July-4 August 2011, Athens, Georgia, United States: 6th International Conference on Wind and
Trees.IUFRO 8.03.06
8-10 August 2011, Yichun, Heilongjiang, China: International Conference on Responses of Forests
and Adaptation Management to Climate Change. IUFRO 8.00.00
14-17 November 2011, Florida State University, United States: Exploring the Mega-fire Reality 2011.
IUFRO 8.03.05
15-18 November 2011, Montpellier, France: Research priorities in tropical silviculture: towards new
paradigms? IUFRO 8.02.00 (+ others)
Other activities
Division 8 has actively contributed to the ESF-COST High-Level Research Conference on
'The Future Role of Bio-energy from Tree Biomass in Europe', 6-11 November 2011, Vienna
The meeting was organized by the Task Force on Bioenergy (http://www.iufro.org/science/taskforces/forest-bioenergy/), and the members of Div 8 have brought in their expertise regarding nutrient
dynamics in the wake of more intense forest management intensity.
« Response of Forests and Adaptation Management to Climate Change”
International Conference in Yichun (China) , August 2011
Photo by courtesy of Chinese Academy of Forestry