Forest management strategies in the context of potential climate change

In forest management there is frequently the need to make decisions with lo ng-term consequences. Forests which are planted today may be exposed to a q uite different climate within 50 to 100 years. To date, very few investigat ions have analysed the impacts of the projected climate changes in managed forests. Consequently there is a need for improved decision support for the development of forest management strategies in the concert of global chang e. This paper analyses how different forest management strategies influence th e adaptation of forest stands to changing environmental conditions. Further more, a simulation model was applied to demonstrate the strong influence of management on forest development within the next 110 years under current c limate conditions and under a scenario of climate change. The simulation re sults for a forestry district in northeastern Germany showed that, in all i nvestigated scenarios, climate change affected forest composition and produ ctivity. However, there were also distinct differences between the simulate d management strategies. Whereas a conservative management strategy resulte d in relatively small changes in simulated species composition but in a str ong decrease in productivity between present climate and climate change sce nario, an adaptive forest management strategy was able to partly mitigate t he reduction in productivity by means of a shift to more drought tolerant t ree species. It is concluded that the simulation results of the extended fo rest gap model with forest management routines provide opportunities to eva luate and optimize forest management strategies for the adaptation of fores t stands to changing climatic conditions.