Lecture 4: Monitoring the state of forests and its importance in Europe (and beyond) - Tanja Sanders

25/11/2016 Page 0 Tanja Sanders

FOR 1412H: Natural Resource Management I (Module III Forest Inventory)

After the forests the

humans die



Monitoring the state of forests and its importance in Europe (and beyond) Tanja Sanders

Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems

25/11/2016



Outline

• What is forest monitoring?

• What is ICP Forests?

• Who is working in forest monitoring?

• What do we do?

• Where do we work?

• Why do we do it?

• What do we learn?

Thermo-Hydro-Measurement Unit (Picture: Lehmann)


FOR 1412H: Natural Resource Management I (Module III Forest Inventory) 25/11/2016

Forest inventory vs. monitoring



Monitoring/ inventories/ growth studies

De Vries, W., et al., 2014: Impacts of acid deposition, ozone exposure and weather conditions on forest ecosystems in Europe: an overview. Plant Soil: 380:1-45



Inventories in Europe

National Forest Inventory (NFI):

1) Rolling programme (10-15 year intervals) to provide accurate information about tree diameter and species occurrences;

2) Policy relevant information on growing stock used;

3) Sample points are evenly distributed in a systematic grid;

Height measurement at an NFI plot in Germany (TI-WO)



Inventories in Europe

4) Plots and trees are not visibly marked to prevent forest owners changing their management scheme on these plots;

5) Calculation of forest area, tree species diversity, age structure of forests, growing stock, and timber harvesting;

6) integral part of international reports such as the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The diameter at breast height (dbh) is recorded for all mature trees within a sampling transect as one of the most important parameter (Picture: Waitkus)



Monitoring in Europe

Level I:

1) annual overview on forest condition

2) based on a 16x16 km grid net covering around 6000 plots in Europe;

Crown condition assessments - Defoliation (% of leaf or needle loss) - Discolouration - Damages visible on the trees

Soil condition assessments

Foliar survey

Permanent markers at a Level I plot (Picture: Koltay)



Monitoring in Europe

Soil solution measurements (Picture: Sanders)

Level II: Intensive monitoring is the key for providing insight into causes affecting the condition of forest ecosystems and into effects of different stress factors.



Organisation and structure



Political context

EMEP (European Monitoring and

Evaluation Programme)

UNECE CLRTAP

EXECUTIVE BODY (EB)

ICP Forests

ICP Integrated Monitoring

ICP Modelling & Mapping

Task Force on Health

ICP Vegetation

JEG, Joint Experts Group on Dynamic Modelling

ICP Waters

ICP Materials

WGE (Working Group on Effects)

WGSR (Working Group on

Strategies and Review)



ICP Forests: Structure



Surveys



Surveys

Litter and deposition collectors on a Level II site

Crown condition annually

Foliar chemistry every 2 years (Level II)

Soil and soil chemistry every 10 - 15 years

Tree growth every 5 years

Ground vegetation every 5 - 10 years

Stand structure incl. deadwood test phase ongoing

Epiphytic lichens test phase ongoing

Soil solution chemistry continuously

Atmospheric depostition continuously

Ambient air quality continuously

Meteorology continuously

Phenology several times per year

Litterfall continuously

Remote sensing preferably at installation



Surveys

http://icp-forests.net/page/icp-forests-manual

The manual documents the harmonized methods for sampling and analysis as adopted by the participating countries of ICP Forests. A general revision of the ICP Forests monitoring manual is currently been carried out. The updated parts of the manual have been or will be adopted by the programme Task Force.



Level I - international

Distribution of broadleaves and conifers Percentage of damages



Level II - international



Level I - national

http://www.lasy.gov.pl/informacje/publikacje/informacje-statystyczne-i-raporty/raport-o-stanie-lasow/raport-o-stanie-lasow-w-polsce-2014/view



Level II - national

Mean NH4-N deposition

Deposition measurement are one of the most important surveys at the Level II sites; they are necessary for the calculation of Critical Loads and are reported at different political levels. Furthermore they are used as calibration values for e.g. EMEP data;



Results and applications



Model calibration

High 2847 eq ha-1 a-1

Low 0

Measured deposition is higher than modelled

Modelled deposition is slightly higher or equal

Modelled deposition is higher than measured



Model calibration

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Tota

l N [

kg N

/ha*

a]

Year

UBA 299 42 210UBA 204 63 252MAPESIPINETIEMEP (v2013)ICP-Forests Level IILinear (EMEP (v2013))Linear (ICP-Forests Level II)



Scientic papers

Tipping, E., et al., 2014: Atmospheric deposition of phosphorus to land and freshwater. Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, DOI: 10.1039/c3em00641g.

No generally significant temporal variations in P deposition, over periods of up to 19 years, were evident.

The data revealed no systematic spatial variation in P deposition, except for high rates at 11 sites in an area of Germany, probably due to local agricultural emissions from live-stock farming.



Ground level ozone concentrations and exposures

April-September mean O3 concentrations ranged from 19 to 64 ppb.

The AOT40 threshold of 5 ppm h set to protect forests from adverse O3 effects was exceeded on 75% of the plots.



A range of benchmark values of C densities and stocks, readily available for use in forest SOC (soil organic carbon) models operational from plot to continental scale could be provided.

De Vos, B., Cools, N., Ilvesniemi, H., Vanguelova, E., Carnicelli, S., 2015: Benchmark values for forest soil carbon stocks in Europe: Results from a large scale forest soil survey. Geoderma 251-252: 33-46.

Scientific papers



Scientific evaluations

Micro Meso Macro Scale

Estimation of tree specific crown defoliation

Calculation of mean plot defoliation

Calculation of European defoliation for each species

Mean annual defoliation for Northern, Central, and Southern Europe

Aggregation

CARNICER, Jofre, et al. Widespread crown condition decline, food web disruption, and amplified tree mortality with increased climate change-type drought. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011, 108. Jg., Nr. 4, S. 1474-1478.



Trends in forest responses

Plot mean defoliation (points) and trend (regional Sen’s slope, red line) for pedunculate and sessile oak

Tree species (group) Mann-

Kendall Tau

Regional

Sen’s slope

P Overall mean

[%]

Mediterranean deciduous oaks* 0.205 + 0.333 < 0.0001 23.05

Mediterranean evergreen oaks** 0.216 + 0.263 < 0.0001 21.71

Mediterranean lowland pines*** 0.205 + 0.333 < 0.0001 19.26

Pedunculate/sessile oak 0.221 + 0.400 < 0.0001 24.58

European beech 0.134 + 0.200 < 0.0001 19.21

Norway spruce 0.098 + 0.075 <0.0001 20.79

Scots pine -0.006 0.0000 0.3430 18.18



Damaging agents

0 20 40 60 80 100

Fagus sylvatica

Quercus petraea

Quercus robur

Abies alba

Picea abies

Pinus sylvestris

broadleaved

broadleaved-mixed

broadleaved-coniferous-mixed

coniferous-mixed

coniferous



Defoliation and the influence on growth D

efo

liati

on

[%

]

Growth [cm2/a]



Integrating Information



“Global Challenges of Air Pollution and Climate Change to Forests”

Contributions from ICP Forests (*: presenting, ** EMEP MSC-W. ***: ICP M+M)

• M. Nicolas : Global challenges of air pollution and climate change to the public forest management in France.

• M Ferretti*, K Hansen, V Calatayud, M Camino-Serrano, N Cools, B De Vos, TM Nieminen, N Potocic, P Rautio, M Schaub, V Timmermann, L Ukonmaanaho, P Waldner: Monitoring and modelling the long-term impact of air pollution on forest health and growth in Europe.

• T Sanders, W Seidling*: Accumulating influences on individual tree parameters: Focus on crown condition.

• M. Schaub*, M. Haeni, M. Ferretti, E. Gottardini, D. Simpson**, V. Calatayud: Ozone risk assessment for European forests - a ten-year study on permanent monitoring plots.

• O. Badea*, I. Popa, S. Leca, D. Silaghi: Effect of climate change on tree growth from intensive forest monitoring network in Romania.

• W. de Vries*, S. Etzold, M. Posch***, G. Jan Reinds***, L. Bonten, S. Solberg, P. Waldner, M. Schaub, D. Simpson**: Assessment of impacts of nitrogen deposition, ozone exposure and climate change on carbon sequestration by monitoring and modelling.



Reports and Tasks

• “State of Europe’s Forests 2016” - an initiative of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe (MCPFE process located at EEA).

• Chapters within the WGE/EMEP Trends Report

• Annual Executive Report

• Annual Technical Report



Scientific publications



Panic for nothing?



Panic for nothing? No!

1) Forest decline became one of the main drivers for negotiations for Europe wide air pollution control within the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP).

2) Responding to the threats of acidification to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, the CLRTAP agreed on the terms for air pollution control throughout Europe based on scientific information and evidence.

3) Emission reductions have been achieved through changes in energy and industrial production means and processes, such as conversion from coal to natural gas and use of nuclear power.

4) Energy conservation and efficiency have also contributed to emission reductions.



[email protected]

[email protected]

www.thuenen.de

www.icp-forests.net

We gratefully acknowledge the member states of ICP Forests with their numerous staff for collecting, financing, analysing, and submitting their data.

Date post:	22-Jan-2018
Category:	Environment
Upload:	edward-wilson
View:	108 times
Download:	1 times

Lecture 4: Monitoring the state of forests and its importance in Europe (and beyond) - Tanja Sanders

Environment