Forest resilience under different disturbance regimes in tropical and temperate forests

Conference: Intecol 2013

Dates: 18-23 August 2014

Abstract:

Examining forest resilience is an urgent priority in our current era of rapid environmental change. However, the conditions under which forests might manifest signs of resilience have been little explored to date. In this talk, I will present a number of studies where we used LANDIS-II, a spatially explicit model of forest dynamics, to examine the impacts of different types of disturbances on both tropical and temperate forest landscapes (Mexico, Chile and Kyrgyzstan). The model was parameterized using spatial data, field data and local expert knowledge. Different disturbance regimes were examined, focusing on the impact of fire, cattle grazing and wood cutting. Model results showed that both tropical and temperate forests are more resilient to anthropogenic disturbance than expected. Results to date suggest that modelling approaches such as LANDIS-II can be of values in these areas, enabling forest resilience, structure and composition to be realistically predicted.

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Elena Cantarello