Designing successful forest renewal practices for our changing climate

气候变化和不断增加的森林干扰和枯死给森林更新带来了新的挑战。由于气候变化加剧的虫害和疾病，不列颠哥伦比亚省最近的森林种植失败表明，迫切需要重新评估标准作业做法（砍伐森林和重新种植苗木）。在许多这样的地方，当地适应的自然再生比种植的幼苗表现得更好，但原因尚不清楚。改善采伐或自然干扰后的森林更新对我们森林的长期可持续性至关重要，包括它们支持生物多样性、储存碳和促进加拿大林业部门健康发展的能力。该战略项目的目标是在一系列气候区域进行研究：(1)新型更新方法对幼苗成功、生物多样性和碳循环的影响，包括不同水平的可变保留收获和使用树种混合再生；(2)遗树（健康、受损和死亡）在森林更新和维护有益土壤生物群中的作用；(3)混合种子来源的性能，包括本地来源和转移（遗传选择）种子，以确定最佳组合。最后，我们将(4)整合这些新知识，为不断变化的气候条件下的最佳收获和再生实践制定建议。这项研究为9名研究生（5名博士和4名硕士）以及几名本科生助理提供了更好的培训机会。通过与我们的政府和行业合作伙伴，不列颠哥伦比亚省森林、土地和自然资源运营部以及Brinkman集团的密切合作，我们不仅具有独特的优势，不仅可以调查不同水平的森林保留和采伐后更新技术如何影响一系列气候区域的生态系统服务，而且还可以将这些信息传达给森林从业者和政策制定者，以便立即使用。我们预计，我们的项目将为森林部门提供必要的信息，以便在气候变化时优化采伐和再生做法，从而为所有加拿大人提供重要的生态和经济利益。

Climate change and increasing forest disturbances and diebacks are creating new challenges for forest renewal. Recent forestry plantation failures in British Columbia, due to insects and diseases amplified by climate change, indicate that standard operating practices (clearcutting and replanting with nursery-grown seedlings) urgently require reassessment. On many of these sites, locally adapted natural regeneration is outperforming planted seedlings, but the reasons for this are unknown. Improving forest renewal after harvesting or natural disturbances is crucial to the long-term sustainability of our forests, including their ability to support biodiversity, store carbon, and promote a healthy Canadian forestry sector. The goals of the proposed strategic project are to investigate across a range of climate regions: (1) the effects of novel renewal methods, including differing levels of variable retention harvesting and regeneration using tree species mixtures, on seedling success, biodiversity and carbon cycling; (2) the role of legacy trees (healthy, stressed, and dying) in forest regeneration and maintenance of beneficial soil biota; (3) the performance of mixed seed sources, including locally-sourced and transferred (genetically selected) seed, to identify optimal combinations. Finally, we will (4) integrate this new knowledge to formulate recommendations for best harvesting and regeneration practices under changing climatic conditions. This research provides enhanced training opportunities for nine graduate students (5 PhD and 4 MSc) in addition to several undergraduate assistants. Through working closely with our government and industry partners, the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Brinkman Group, we are uniquely positioned to not only investigate how different levels of forest retention and post-harvest regeneration techniques affect ecosystem services in a range of climatic regions, but also to communicate this information to forest practitioners and policy-makers for immediate use. We anticipate that our project will provide essential information to the forest sector for optimizing harvesting and regeneration practices as climate changes, thus providing vital ecological and economic benefits for all Canadians.