Silviculture And Climate Change - Challenges, Limitations And Perspective

Changing environmental conditions that result from changes in the Earth's climate system have a multifaceted impact on both forest ecosystems and forestry. Taking into account the causes of the observed climate changes, they will also influence the silvicultural practices in order to realize the future goals of forest management. The significance of this impact is due to the fact that the growth and development of forests as well as its ability to resist the biotic and abiotic threats largely depends on silvicultural operations that are conducted in a given forest stand. The adopted silviculture procedures determine at the same time the achievement of the intended goals of modern multifunctional forest management. Throughout history, forestry and silviculture faced various challenges resulting from the changing environment, however, the currently observed variation in the environment has no equivalent in the past. Therefore, there is a need to recognize the threats to forest ecosystems resulting from these changes and to develop adaptive measures in relation to present and future forests so as to maintain their continuity of existence and ensure the sustainability of the forest use under the different scenarios of climate change. However, the uncertainty associated with both the pace and the magnitude of changes, as well as with the potential response of forest ecosystems to these changes, highlights the difficulties in developing an optimal strategy for adaptive management of forest ecosystems. To achieve the goals of multifunctional forestry in the future, the forest practitioners will have to take into account both a risk and an uncertainty in adaptive forest management. Despite the fact that there has been no single procedure elaborated so far, it is possible to indicate the principles of adaptive silviculture that allow achieving the objectives of forest management in the future. To some extent, these principles are implemented by the concept of close-to-nature silviculture.