Forests are a critical component of the planet’s ecosystem. Unfortunately, there has been significant degradation in forest cover over recent decades as a result of logging, conversion to crop, plantation, and pasture land, or disasters (natural or man made) such as forest fires, floods, and hurricanes. As a result, significant attention is being given to the sustainable use of forests. A key t...

Aim Predictions of ecosystem responses to climate warming are often made using gap models, which are among the most effective tools for assessing the effects of climate change on forest composition and structure. Gap models do not generally account for broad-scale effects such as the spatial configuration of the simulated forest ecosystems, disturbance, and seed dispersal, which extend beyond t...

the present study aimed to assess pure planted species (i.e., alnus subcordata l., poplus deltoids l., taxadium distichum l. rich) and a mixed natural forest (i.e., dominated by quercus castaneifolia c. a. mey. - carpinus betulus l. - parrotia persica c. a. meyer) on basis of some soil quality indices in mazandaran province, northern iran. sixteen samples per stand were taken from the top 10 cm...

estimation and mapping of forest resources are preconditions for management, planning and research. in this study, we applied kriging interpolation of geostatistics for estimation and mapping of forest stock at-tributes in a natural, uneven-aged, unmanaged forest in the caspian region of northern iran. the site of the study has an area of 516 ha and an elevation that ranges from 1100 to 1450 m ...

Anthropogenic changes in land use threaten biodiversity and ecosystem functioning by the conversion of natural habitat into agricultural mosaic landscapes, often with drastic consequences for the associated fauna. The first step in the development of efficient conservation plans is to understand movement of animals through complex habitat mosaics. Therefore, we studied ranging behavior and habi...

Less than 10% of Minnesota’s hardwood forests remain after heavy logging in the 19 and early 20 centuries. In order to ensure that this ecosystem continues to be a part of Minnesota’s natural history, forest managers have begun practicing active and passive restoration. The composition of a remnant forest, planted forest, and an adjacent old-field in the St. Olaf College Natural Lands, was anal...

The Republic of Panama recently experienced a limited forest transition. After five decades of decline, the total forest cover increased by 0.36% yr" between 1992 and 2000; however, mature forest cover simultaneously decreased by 1.3% yr". This limited forest transition at the national scale comprised two distinctly different patterns of recent forest-cover change related to historical land use...

Landowners need a simple-to-use, readily available tool to contribute to sustainable management of family forests. We developed an Internetbased decision-support system, 4S Tool (Forest Stand Software Support System), which is designed to encourage informed forest management and to bridge the gap between a new generation of family forest owners (e.g. exurbanites) and natural resources professio...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of forest-based activities on the conditions of the Ganaveh woodland in the southern Zagros, Iran, and to suggest strategies for improving the implementation of forest resource management plans. Woodland inventory data was gathered in 2003, accompanied with data from interviews in 2008, were used in this study. The results show that there...