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Using a novel assessment framework to evaluate protective functions and timber production in Austrian mountain forests under climate change

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Abstract

In Central European mountain forests, timber production and the protection of infrastructure and settlements against gravitational natural hazards are key forest ecosystem services (ES). The quantitative assessment of mountain forest ES for management planning and decision support is a particular challenge, due to manifold involved spatial scales from tree to slope and landscape level. We present an assessment framework to analyze and communicate the effect of management and climate change on the provision of selected ES in mountain forests. Core element is the spatially explicit hybrid forest ecosystem model PICUS. Remote sensing data and inventories are combined to generate realistic fine-grained forest landscapes with single tree resolution as input to PICUS. Landscape-level planning of silvicultural prescriptions employs geographic information systems functionalities (locate skyline corridors and treatment areas, prescribe silvicultural operations based on tree-level attributes) and produces management maps, which are interpreted by PICUS and executed in course of simulation runs. Model output is imported into a spatially explicit landscape assessment tool to assess the protective effect of vegetation. In a 250 ha case study in the Eastern Alps in Austria, the assessment framework is demonstrated to evaluate effects of climate change and management on timber production and protection against landslides and snow avalanche release. Climate change had, depending on climate and management scenario both, positive and negative impacts on desired ES. Key factor for ES provisioning in the case study was the interaction of bark beetle disturbances, legacies of past land-use practices and forest management.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Agnes Andrae, Roland Dornegger, Christian Martin Tamberg and Florian Maroschek for field work in difficult terrain, as well as the Stand Montafon Forstfonds for their cooperation. Furthermore, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This research was funded by the MOTIVE project within the 7th Framework Program of the European Commission (grant no. 226544).

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  1. Institute of Silviculture, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Peter Jordan Straße 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Michael Maroschek, Werner Rammer & Manfred J. Lexer

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  1. Michael Maroschek
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  2. Werner Rammer
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  3. Manfred J. Lexer
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Correspondence to Michael Maroschek.

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Maroschek, M., Rammer, W. & Lexer, M.J. Using a novel assessment framework to evaluate protective functions and timber production in Austrian mountain forests under climate change. Reg Environ Change 15, 1543–1555 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0691-z

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