Managing Forest Ecosystems – serie

Due to the long-term planning horizons and the great variety of natural, economic, and operational hazards affecting forest ecosystems, uncertainty and multiple risk are typical aspects of forest management. Applications of risk analysis are surprisingly rare, in spite of the rich assortment of sophisticated forest planning tools that are available today. The objective of this particular volume within the book series "Managing Forest Ecosystems" is to present state-of-the-art research results, concepts, and techniques regarding the assessment and evaluation of natural hazards and the analysis of risk and uncertainty relating to forest management. Various aspects of risk analysis are covered, including examples of specific modelling tools. The book is divided into three sections covering ecological perspectives, applications in engineering and planning, and methods applicable to economics and policy.

Decision making in land management involves preferential selection among competing alternatives. Often, such choices are difficult owing to the complexity of the decision context. Because the analytic hierarchy process (AHP, developed by Thomas Saaty in the 1970s) has been successfully applied to many complex planning, resource allocation, and priority setting problems in business, energy, health, marketing, natural resources, and transportation, more applications of the AHP in natural resources and environmental sciences are appearing regularly. This realization has prompted the authors to collect some of the important works in this area and present them as a single volume for managers and scholars. Because land management contains a somewhat unique set of features not found in other AHP application areas, such as site-specific decisions, group participation and collaboration, and incomplete scientific knowledge, this text fills a void in the literature on management science and decision analysis for forest resources.

During its 200-year history the concept of sustainable forest ecosystem management has been the object of scientific and political discussion, with varying degrees of intensity - promoted with vehement fervour during periods of social or economic crisis, and less intensely during periods of stability. This volume, which forms part of the book series Managing Forest Ecosystems, presents state-of-the-art contributions presented by 9 leading authors from North America, Europe, Australia, and Southern Africa. If technical knowledge is a constraint to the implementation of sustainable management, this book contains a wealth of information which may be useful to students and practitioners alike. The specific target readership includes company management, the legal and policy environment, and forestry administrators. This book's unique feature is its holistic approach which includes ecological, socio-political, and timber supply issues.

The large-scale application of silvicultural systems has become a political reality in many parts of the world. This involves a gradual transformation of traditional silvicultural practice towards "continuous cover forestry" (CCF), also known as near-natural forest management, favouring mixed uneven-aged stands, site-adapted tree species and selective harvesting. Today, CCF systems are encountered in many parts of the world, but forest managers often lack the technical support for generating and evaluating treatment options for complex forest structures. Specific CCF-related resource assessment, forecasting and sustainable harvest control techniques have been developed, but details about their use are not widely known. The emphasis in this text is on quantitative methods and modelling.

This text summarizes those management principles that should be valid in areas where forests continuously are used for production, where biodiversity aspects are important as well as economy and productivity, and where demands on soil status and water quality are set. The very long-term aspects are especially emphasized, and it is shown how system model thinking is used to reach the goals. Biogeochemical aspects are put forward as they are very important in areas on poor bedrock with acid soils. Forest vitality and stress on trees are treated, as well as the importance of wildlife and their effects of browsing. The balance between social and recreational demands from the society and the economical needs of the landowner is of great concern. Experiences from a special area in South Sweden are presented.

Most of the scientific methods devised for forest planning support timber production ignoring the existence of forest functions other than wood production. Fortunately, the realisation that the forest planning methods available today do not correspond to the needs of today's forestry has activated forest researchers to develop and adopt new methodologies and approaches, which are specifically aimed at multi-objective situations. This book is about the quantitative approach to multi-objective forest planning. The emphasis is on topics that are rather new and not yet systematically applied in forest planning practice. The topics and methodologies discussed in this book include: measurement of preferences, multiple criteria decision analysis, use of GIS to support multi-objective forest management, heuristic optimization, spatial optimisation, and the measurement of non-wood forest outputs. By reading the book, a planning specialist, student or a researcher will get an insight into some of the current developments in forest planning research.

Well-managed forests and woodlands are a renewable resource, producing essential raw material with minimum waste and energy use. Rich in habitat and species diversity, forests may contribute to increased ecosystem stability. They can absorb the effects of unwanted deposition and other disturbances and protect neighbouring ecosystems by maintaining stable nutrient and energy cycles and by preventing soil degradation and erosion. They provide much-needed recreation and their continued existence contributes to stabilizing rural communities. Forests are managed for timber production and species, habitat and process conservation. A subtle shift from multiple-use management to ecosystems management is being observed and the new ecological perspective of multi-functional forest management is based on the principles of ecosystem diversity, stability and elasticity, and the dynamic equilibrium of primary and secondary production. Making full use of new technology is one of the challenges facing forest management today. Resource information must be obtained with a limited budget. This requires better timing of resource assessment activities and improved use of multiple data sources.Sound ecosystems management, like any other management activity, relies on effective forecasting and operational control. The aim of this series is to present state-of-the-art research results relating to the practice of forest management. Each reference book, monograph or proceedings volume will be focused to deal with a specific context.

Public debate has stimulated interest in finding greater compatibility among forest management regimes. The debate has often portrayed management choices as tradeoffs between biophysical and socioeconomic components of ecosystems. Here we focus on specific management strategies and emphasize broad goals such as biodiversity, wood production and habitat conservation while maintaining other values from forestlands desired by the public. We examine the following proposition: Commodity production (timber, nontimber forest products) and the other forest values (biodiversity, fish and wildlife habitat) can be simultaneously produced from the same area in a socially acceptable manner. Based on recent research in the Pacific Northwest, we show there are alternatives for managing forest ecosystems that avoid the divisive arena of 'either-or' choices. Much of the work discussed in this book addresses two aspects of the compatibility issue. First, how are various forest management practices related to an array of associated goods and services? Second, how do different approaches to forest management affect relatively large and complex ecosystems?

Computer Applications in Sustainable Forest Management presents state-of-the-art computer applications in a variety of specialty areas of forestry, including inventory, remote sensing, information management, modelling and visualization, biometrics, forest and harvest planning, bioeconomics and marketing, and decision science for management. This book emphasizes integration, or collaborative use, of computer technologies across different disciplines through interdisciplinary research and development in North America, China, and Europe. It also offers important new insights on how to continue advancing computational technologies in forest management to better achieve the basic goal of sustainable forest management. Case studies demonstrate integration of, or collaboration among, multiple computer applications for sustainable forest management.

This book has been developed as a forest inventory textbook for students and could also serve as a handbook for practical foresters. We have set out to keep the mathematics in the book at a fairly non-technical level, and therefore, although we deal with many issues that include highly sophisticated methodology, we try to present first and foremost the ideas behind them. For foresters who need more details, references are given to more advanced scientific papers and books in the fields of statistics and biometrics. Forest inventory books deal mostly with sampling and measurement issues, as found here in section I, but since forest inventories in many countries involve much more than this, we have also included material on forestry applications. Most applications nowadays involve remote sensing technology of some sort, so that section II deals mostly with the use of remote sensing material for this purpose. Section III deals with national inventories carried out in different parts of world, and section IV is an attempt to outline some future possibilities of forest inventory methodologies. The editors, Annika Kangas Professor of Forest Mensuration and Management, Department of Forest Resource Management, University of Helsinki. Matti Maltamo Professor of Forest Mensuration, Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

From time immemorial, firewood has been a very important source of energy for mankind. Later in history, wood for energy decreased its importance because of other more convenient and cheaper sources, mainly fossil fuels. Today, focus is again on use of forests as a producer of energy with main drivers being climate change, shortage and increasing prices of fossil fuel sources, and safety in energy supplies. However, intensive use of forest biomass is qu- tioned since fundamental ecological processes may be influenced negatively thus making up a trade-off with the benefits of using an otherwise sustainable source of energy. In this book, selected aspects of intensive use of forest b- mass for energy is treated with main focus on ecological aspects like maintenance of soil fertility, recycling of the combustion ash, inf- ence on biodiversity and pests, and economical aspects both at forest owners level and for society. Another focus point is the implemen- tion of this knowledge into decision support, recommendations and guidelines. The geographical scope is mainly the Nordic and Baltic region. The EU-financed project “Wood for Energy, - a contribution to the development of sustainable forest Management” (WOOD-EN- 1 MAN) , make up the frame for the book. Seven partners participated in the project: Forest & Landscape Denmark, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Lithuanian Forest Research Institute, Latvian State Forestry Research Institute, and Estonian University of Life Sciences with Forest & Landscape Denmark as coordinator.

Forest mensuration is one of the most fundamental disciplines within forest and related sciences. It deals with the measurement of trees and stands and the analysis of the resultant information. During the early days of sustained forest management simple measurement and estimation methods and with the analysis of inventory and research data were available. The middle of last c- tury, however, witnessed a worldwide increase in the need for more quan- tative information about trees and stands. This generated the need for more sophisticated methods to obtain and analyze forest data. This development was followed by a phenomenal explosion of information. During the past decades there has been fruitful cooperation between the Institute of Forest Inventory and Forest Growth, formerly “Institute of Forest Management and Forest Yield Sciences” of the University of Gottingen, ¨ Germany and the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. This book is one of the results of this fruitful cooperation between these institutions.

Figure 1-1. Post-World War II US assessment history. 1973)weremotivatedbytheemergingcon?ictsinthepost-WorldWar II period between rapidly increasing softwood harvests and declining timber growth. These are called the Outlook Studies. The last six studies (1980, 1985, 1989, 1993, 2000, 2005) have been conducted to meet the requirements of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA) of 1974. These are called the RPA Timber Assessments. 6 The Challenge of Developing Models 1. 2 SHAPING THE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM This initial chapter describes the development and speci?c structure of the Assessment System. We consider past policy analysis needs and federal legislative requirements, antecedent modeling and projection approaches, characteristics of the US forest sector, and recent trends in public and private resource management. At the federal level, and in some states and regions, the USA has a lengthy history of using resource and market models to explore policy issues and to examine the e?ects of alternative policy actions. Many of these studies have been undertaken on an irregular basis as issues emerged and resource conditions changed. The RPA legislation mandated a regular cycle of nationwide assessments by the Forest Service, examining trends and conditionsinanarrayofresourceusesandservices(climate,minerals, range,recreation,timber,andwater). ThestructureoftheAssessment System re?ects both the requirements of the RPA legislation and the unique characteristics of the US forest sector, which it is designed to simulate. IntheyearssinceenactmentoftheRPAlegislation,mana- ment directions, and objectives on both public and private lands in the USA have continued to evolve. The structure of the Assessment System has been adapted to re?ect these trends.

While the natural resources of the earth continue to diminish, “Green Landscapes” arebeingcalleduponto produceanincreasingrangeofgoodsandservices.A Green Landscape is a rural expanse of scenery that may comprise a variety of visible f- tures. This book focuses on forested landscapes, although much of the theory and most of the practical applications are valid for any area of land. In many regions of the world, people depend on forests for their livelihood and well-being. Forests provide multiple services, – bene ts generated for society by the existence of c- tain forest ecosystems and their attributes. The value of these bene ts is often only recognised when they are lost after removal of the trees, resulting in ooding, loss of income and declining species diversity. Forests provide multiple services. However, the amount and quality, and the p- ticular mix of these services depend on the condition of the resource. Landscape design is a proven way to ensure that certain desired bene ts will be available in space and time. It provides the foundation and an essential starting point for s- tainable management. This volume, which forms part of Springer’s book series Managing Forest Ecosystems,presentsstate-of-the-artresearchresults,visionsandtheories,aswell as speci c methodsfor designing Green Landscapes, as a basis for sustainable ecos- tem management. The book contains a wealth of information which may be useful to companymanagement,the legal and policy environmentand forestry administ- tors. The volume is subdivided into four sections.

Climate changes, particularly warming trends, have been recorded around the globe. For many countries, these changes in climate have become evident through insect epidemics (e.g., Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic in Western Canada, bark beetle in secondary spruce forests in Central Europe), water shortages and intense forest fires in the Mediterranean countries (e.g., 2005 droughts in Spain), and unusual storm activities (e.g., the 2004 South-East Asia Tsunami). Climate changes are expected to impact vegetation as manifested by changes in vegetation extent, migration of species, tree species composition, growth rates, and mortality. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has included discussions on how forests may be impacted, and how they may be used to mitigate the impacts of changes in climate, to possibly slow the rate of change. This book provides current scientific information on the biological and economical impacts of climate changes in forest environments, as well as information on how forest management activities might mitigate these impacts, particularly through carbon sequestration. Case studies from a wide geographic range are presented. This information is beneficial to managers and researchers interested in climate change and impacts upon forest environments and economic activities. This volume, which forms part of Springer’s book series Managing Forest Ecosystems, presents state-of-the-art research results, visions and theories, as well as specific methods for sustainable forest management in changing climatic conditions.

Building on more than a decade of innovative research into multi-source forest inventory (MS-NFI) this book presents full details of the development, outputs and applications of the improved k-NN method. The method, which was pioneered in Finland in 1990, is rapidly becoming a world standard in forest inventory, having been adopted as standard in Finland and Sweden, and recently introduced in Austria and across the US.The book describes in detail the full MS-NFI process, and the input data used – including field data, satellite images, and digital map data, as well as coarse-scale variation of forest variables. It also presents comprehensive information on the types of outputs which can be derived, including maps and statistics, describing, for example, stock volumes and development, dominant tree species, age-class distribution, and large and small-scale variation.The book will provide an invaluable resource for those involved in forest inventory, including government departments and bodies involved in forest policy, management and monitoring, forest managers, and researchers and graduate students interested in forest inventory, modelling and analysis. It will find an additional market among those interested in Earth observation, ecology and broader areas of environmental and natural resource management.Erkki Tomppo was the winner of the 1997 Marcus Wallenberg Prize for his work on the k-NN method.

The Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) is a forest survey on national level which started in 1982 and has already reached its 5th survey cycle (NFI5). It can be characterized as a multisource and multipurpose inventory where information is mainly collected from terrestrial field surveys using permanent sample plots. In addition, data from aerial photography, GIS and forest service questionnaires are also included.The NFI's main objective is to provide statistically reliable and sound figures to stakeholders such as politicians, researchers, ecologists, forest service, timber industry, national and international organizations as well as to international projects such as the Forest Resources Assessment of the United Nations. For Switzerland, NFI results are typically reported on national and regional level.State of the art methods are applied in all fields of data collection which have been proven to be of international interest and have even served as a basis for other European NFIs. The presented methods are applicable to any sample based forest inventory around the globe.In 2001 the Swiss NFI published its methods for the first time. Since then, many methodological changes and improvements have been introduced. This book describes the complete set of methods and revisions since NFI2. It covers various topics ranging from inventory design and statistics to remote sensing, field survey methods and modelling. It also describes data quality concepts and the software framework used for data storage, statistical analysis and result presentation.

The Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) is a forest survey on national level which started in 1982 and has already reached its 5th survey cycle (NFI5). It can be characterized as a multisource and multipurpose inventory where information is mainly collected from terrestrial field surveys using permanent sample plots. In addition, data from aerial photography, GIS and forest service questionnaires are also included.The NFI's main objective is to provide statistically reliable and sound figures to stakeholders such as politicians, researchers, ecologists, forest service, timber industry, national and international organizations as well as to international projects such as the Forest Resources Assessment of the United Nations. For Switzerland, NFI results are typically reported on national and regional level.State of the art methods are applied in all fields of data collection which have been proven to be of international interest and have even served as a basis for other European NFIs. The presented methods are applicable to any sample based forest inventory around the globe.In 2001 the Swiss NFI published its methods for the first time. Since then, many methodological changes and improvements have been introduced. This book describes the complete set of methods and revisions since NFI2. It covers various topics ranging from inventory design and statistics to remote sensing, field survey methods and modelling. It also describes data quality concepts and the software framework used for data storage, statistical analysis and result presentation.

This book provides a unique exploration of the inter-relationships between the science of plant environmental responses and the understanding and management of forest fires. It bridges the gap between plant ecologists, interested in the functional and evolutionary consequences of fire in ecosystems, with foresters and fire managers, interested in effectively reducing fire hazard and damage.This innovation in this study lies in its focus on the physiological responses of plants that are of relevance for predicting forest fire risk, behaviour and management. It covers the evolutionary trade-offs in the resistance of plants to fire and drought, and its implications for predicting fuel moisture and fire risk; the importance of floristics and plant traits, in interaction with landform and atmospheric conditions, to successfully predict fire behaviour, and provides recommendations for pre- and post- fire management, in relation with the functional composition of the community. The book will be particularly focused on examples from Mediterranean environments, but the underlying principles will be of broader utility.

This book provides a unique exploration of the inter-relationships between the science of plant environmental responses and the understanding and management of forest fires. It bridges the gap between plant ecologists, interested in the functional and evolutionary consequences of fire in ecosystems, with foresters and fire managers, interested in effectively reducing fire hazard and damage.This innovation in this study lies in its focus on the physiological responses of plants that are of relevance for predicting forest fire risk, behaviour and management. It covers the evolutionary trade-offs in the resistance of plants to fire and drought, and its implications for predicting fuel moisture and fire risk; the importance of floristics and plant traits, in interaction with landform and atmospheric conditions, to successfully predict fire behaviour, and provides recommendations for pre- and post- fire management, in relation with the functional composition of the community. The book will be particularly focused on examples from Mediterranean environments, but the underlying principles will be of broader utility.

Forest ecosystems include a great variety of communities of organisms interacting with their physical environment: multi-aged natural forests, even-aged monocultures, and secondary forests invaded by foreign species. The challenge is to sustain their ability to function, by adapting to changing climates and satisfying a multitude of human demands. Our first chapter sets the scene with a discussion about the effects of forest management on ecosystem services. Details about forest observational infrastructures are introduced in the second chapter. The third chapter presents methods of analysing forest density and structure. Models for estimating the shape and growth of individual forest trees are introduced in chapter 4, models of forest community production in Chapter 5. Methods and examples of sustainable forest design are covered in chapter 6. New scientific contributions continue to emerge as we are writing, and this work is never finished. We hope to continue with regular updatesreplacing obsolete sections with new ones, but the general aim remains the same, to introduce a range of methods that will assist those interested in sustaining forest ecosystems.

Almost 20 years after the first MEDPINE book "Ecology, biogeography and management of Pinus halepensis and P. brutia forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin "(Ne'eman and Trabaud, 2000) was published, this new book presents up-to-date and state of the art information, covering a wide range of topics concerning Mediterranean pine trees growing in native and planted forests, their ecosystems and management. This will be an essential source of scientific information for learning, exploring planning and managing mediterranean pine and mixed forests. We focus on: genetics, adaptation, distribution and evolution; ecophysiology and drought resistance; pine and mixed forest ecosystems; forest dynamics biodiversity and biotic interactions; fire ecology; ecosystem services and policy; afforestation and management; all under the effect of global climate change. While forests are studied mainly in temperate and tropical zones, in the light of current climate change, focusing on Mediterranean forests growing in semi-humid to semi-arid zones is more important than ever. This book will include mostly review chapters (and two outstanding case studies) contributed by leading scientists, foresters and managers, and will serve as a scientific textbook for students of biology, agriculture and forestry, researchers of ecology forestry and related fields, forest managers, policy and decision makers.

Almost 20 years after the first MEDPINE book "Ecology, biogeography and management of Pinus halepensis and P. brutia forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin "(Ne'eman and Trabaud, 2000) was published, this new book presents up-to-date and state of the art information, covering a wide range of topics concerning Mediterranean pine trees growing in native and planted forests, their ecosystems and management. This will be an essential source of scientific information for learning, exploring planning and managing mediterranean pine and mixed forests. We focus on: genetics, adaptation, distribution and evolution; ecophysiology and drought resistance; pine and mixed forest ecosystems; forest dynamics biodiversity and biotic interactions; fire ecology; ecosystem services and policy; afforestation and management; all under the effect of global climate change. While forests are studied mainly in temperate and tropical zones, in the light of current climate change, focusing on Mediterranean forests growing in semi-humid to semi-arid zones is more important than ever. This book will include mostly review chapters (and two outstanding case studies) contributed by leading scientists, foresters and managers, and will serve as a scientific textbook for students of biology, agriculture and forestry, researchers of ecology forestry and related fields, forest managers, policy and decision makers.

This edited volume presents original scientific research and knowledge synthesis covering the past, present, and potential future fire ecology of major US forest types, with implications for forest management in a changing climate. The editors and authors highlight broad patterns among ecoregions and forest types, as well as detailed information for individual ecoregions, for fire frequencies and severities, fire effects on tree mortality and regeneration, and levels of fire-dependency by plant and animal communities.The foreword addresses emerging ecological and fire management challenges for forests, in relation to sustainable development goals as highlighted in recent government reports.  An introductory chapter highlights patterns of variation in frequencies, severities, scales, and spatial patterns of fire across ecoregions and among forested ecosystems across the US in relation to climate, fuels, topography and soils, ignition sources (lightning or anthropogenic), and vegetation. Separate chapters by respected experts delve into the fire ecology of major forest types within US ecoregions, with a focus on the level of plant and animal fire-dependency, and the role of fire in maintaining forest composition and structure. The regional chapters also include discussion of historic natural (lightning-ignited) and anthropogenic (Native American; settlers) fire regimes, current fire regimes as influenced by recent decades of fire suppression and land use history, and fire management in relation to ecosystem integrity and restoration, wildfire threat, and climate change. The summary chapter combines the major points of each chapter, in a synthesis of US-wide fire ecology and forest management into the future.This book provides current, organized, readily accessible information for the conservation community, land managers, scientists, students and educators, and others interested in how fire behavior and effects on structure and composition differ among ecoregions and forest types, and what that means for forest management today and in the future.

This edited volume presents original scientific research and knowledge synthesis covering the past, present, and potential future fire ecology of major US forest types, with implications for forest management in a changing climate. The editors and authors highlight broad patterns among ecoregions and forest types, as well as detailed information for individual ecoregions, for fire frequencies and severities, fire effects on tree mortality and regeneration, and levels of fire-dependency by plant and animal communities.The foreword addresses emerging ecological and fire management challenges for forests, in relation to sustainable development goals as highlighted in recent government reports.  An introductory chapter highlights patterns of variation in frequencies, severities, scales, and spatial patterns of fire across ecoregions and among forested ecosystems across the US in relation to climate, fuels, topography and soils, ignition sources (lightning or anthropogenic), and vegetation. Separate chapters by respected experts delve into the fire ecology of major forest types within US ecoregions, with a focus on the level of plant and animal fire-dependency, and the role of fire in maintaining forest composition and structure. The regional chapters also include discussion of historic natural (lightning-ignited) and anthropogenic (Native American; settlers) fire regimes, current fire regimes as influenced by recent decades of fire suppression and land use history, and fire management in relation to ecosystem integrity and restoration, wildfire threat, and climate change. The summary chapter combines the major points of each chapter, in a synthesis of US-wide fire ecology and forest management into the future.This book provides current, organized, readily accessible information for the conservation community, land managers, scientists, students and educators, and others interested in how fire behavior and effects on structure and composition differ among ecoregions and forest types, and what that means for forest management today and in the future.

This open access book offers a cross-sectoral reference for both managers and scientists interested in climate-smart forestry, focusing on mountain regions. It provides a comprehensive analysis on forest issues, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. This book includes structured summaries of each chapter.Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, CLIMO has brought together scientists and experts in continental and regional focus assessments through a cross-sectoral approach, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. CLIMO has provided scientific analysis on issues including criteria and indicators, growth dynamics, management prescriptions, long-term perspectives, monitoring technologies, economic impacts, and governance tools.

This open access book offers a cross-sectoral reference for both managers and scientists interested in climate-smart forestry, focusing on mountain regions. It provides a comprehensive analysis on forest issues, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. This book includes structured summaries of each chapter.Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, CLIMO has brought together scientists and experts in continental and regional focus assessments through a cross-sectoral approach, facilitating the implementation of climate objectives. CLIMO has provided scientific analysis on issues including criteria and indicators, growth dynamics, management prescriptions, long-term perspectives, monitoring technologies, economic impacts, and governance tools.

Professor Chadwick Dearing Oliver has made major intellectual contributions to forest science and natural resources management. Over the course of his career he has actively sought to bring research and practice together through synthesis, outreach, and capacity-building. A common thread throughout his career has been complexity and how we as a society understand and manage complex systems. His work on forest stand dynamics, landscape management, and sustainability have all focused on the emergent properties of complex ecological and/or social systems. This volume celebrates a remarkable career through a diverse group of former students and colleagues who work on a wide range of subject areas related to the management of complex natural resource systems. Over the past decade there has been considerable discussion about forests as complex adaptive systems. Advances in remote sensing, social methods, and data collection and processing have enabled more detailed characterisations of complex natural systems across spatial and temporal scales than ever before. Making sense of these data, however, requires conceptual frameworks that are robust to the complexity of the systems and their inherent dynamics, particularly in the context of global change. This volume presents a collection of cutting-edge research on natural ecosystems and their dynamics through the lens of complex adaptive systems. ​It includes contributions by a wide range of authors from academia, NGOs, forest industry, and governmental organisations with diverse perspectives on forests and natural resources management. Each chapter offers new insights into how these systems can be made more resilient to ensure that they provide a diversity of ecological and social values well into the future. Together they provide a robust way of thinking about the many challenges that natural ecosystems face and how we as society may best address them.

Professor Chadwick Dearing Oliver has made major intellectual contributions to forest science and natural resources management. Over the course of his career he has actively sought to bring research and practice together through synthesis, outreach, and capacity-building. A common thread throughout his career has been complexity and how we as a society understand and manage complex systems. His work on forest stand dynamics, landscape management, and sustainability have all focused on the emergent properties of complex ecological and/or social systems. This volume celebrates a remarkable career through a diverse group of former students and colleagues who work on a wide range of subject areas related to the management of complex natural resource systems. Over the past decade there has been considerable discussion about forests as complex adaptive systems. Advances in remote sensing, social methods, and data collection and processing have enabled more detailed characterisations of complex natural systems across spatial and temporal scales than ever before. Making sense of these data, however, requires conceptual frameworks that are robust to the complexity of the systems and their inherent dynamics, particularly in the context of global change. This volume presents a collection of cutting-edge research on natural ecosystems and their dynamics through the lens of complex adaptive systems. ​It includes contributions by a wide range of authors from academia, NGOs, forest industry, and governmental organisations with diverse perspectives on forests and natural resources management. Each chapter offers new insights into how these systems can be made more resilient to ensure that they provide a diversity of ecological and social values well into the future. Together they provide a robust way of thinking about the many challenges that natural ecosystems face and how we as society may best address them.