UC Berkeley

Climate change poses a profound risk to the functioning of forested ecosystems and past forest management approaches may no longer be appropriate for future forests. As trees vary in their vulnerability to climate change, it is essential to identify the most at risk species for conservation and refine management decisions for resistant tree species. In addition to managing for individual tree species, incorporating adaptive forest management approaches is essential for maintaining future forests. Over three chapters of my dissertation, I use long-term forest inventory data from different silvicultural experiments in the Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forest to evaluate potential management strategies for a changing future. My dissertation investigates three main questions: 1) how does planting density shape the trade-off between individual growth (maximize timber production) and stand-level productivity (maximize carbon sequestration) of giant sequoia, a climate vulnerable species? 2) how does herbivore protection and planting density impact the early survival and growth of incense-cedar, a climate resilient species? And 3) how does an operational femelschlag harvest affect the growth dynamics of Sierra Nevada mixed conifer tree species growing along gap edges? In chapter 1, I demonstrate the potential for incorporating giant sequoia into working forests to achieve different objectives, as they are able to produce merchantable timber at a young age and sequester large amounts of carbon in a relatively short period. In Chapter 2, I show that herbivore protection greatly increases the survival of young incense-cedar. Incense-cedar demonstrates the expected tradeoff between individual tree size and stand production, where narrow spacings yield smaller trees and higher stand-level production and wide spacings yield larger trees and lower stand-level production. Results from chapter 3 show that all mixed-conifer species may be successfully grown along the edges of group selections and most species will exhibit increased height and diameter growth after group expansion. Collectively, these three chapters present information necessary for evaluating forest management decisions to create a resilient future forest.