Enhancing Resilience of Boreal Forests Through Management Under Global Change: a Review

Boreal forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services that are important to society. The boreal biome is experiencing the highest rates of warming on the planet and increasing demand for forest products. Here, we review how changes in climate and its associated extreme events (e.g., windstorms) are putting at risk the capacity of these forests to continue providing ecosystem services. We further analyze the role of forest management to increase forest resilience to the combined effects of climate change and extreme events. Enhancing forest resilience recently gained a lot of interest from theoretical perspective. Yet, it remains unclear how to translate the theoretical knowledge into practice and how to operationalize boreal forest management to maintain forest ecosystem services and functions under changing global conditions. We identify and summarize the main management approaches (natural disturbance emulation, landscape functional zoning, functional complex network, and climate-smart forestry) that can promote forest resilience. We review the concept of resilience in forest sciences, how extreme events may put boreal forests at risk, and how management can alleviate or promote such risks. We found that the combined effects of increased temperatures and extreme events are having negative impacts on forests. Then, we discuss how the main management approaches could enhance forest resilience and multifunctionality (simultaneous provision of high levels of multiple ecosystem services and species habitats). Finally, we identify the complementary strengths of individual approaches and report challenges on how to implement them in practice.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Current Landscape Ecology Reports

• Publication date

  2023-04-19

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s40823-023-00088-9
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Boreal Forests in the Face of Climate Change: Sustainable Management

  2023cited by this paper
• A balancing act: Principles, criteria and indicator framework to operationalize social-ecological resilience of forests.

  2023cited by this paper
• Perceptions of uncertainty in forest planning: contrasting forest professionals’ perspectives with the latest research

  2023cited by this paper
• Spatial trade-offs between ecological and economical sustainability in the boreal production forest.

  2022cited by this paper
• The State of Canada’s Forests Annual Report 2022

  2022cited by this paper
• Collective forestry regimes to enhance transition to climate smart forestry

  2022cited by this paper
• Using a trait-based approach to asses fire resistance in forest landscapes of the Inland Northwest, USA

  2022cited by this paper
• Better Regulation Practices across the European Union 2022

  2022cited by this paper
• Managing for the unexpected: Building resilient forest landscapes to cope with global change

  2022cited by this paper
• Future supply of boreal forest ecosystem services is driven by management rather than by climate change

  2022cited by this paper
• More wood but less biodiversity in forests in Finland: a historical evaluation

  2022cited by this paper
• Interpreting wind damage risk–how multifunctional forest management impacts standing timber at risk of wind felling

  2022cited by this paper
• Evaluating the Effect of Prescribed Burning on the Reduction of Wildfire Extent in Portugal

  2022cited by this paper
• Scanning the solutions for the sustainable supply of forest ecosystem services in Europe

  2022cited by this paper
• Perspectives: Thirty years of triad forestry, a critical clarification of theory and recommendations for implementation and testing

  2022cited by this paper
• Sectoral policies cause incoherence in forest management and ecosystem service provisioning

  2022cited by this paper
• Management diversification increases habitat availability for multiple biodiversity indicator species in production forests

  2021cited by this paper
• Observed increases in extreme fire weather driven by atmospheric humidity and temperature

  2021cited by this paper
• Specified resilience value of alternative forest management adaptations to storms

  2021cited by this paper
• Sequential droughts: A silent trigger of boreal forest mortality

  2021cited by this paper
• For the sake of resilience and multifunctionality, let's diversify planted forests!

  2021cited by this paper
• Post-fire Recruitment Failure as a Driver of Forest to Non-forest Ecosystem Shifts in Boreal Regions

  2021cited by this paper
• High boreal forest multifunctionality requires continuous cover forestry as a dominant management

  2021cited by this paper
• A simple-to-use management approach to boost adaptive capacity of forests to global uncertainty

  2021cited by this paper
• Forest multifunctionality is not resilient to intensive forestry

  2021cited by this paper
• Representative boreal forest habitats in northern Europe, and a revised model for ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation

  2021cited by this paper
• Producing wood at least cost to biodiversity: integrating Triad and sharing–sparing approaches to inform forest landscape management

  2021cited by this paper
• Natural Disturbance-Based Forest Management: Moving Beyond Retention and Continuous-Cover Forestry

  2021cited by this paper
• Controlling landscape-scale bark beetle dynamics: Can we hit the right spot?

  2021cited by this paper
• Controversial forestry experiment will be largest-ever in United States

  2021cited by this paper
• Climate Variability May Delay Post-Fire Recovery of Boreal Forest in Southern Siberia, Russia

  2021cited by this paper
• Climate change, fire return intervals and the growing risk of permanent forest loss in boreal Eurasia.

  2021cited by this paper
• Mitigating post-fire regeneration failure in boreal landscapes with reforestation and variable retention harvesting: At what cost?

  2021cited by this paper
• Increasing canopy mortality affects the future demographic structure of Europe's forests

  2021cited by this paper
• Forests of Finland 2014–2018 and their development 1921–2018

  2021cited by this paper
• Mitigation Potential of Ecosystem-Based Forest Management under Climate Change: A Case Study in the Boreal-Temperate Forest Ecotone

  2021cited by this paper
• Hot topics in governance for forests and trees: Towards a (just) transformative research agenda

  2021cited by this paper
• Reviewing the Use of Resilience Concepts in Forest Sciences

  2020cited by this paper
• Simulating forest resilience: A review

  2020cited by this paper
• Limited physiological acclimation to recurrent heatwaves in two boreal tree species.

  2020cited by this paper
• Mapping the forest disturbance regimes of Europe

  2020cited by this paper
• Evidence of non‐stationary relationships between climate and forest responses: Increased sensitivity to climate change in Iberian forests

  2020cited by this paper
• What is Climate-Smart Forestry? A definition from a multinational collaborative process focused on mountain regions of Europe

  2020cited by this paper
• Modelling suppression difficulty: current and future applications

  2020cited by this paper
• Climate change induces multiple risks to boreal forests and forestry in Finland: A literature review

  2020cited by this paper
• Evaluating forest resilience to global threats using functional response traits and network properties.

  2020cited by this paper
• Temperature-induced growing season drought threatens survival and height growth of white spruce in southern Ontario, Canada

  2019cited by this paper
• Is salvage logging effectively dampening bark beetle outbreaks and preserving forest carbon stocks?

  2019cited by this paper
• Short-interval wildfire and drought overwhelm boreal forest resilience

  2019cited by this paper
• Developing landscape connectivity in commercial boreal forests using minimum spanning tree and spatial optimization

  2019cited by this paper
• Fire-regime changes in Canada over the last half century

  2019cited by this paper
• Increasing wildfires threaten historic carbon sink of boreal forest soils

  2019cited by this paper
• The functional complex network approach to foster forest resilience to global changes

  2019cited by this paper
• Communities

  2019cited by this paper
• Greenhouse gas and energy fluxes in a boreal peatland forest after clear-cutting

  2019cited by this paper
• Suomen lajien uhanalaisuus 2019 - Punainen kirja: The 2019 Red List of Finnish Species

  2019cited by this paper
• Evaluation of Salvage Logging Productivity and Costs in Windthrown Norway Spruce-Dominated Forests

  2018cited by this paper
• Beneficial effects of climate warming on boreal tree growth may be transitory

  2018cited by this paper
• Differential declines in Alaskan boreal forest vitality related to climate and competition

  2018cited by this paper
• Contributions of insects and droughts to growth decline of trembling aspen mixed boreal forest of western Canada

  2018cited by this paper
• Solving Conflicts among Conservation, Economic, and Social Objectives in Boreal Production Forest Landscapes: Fennoscandian Perspectives

  2018cited by this paper
• Mitigating forest biodiversity and ecosystem service losses in the era of bio-based economy

  2018cited by this paper
• Changing forest stakeholders’ perception of ecosystem services with linguistic nudging

  2018cited by this paper
• Climate change will affect the ability of forest management to reduce gaps between current and presettlement forest composition in southeastern Canada

  2018cited by this paper
• Remote sensing and forest inventories in Nordic countries – roadmap for the future

  2018cited by this paper
• Impacts of climate Change, Weather Extremes and Alternative Strategies in Managed Forests

  2018cited by this paper
• Current and projected cumulative impacts of fire, drought, and insects on timber volumes across Canada.

  2018cited by this paper
• Adverse climatic periods precede and amplify defoliator‐induced tree mortality in eastern boreal North America

  2018cited by this paper
• Guidelines for risk management in forest planning – what is risk and when is risk management useful?

  2018cited by this paper
• Salvage logging effects on regulating and supporting ecosystem services — a systematic map

  2018cited by this paper
• Continuous cover forestry is a cost-efficient tool to increase multifunctionality of boreal production forests in Fennoscandia

  2018cited by this paper
• Young and old forest in the boreal: critical stages of ecosystem dynamics and management under global change

  2018cited by this paper
• Tree Diversity Drives Forest Stand Resistance to Natural Disturbances

  2017cited by this paper
• Climate change impacts on forest landscapes along the Canadian southern boreal forest transition zone

  2017cited by this paper
• Are forest disturbances amplifying or canceling out climate change-induced productivity changes in European forests?

  2017cited by this paper
• More is more? Forest management allocation at different spatial scales to mitigate conflicts between ecosystem services

  2017cited by this paper
• Forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services

  2017cited by this paper
• Data from: Optimizing management to enhance multifunctionality in a boreal forest landscape

  2017cited by this paper
• Leading the way to a European circular bioeconomy strategy

  2017cited by this paper
• Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change: A National Experiment in Manager-Scientist Partnerships to Apply an Adaptation Framework

  2017cited by this paper
• Regional risks of wind damage in boreal forests under changing management and climate projections

  2017cited by this paper
• Projections of future forest age class structure under the influence of fire and harvesting: implications for forest management in the boreal forest of eastern Canada

  2017cited by this paper
• Incorporating uncertainty into forest management planning: Timber harvest, wildfire and climate change in the boreal forest

  2017cited by this paper
• Interactions between windthrow, bark beetles and forest management in the Tatra national parks

  2017cited by this paper
• Trend analysis of fire season length and extreme fire weather in North America between 1979 and 2015

  2017cited by this paper
• Which type of forest management provides most ecosystem services?

  2016cited by this paper
• Dealing with Non-linearity and Uncertainty in Forest Management

  2016cited by this paper
• Socio-ecological implications of modifying rotation lengths in forestry

  2016cited by this paper
• Searching for resilience: addressing the impacts of changing disturbance regimes on forest ecosystem services.

  2016cited by this paper
• Ecosystem Management of the Boreal Forest

  2016cited by this paper
• Effects of wood harvesting and utilisation policies on the carbon balance of forestry under changing climate: a Finnish case study

  2016cited by this paper
• The impact of increasing fire frequency on forest transformations in southern Siberia

  2016cited by this paper
• Avoiding ecosystem collapse in managed forest ecosystems

  2016cited by this paper
• A Review of Processes Behind Diversity—Productivity Relationships in Forests

  2016cited by this paper
• Continuous cover management reduces wind damage

  2016cited by this paper
• Monoclonal Antibody Pharmacokinetics in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Diabetic Nephropathy

  2016cited by this paper
• Factors affecting fall down rates of dead aspen (Populus tremuloides) biomass following severe drought in west‐central Canada

  2015cited by this paper
• Evaluating the combined effects of climate and land-use change on tree species distributions

  2015cited by this paper
• Boreal forest health and global change

  2015cited by this paper
• Managing a boreal forest landscape for providing timber, storing and sequestering carbon

  2015cited by this paper

• Stand, landscape and climatic attributes contributing to the probability of Ips typographus damage in Finland

  2026cites this paper
• Live crown ratio and slenderness coefficient as indicators of beech tree stability

  2025cites this paper
• Ecologically and economically sustainable level of timber harvesting in boreal forests – defining the safe operating space for forest use

  2025cites this paper
• Drivers behind the spatial dispersion of European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) infestation in protected areas in Estonia, four years after a major storm

  2025cites this paper
• Biochar and carbon-negative technologies: exploring opportunities for climate change mitigation

  2025cites this paper
• Forest Productivity Decreases in Response to Recent Changes in Vegetation Structure and Climate in the Latitudinal Extremes of the European Continent

  2025cites this paper
• Changes in abundance and distribution of European forest bird populations depend on biome, ecological specialisation and traits

  2025cites this paper
• Finnish forest-related laws need to acknowledge climate change risks and integrate adaptive strategies to enhance resiliency

  2025cites this paper
• Spatial Variability of Forest Resilience Potential in the Western Himalayas - A Multivariate Approach Under Future Climate Scenarios

  2025cites this paper
• Managing for heterogeneity reduces fire risk in boreal forest landscapes—A model analysis

  2025cites this paper
• Managing Boreal Birch Forests for Climate Change Mitigation

  2025cites this paper
• Effect of climate change on height growth and carbon storage of Eastern European Scots pine populations

  2025cites this paper
• Sustainable forest planning: Assessing biodiversity effects of Triad zoning based on empirical data and virtual landscapes.

  2025cites this paper
• Private land conservation through voluntary biodiversity conservation schemes: lessons from a payment for ecosystem services scheme in Finland

  2025cites this paper
• Mechanical Behaviour of Leeward Lateral Roots During Tree Overturning

  2025cites this paper
• Modelling wildfire and post-fire carbon budgets of a boreal forest under a changing climate

  2025cites this paper
• A framework of ecological security patterns in arid and semi-arid regions considering differences socioeconomic scenarios in ecological risk: Case of Loess Plateau, China.

  2024cites this paper
• Application of the Global Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis to assess the importance of deadwood characteristics for forest biodiversity

  2024cites this paper
• Strategies and Barriers to Reconcile Pest Management with Insect Conservation in Temperate and Boreal Forests

  2024cites this paper
• Mapping roadless areas in regions with contrasting human footprint

  2024cites this paper
• Projected effects of climate change and forest management on carbon fluxes and biomass of a boreal forest

  2024cites this paper
• Resilience and vulnerability: distinct concepts to address global change in forests.

  2024cites this paper
• Long-term monitoring reveals the effect of precipitation and silviculture on Nothofagus regeneration in Northern Patagonia mixed forests

  2024cites this paper
• Anticipating Future Risks of Climate-Driven Wildfires in Boreal Forests

  2024cites this paper
• Sustainable Development versus Extractivist Deforestation in Tropical, Subtropical, and Boreal Forest Ecosystems: Repercussions and Controversies about the Mother Tree and the Mycorrhizal Network Hypothesis

  2024cites this paper
• Changes in planned and unplanned canopy openings are linked in Europe’s forests

  2024cites this paper
• Assessing Forest Conservation for Finland: An ARDL-Based Evaluation

  2024cites this paper
• Photosynthetic Acclimation of Larch to the Coupled Effects of Light Intensity and Water Deficit in Regions with Changing Water Availability

  2024cites this paper
• Photosynthesis efficiency as key factor in decision-making for forest design and redesign: A systematic literature review

  2024cites this paper
• Interactions of forest carbon sink and climate change in the hormesis paradigm

  2024cites this paper
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for production forests: Trade-offs, synergies, and uncertainties in biodiversity and ecosystem services delivery in Northern Europe

  2023cites this paper