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.

Remote sensing and GIS are increasingly used as tools for monitoring and managing forests. Remotely sensed and GIS data are now the data sources of choice for capturing, documenting, and understanding forest disturbance and landscape pattern. Sitting astride the fields of ecology, forestry, and remote sensing/GIS, Understanding Forest Disturbanc

Forests provide a large range of beneficial services, including tangible ones such as timber and recreation, and intangible services such as climate regulation, biodiversity, and watershed protection. On the other hand, forests can also be considered roadblocks to progress that occupy space more productively used for agriculture, making consideration of their regulating services crucial for balancing land use and forest loss. Monitoring forest cover and loss is critical for obtaining the data necessary to help define what is needed to maintain the varying forest service requirements in different parts of the world. There is an increasing need for timely and accurate forest change information, and consequently a greater interest in monitoring those changes. Global Forest Monitoring from Earth Observation covers the very recent developments undertaken for monitoring forest areas from global to national levels using Earth observation satellite data. It describes operational tools and systems for monitoring forest ecosystems, discussing why and how researchers currently use remotely sensed data to study forest cover and loss over large areas. The book introduces the role of forests in providing ecosystem services and the need for monitoring their change over time, followed by an overview of the use of earth observation data to support forest monitoring. It discusses general methodological differences, including wall-to-wall mapping and sampling approaches, as well as data availability. This book provides excellent coverage of the research and applications of forest monitoring, indicator mapping at coarse spatial resolution, sample-based assessments, and wall-to-wall mapping at medium spatial resolution using optical remote sensing datasets, such as MODIS and Landsat. It examines the use of radar imagery in forest monitoring and presents a number of operational systems, from Brazil’s PRODES and DETER products to Australia’s NCAS system. Written by leading global experts in the field, this book offers a launch point for future advances in satellite-based monitoring of global forest resources. It gives readers a deeper understanding of global forest monitoring methods and shows how state-of-the-art technologies may soon provide key data for creating more balanced policies.

The world's boreal forests, which lie to the south of the Arctic, are considered to be the Earth's most significant terrestrial ecosystems. A panel of ecologists here provide a synthesis of the important patterns and processes which occur in boreal forests and review the principal mechanisms which control the forest's patterns.

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service is in the process of moving from a system of quasi-independent, regional, periodic inventories to an enhanced program featuring greater national consistency, a complete and annual sample of each State, new reporting requirements, and integration with the ground sampling component of the Forest Health Monitoring Program. This documentation presents an overview of the conceptual design, describes the sampling frame and plot configuration, presents the estimators that form the basis of FIA's National Information Management System (NIMS), and shows how annual data are combined for analysis. It also references a number of Web-based supplementary documents that provide greater detail about some of the more obscure aspects of the sampling and estimation system, as well as examples of calculations for most of the common estimators produced by FIA.

The aim of this book is to provide an accessible overview for advanced students, resource professionals such as land managers, and policy makers to acquaint themselves with the established science, management practices and policies that facilitate sequestration and allow for the storage of carbon in forests. The book has value to the reader to better understand: a) carbon science and management of forests and wood products; b) the underlying social mechanisms of deforestation; and c) the policy options in order to formulate a cohesive strategy for implementing forest carbon projects and ultimately reducing emissions from forest land use.