Assessing the resilience of UK forests to extreme climatic events

This project aims to quantify the historic impact and legacy of extreme climatic events on UK forests using tree-ring chronologies, climate and soil data. It focuses on species of major importance to UK forestry in order to provide the information basis for building adaptive capacity into future forest planning and decision-making.

Delivering Resilient Forests

Resilient forests are important if our trees are to cope better with changing environmental conditions and threats from pests and diseases. This page provides information on the publications produced as part of Forest Research's 'Delivering Resilient Forests' programme of research.

Genetic considerations for provenance choice of native trees under climate change in England

This Research Report provides a review of published results from provenance tests of relevance to English native trees to identify factors which may influence the risk, suitability and desirability of the use of local versus non-local seed under climate change.

Is the introduction of novel exotic forest tree species a rational response to rapid environmental change? A British perspective.

A suggested way for British woodlands to combat the problems they are facing due to climate change and exotic pests and diseases is to grow a range of novel exotic tree species. Here we examine the arguments for doing this in the context of British forestry where the objectives are either commercial timber production or conservation of biodiversity.

An analytical framework for spatially targeted management of natural capital

A major sustainability challenge is determining where to target management to enhance natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides. Achieving this understanding is difficult, given that the effects of most actions vary according to wider environmental conditions; and this context dependency is typically poorly understood. Here, we describe an analytical framework that helps meet […]

Comparing the cost-effectiveness of forestry options for climate change mitigation

This Research Note examines two recent studies which assessed the cost-effectiveness of forestry options for climate change mitigation across Great Britain.

Land managers behaviour and forest resilience

Landowners and managers are being urged to change their behaviours and practice to increase forest resilience, this research describes some of the barriers to change including the different attitudes and beliefs of different kinds of land managers around uncertainty and risk, and the need for information and guidance which takes these perspectives into account.

FOSPREF-Wind

A project within the EFI Network Fund, developing a FOSS GIS modelling platform for stand growth and risk of wind damage.

B4EST – adaptive breeding for productive, sustainable and resilient forests under climate change

B4EST will offer new understanding about how adaptive forest breeding can be used to increase forest survival, health, resilience and productivity under climate change and natural disturbances, while maintaining genetic diversity and key ecological functions.

Holocene carbon accumulation in the peatlands of northern Scotland

Summary The response of peatland carbon accumulation to climate can be complex, with internal feedbacks and processes that can dampen or amplify responses to external forcing. Records of carbon accumulation from peat cores provide a record of carbon which persists as peat over long periods of time, demonstrating the long-term response of peatland carbon stocks to […]

Peatland afforestation in the UK and consequences for carbon storage

Peatlands are a globally significant store of carbon During the second half of the 20th century new planting techniques combined with tax incentives encouraged commercial forestry across large areas of peat bog in the UK, particularly in the Flow Country of northern Scotland. Such planting was controversial and was ultimately halted by removal of the tax […]

Cryptic genetic variation and adaptation to waterlogging in Caledonian Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L.

Exposure to a contrasting novel environment such as waterlogging under common garden conditions can trigger release of otherwise unobservable (cryptic) genetic variation. Under a flooding treatment, there was a greater increase in variability in Scots pine populations originating from drier sites in Scotland which likely reflects a relative absence of past selection. Under climate change this cryptic genetic variation may provide considerable potential to adapt.