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Concept
Forest dynamics
Summary
Forest dynamics describes the underlying physical and biological forces that shape and change a forest ecosystem. The continuous state of change in forests can be summarized with two basic elements: disturbance and succession.
Disturbance (ecology)
Forest disturbances are events that cause change in the structure and composition of a forest ecosystem, beyond the growth and death of individual organisms. Disturbances can vary in frequency and intensity, and include natural disasters such as fire, landslides, wind, volcanic eruptions, rare meteor impacts, outbreaks of insects, fungi, and other pathogens, animal-caused effects such as grazing and trampling, and anthropogenic disturbances such as warfare, logging, pollution, the clearing of land for urbanization or agriculture, and the introduction of invasive species. Not all disturbances are destructive or negative to the overall forest ecosystem. Many natural disturbances allow for renewal and growth and often release necessary nutrients.
Small-scale disturbances are the key to creating and maintaining diversity and heterogeneity within a forest. Small-scale disturbances are events such as single-tree blowdowns, which create gaps that let light through the canopy to the understory and forest floor. This available light allows early-successional shade-intolerant species to colonize and maintain a population within the dominant forest, leading to the complex spatial mosaic forest structure recognized as old-growth. This process is referred to as patch dynamics or gap dynamics and has been described across many types of forests, including tropical, temperate, and boreal.
The sets and patterns of natural disturbances that characterize a particular area or ecosystem are referred to as the ecosystem's disturbance regime. A natural community is closely linked with its natural disturbance regime. For example, temperate and boreal rainforests typically have a disturbance regime consisting of high-frequency but small-scale events, resulting in a highly complex forest dominated by very old trees.
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Ontological neighbourhood
Related concepts (10)
Forest stand
A forest stand is a contiguous community of trees sufficiently uniform in composition, structure, age, size, class, distribution, spatial arrangement, condition, or location on a site of uniform quality to distinguish it from adjacent communities. A forest is a "collection of stands" also utilizing the practices of forestry. Stand level modelling is a type of modelling in the forest sciences in which the main unit is a forested stand. A forest stand is commonly described as in 10ths or 10%s.
Silviculture
Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin silvi- ('forest') and culture ('growing'). The study of forests and woods is termed silvology. Silviculture also focuses on making sure that the treatment(s) of forest stands are used to conserve and improve their productivity. Generally, silviculture is the science and art of growing and cultivating forest [crops], based on a knowledge of silvics .
Old-growth forest
An old-growth forest, sometimes synonymous with primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, first-growth forest, or mature forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological features, and might be classified as a climax community. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed.