Engineering Commons^™

Modeling The Interactions Of Forest Cutting And Climate Change On The Hydrology, Biomass And Biogeochemistry Of A Northeastern Forest, Mahnaz Valipour

Dissertations - ALL

Global and regional environmental disturbances, including harvesting and climate change, can lead to integrated and interactive effects on forest ecosystems, altering their structure and function, and therefore long-term sustainability. Understanding both short- and long-term impacts of harvesting practices (e.g., cutting rotation length, intensity) on forest dynamics is a key factor in developing criteria and guidelines for sustainable forest management practices. Process ecosystem models are useful tools to improve predictive understanding of complex, interacting ecological process and their response to disturbance. Few studies have rigorously tested model simulations against field measurements which would provide more confidence in efforts to quantify logging …