Canopy responses of Swedish primary and secondary forests to the 2018 drought

Abstract Boreal forest ecosystems are predicted to experience more frequent summer droughts due to climate change, posing a threat to future forest health and carbon sequestration. Forestry is a regionally dominant land use where the managed secondary forests are typically even-aged forests with low...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Environmental research letters 2023-06, Vol.18 (6), p.64044
Main Authors:	Wolf, Julika, Asch, Johanna, Tian, Feng, Georgiou, Katerina, Ahlström, Anders
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Anomalies Boreal forests Buffer zones Carbon sequestration Climate change Climate Research Drought Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Environmental impact ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Forest ecosystems Forestry Forests Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap Klimatforskning Land use Land use management Landsat Moisture effects Natural Sciences Naturvetenskap Plant diversity Plant species primary forests Remote sensing Soil moisture Species diversity Sweden Terrestrial ecosystems Vegetation index
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Summary:	Abstract Boreal forest ecosystems are predicted to experience more frequent summer droughts due to climate change, posing a threat to future forest health and carbon sequestration. Forestry is a regionally dominant land use where the managed secondary forests are typically even-aged forests with low structural and tree species diversity. It is not well known if managed secondary forests and unmanaged primary forests respond to drought differently in part because the location of primary, unmanaged, forests has remained largely unknown. Here we employed a unique map detailing over 300 primary forests in Sweden. We studied impacts of the 2018 nationwide drought by extracting and analyzing a high-resolution remote sensing vegetation index over the primary forests and over buffer zones around the primary forests representing secondary forests. We controlled for topographical variations linked to soil moisture, which was a strong determinant of drought responses, and analyzed Landsat-derived EVI2 anomalies during the drought year from a multiyear non-drought baseline. We found that primary forests were less affected by the drought compared to secondary forests. Our results indicate that forestry may exacerbate the impact of drought in a future climate with more frequent and extreme hydroclimatic events.
ISSN:	1748-9326 1748-9326