Quantifying the long-term recovery of the protective effect of forests against rockfall after stand-replacing disturbances

May, Alexander Dominik Ezuma; Moos, Christine; Dorren, Luuk; Noyer, Estelle; Temperli, Christia; Schwarz, Massimiliano (2023). Quantifying the long-term recovery of the protective effect of forests against rockfall after stand-replacing disturbances Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 6 Frontiers Research Foundation 10.3389/ffgc.2023.1197682

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Introduction: Increasing disturbances may significantly impact the long-term protective effect of forests against natural hazards. Quantifying the temporal development of the protective effect of forests is thus crucial for finding optimal management strategies. Methods: In this study, we analyzed the long-term recovery of the protective effect of the secondary stands of spruce (Picea abies), fir (Abies alba), and beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests against rockfall after stand-replacing disturbances based on data of the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI). We therefore derived the age of the inventoried forest stands of those tree species based on a growth parametrization and quantified their energy dissipation capacity in rockfall processes as a function of stand age. We then analyzed the development of their protective factor for varying rockfall dispositions. Results: Generally, it takes between 50 and 200 years to regain the maximum possible protective effect, depending from the site conditions and the rockfall disposition. This implies that the recovery of the protective effect after a severe disturbance may require more time than the decay of the protective effect from disturbance legacies, resulting in a long lasting gap of the provided protection. Discussion: The here presented approach can serve as a basis to estimate the general range of recovery of the protective effect of beech, fir and spruce forests against rockfall provided by forest stands. Future research should analyse the effects of environmental and forest conditions as well as varying disturbance intensities and legacies to enable the assessment of specific trajectories of the short- and long-term recovery of the protective effect.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Multifunctional Forest Management > Mountain Forests, Natural Hazards and GIS
Name:	May, Alexander Dominik Ezuma0000-0003-0753-5801; Moos, Christine; Dorren, Luuk0000-0001-9344-9461; Noyer, Estelle; Temperli, Christia and Schwarz, Massimiliano0000-0003-4652-8102
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SD Forestry
ISSN:	2624-893X
Publisher:	Frontiers Research Foundation
Language:	English
Submitter:	Alexander Dominik Ezuma May
Date Deposited:	22 Dec 2023 13:46
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2024 10:25
Publisher DOI:	10.3389/ffgc.2023.1197682
Uncontrolled Keywords:	protective forest, stand growth, rockfall hazard, forest disturbances, recovery dynamics
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.20818
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/20818