Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The project will explore forest management options to adapt commercial Eastern boreal forests to climate changes. Our focus will be in developing management strategies to maintain long-term forest productivity through optimizing the use of available soil resources and nutrient cycling within the stands, specifically - C and N cycling. A pivotal element of this strategy will be analysis and optimizing of species mixing at stand level and developing silvicultural treatments which could increase stand resilience to future environments. We therefore propose a research program that will comprehensively evaluate effects of species mixing and effects of thinning treatments on stand-level productivity. As the final deliverables of our research, we will also provide practical guidelines in selecting species combinations and selecting silvicultural treatments to maintain productivity of commercial forests under the changing climate. _x000d_Le projet explorera les options de gestion forestière pour adapter les forêts boréales commerciales de l'Est aux changements climatiques. Nous nous concentrerons sur l'élaboration de stratégies de gestion pour maintenir la productivité à long terme des fo