RESEARCH SEMINAR:

DISTURBANCE AND RESILIENCE IN MEDITERRANEAN FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

DATE: 8th June 2012 (10h-14h) VENUE: Centre Tecnolgic Forestal de Catalunya (www.ctfc.cat), Solsona, Spain COST: Free (please confirm your attendance by email: laia.ximenis@ctfc.cat)

BACKGROUND: Recent socio-economic changes together with predicted climate warming are inducing significant impacts on the functioning and dynamics of Mediterranean forests. In this context of change, the role of natural disturbances in the future evolution of these forests is expected to increase. There is a general consensus that the next generation of forest practices should be able to adapt and respond to the increasing variability and uncertainty in disturbance dynamics. Understanding how natural disturbances relate with human practices and identifying the key factors determining the response of forest to its occurrence constitutes a first step for this.

PROGRAM: 9h50 Welcome to the participants 10h00 Insect outbreaks, forest management and climate change: is the forest ready? (by Dr. Dan Kneeshaw, UQAM) 10h30 The link between historical land-use and root rot pathogens: their role in current

forest dynamics (by Dr. Jons Oliva, SLU)

11h00 Drought responses of Scots pine at the dry limit (by Dr Jordi Martnez Vilalta, CREAF) 11h30 How do Mediterranean forests resist and recover from forest fires? (by Dr. Jos Ramn Gonzlez, CTFC) 12h00 Coffee break 12h20 14h Round table discussion (Moderator: Dr. Llus Coll, CTFC) How to increase the self-adaptive capacity and resilience of Mediterranean forest? Which are the ecological bases? Which is the role of forest management?

SPEAKERS: Dan Kneeshaw is full-time professor in Forest Ecology at the University of Qubec in Montreal (UQAM) and member of the Centre for Forest Research. His research focuses on the effects of secondary disturbances in boreal forest dynamics. He is also interested in better understanding individual tree responses to changes in resource gradients and the influence of ontogeny on mortality. Since 2009 he is Co-Editor in chief of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. Jons Oliva is assistant professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and associate researcher of the Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia. His area of expertise is forest pathology. In particular, he is interested in understanding the ecology and the epidemiology of forest pathogens in order to encompass a low impact of forest diseases with economically viable forest management activities. Jordi Martnez Vilalta is associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and member of the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications. His research aims at getting a better understanding of the response of forest ecosystems to envirnomental changes. In particular he focuses in the impact of drought on forest dynamics in the present climate change context. He is associate editor of the journals Tree Physiology, iForest and ISRN Ecology. Jos Ramn Gonzlez is a Ramon y Cajal researcher in the Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia. His research is focused in the analysis of the risk that abiotic disturbances (in particular fire) entail to the Mediterranean forest and on how integrate this risk into forest management planning.

ORGANIZATION:

Llus Coll, Grup de Funcionament i Dinmica del Bosc http://fidbosc.ctfc.cat/

SPONSORED BY:

Grup de Recerca Consolidat (SGR2009-000531)

DINAMIX project (CGL2011-29539)