Woodlands provide us with number of benefits They supply softwoods and hardwoods, which have variety of uses. They provide a variety of habits for many species of wildlife, adding biodiversity to an area. They allow for a number of recreational pastimes. However, we and our woodlands need to prepare and adapt to a changing climate, one in which winters may be milder and summers hotter and drier.  Extreme weather events are also becoming more common.  So woodlands need to be resilient.  If they are resilient, then: They recover better from disturbances, like fire or disease Generally fare better when challenged by storms or floods. A number of government agencies have produced booklets / downloadable files (PDFs) on how to address the possible problems associated with the changing climate.  The advice seems to fall into three basic categories. Increase the range of trees in your woodland, promote diversity.  Look for trees that not only match your site (soil, aspect etc) but also might cope with future climate conditions.  If the climate is drier, then trees which have done well in the past might struggle in the new conditions.  For example, beech was noticeably affected by the drought in the summer of 1976.  Look for trees that can cope or unaffected by disease and insect pests and are from a reputable source and free of disease. Review the management of your woodland. For example, what and when to thin, create access and paths, openings or glades which can improve the diversity of the plants at ground level.  Paths and openings will also improve access within your woodland. [caption id="attachment_41085" align="aligncenter" width="674"] Woodland path covered with mast[/caption] When planting new trees, think about where the trees come from. What conditions do they are experience in their home environment, can they cope with drought. It may be that trees species that usually grow in more southerly areas of Europe will be better suited to the changing conditions. As mentioned above there are a number of publications / guides to help with increasing the resilience and diversity of your woodland.  Some of these are listed in the links below : The Climate Change Hub has a number of informative fact sheets and videos. Information about increasing species diversity from Natural Resources Wales. Improving structural diversity in woodlands from Natural resources Wales:  Forest Research has produced a detailed practice guide on woodland management and climate change. The Government website has numerous links and publications, eg. Advice of new trees and woodlands in light of climate change.

In 2018, the blog reported on the extensive fires in Sweden, a country noted for its forests and woodlands, which cover approximately half of the country. Once the trees were mainly broad leaved species, but then oaks and alders began to decline.  By the middle of the  twentieth century,  Spruces and Pines were dominant.  This was mainly due to forestry management, to produce wood for fuel, charcoal [used in iron smelting], potash, tar and timber (for building). Fires burnt from the extreme north down to Malmo in the south. These fires affected some 20,000 hectares and destroyed woodlands valued at [circa] £50 million.  Now work by scientists at Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) have examined the effects of the fires (of 2014) in the Vastmänland province, where the fires were ferocious, burning down into the soils. They have found that the 'forested areas' continued to lose carbon for several years after the fire, and that nitrate and phosphate input to streams and rivers increased after the fires. This spring and summer have again witnessed intense and widespread fires across the Mediterranean region, Canada and the United States. Fires are a problem not only because of their immediate destructive potential, but because they result in the release of carbon dioxide - which further contributes to global warming and climate change.  The United Nations Secretary-General said recently “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.” Data on these fires is not available as yet, but studies of the boreal fires in 2021 suggest those fires released some 1.76 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  The fires contributed nearly one quarter of world wide carbon dioxide emissions from fires in that year.  [caption id="attachment_35352" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Woodland recovering from a fire[/caption] Boreal forests store roughly twice as much carbon in their trees and soil as tropical forests.  These forests (often referred to as the Taiga) surround the Arctic Circle and research suggests the Taiga is warming faster than the global average, so areas like Northern Canada and Siberia now experience more heat and drought than in the past, and consequently are more likely to suffer from fires. Clearly, when there is a fire, carbon dioxide (and many other carbon compounds eg soot / small particles) are released by the burning of the trees but there is also the effect of fire on the soil and its organic content - the humus.   Research indicates that during the fires in the boreal area some 150 tonnes of carbon dioxide may be released into the atmosphere per hectare.  Furthermore, even after the fire, carbon continues to be lost from the soil.  It may take some three years for carbon uptake by the soil to be recorded.   Fires also lead to the rapid loss (leaching) of nutrients (e.g. phosphate) to local lakes and rivers - as there is little or no vegetation to absorb the nutrients.   Rainfall is not intercepted by vegetation and so the flow of streams increases ( sometimes by 50%).    A research paper produced by the Desert Research Institute (in Nevada) has indicated that smoke from the burning of pines has the effect of making soil particles more water-repellent.  This repellency of smoke-affected soil particles could help explain the increased flooding, erosion, and surface runoff in fire damaged areas.  

Whilst it is not possible to attribute a particular weather event to climate change alone, what is clear is that climate change / global warming intensifies certain meteorological events. High temperatures and reduced rainfall have lead to the extreme fires seen recently in Australia and on the pacific coast of America.  Floods and periods of drought are now more common and the last two decades have seen some of the warmest years on record - in the U.K. .  Whilst too much water can result in the death of trees and plants as the soil becomes water-logged - so oxygen cannot reach the root -  drought also stresses trees and other plants. Drought-induced death of trees is associated with the failure of the water transporting system (xylem), but the process is poorly understood. Tree, indeed plant survival, is dependent on a continuous supply of water to the leaves. Read more...

There is only one living member of the genus Sequoia,   Sequoia sempervirens : the coast redwood.  It is a coniferous trees and belongs to the family Cupressaceae. The redwoods (Sequoia sp) are amongst the largest and oldest living organisms on the planet – some are possibly more than three millennia old. The trees are found along the coastal regions of California and Oregon.  Whilst the trees can live to a great age, recent studies have found that the trees are suffering as a result of beetle attack, prolonged drought and and fire damage.  Several of the long lived trees in the Sierra Nevada of California have died in recent years as a result of these ‘problems’.  It had been thought that such trees could survive fire or beetle attack Read more...

Seeds are dispersed from a parent plant by a variety of means.  Some plants use wind dispersal (sycamore, dandelion), some use animals (burdock, herb bennet), some even use water (willow, silver birch, coconut and the famous coco de mer).  But in some parts of the world, such as South Africa and Australia, fire is a feature of certain ecosystems and the fire and/or smoke can be the stimulus for seed dispersal and germination.   Read more...

The blog has reported on moorland fires and the importance of peat-based ecosystems on a number of occasions.  However, a new report has raised serious concerns about the state of peatlands, not just in the U.K but across Europe and Scandinavia.   Many ‘peatlands are in a dry and fragile state’, so that rather than acting as natural carbon sinks, they start to release carbon.   Peatlands actually store about five times more carbon than forests (across Europe). Read more...

In early Spring this year, both Norway and Sweden reported wild fires in their forests, due in part to a run of dry weather. More recently, fires have been reported in many parts of the world - particularly in the Amazonian Forest,  parts of Africa, Siberia,  Canada and even within the Arctic Circle. A few years back, the Russian authorities initiated a policy of allowing remote forest fires to burn - unless the trees / areas were of economic importance.  However, the fires this summer affected thousands of square miles of boreal forest and strong winds spread the smoke and ash across the country; it affected cities such as Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk (each home to a million people). Read more...

Every now and then, whilst strolling through a woodland one comes across a truly massive coniferous tree - with a thick fibrous bark.  Such trees are usually redwoods - often planted many years ago as an 'exotic'.   Victorian land owners were quite 'fond' of planting unusual species.   There are three species of coniferous trees known as the redwoods – the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens ), the giant redwood (sometimes known as Wellingtonia) (Sequoiadendron giganteum), and the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) . The first two are natives of the western Sierra Nevada of California Read more...