Does thinning mitigate the expected effects of climate change?

Abstract

Climate change is expected to affect future temperature and precipitation in the boreal forest. Tree growth is partly driven by temperature and moisture availability, therefore patterns of future tree growth are likely to change. Forest thinning is likely to result in positive effects from increased temperature on tree growth while also increasing moisture availability through reduced evapotranspiration. It is therefore a potential tool to maintain tree growth in a changed climate. This project thinned areas of boreal forest and installed dataloggers in both thinned and representative unthinned areas to measure soil temperature and moisture throughout the months of May, June and July. Multifactor ANOVA with blocking was used to compare means between treatments. Statistically significant results (α=0.05) indicate a small increase in soil temperature in thinned areas for June and July and a small increase in soil moisture in thinned areas for May. However, no month showed a statistically significant increase of both simultaneously. No statistically significant evidence was found to show that decreasing tree growth resulting from a changed climate would be mitigated by forest thinning.