SINKAVET

This project was funded by the fellowship Salavador Grau i Tort from the Parc Natural de l'Alt Pirineu. Besides me, UB's researcher Elisabet Martínez-Sancho and students Paula Redón and Selma García were involved in the project. We appreciate the help of Oriol Grau, a researcher working at the Natural Park.

Project description:

In SINKAVET we propose to use a network of forest plots dominated by Abies alba Mill. and located in the Alt Pirineu Natural Park (PNAP) to test an integrative approach to quantify the forest regrowth potential and predict the time needed for a stand to reach their maximum aboveground carbon stock. The choice of Abies alba is due to their sensitivity to climate change. Previous studies in the area reported strong climatic constraints on the growth of A. alba. Thus, although other conifer species are more common in the PNAP, we consider relevant to test this approach first for a species that has been tagged as vulnerable to climate change in the study area. We use an empirical approach to estimate the potential canopy height of the forest based on the climatic water balance of each particular location. This is then related with the actual canopy height to obtain a proxy of past management or disturbance impacts. In addition, dendrochronological tools mastered by the research team have been used to determine the climate sensitivity and forest growth trends over the forest plot network, as well as constraints relative to forest demography (size-age distribution, size-specific growth trends). Figure 1 (below) synthesises the conceptual basis behind the proposed integrative approach. 

Figure 1. Conceptual scheme of the research proposal. It depicts the hypothetic change in mean canopy height over time, determined by the forest regrowth rate, which can be slower under a warmer and drier climate (red). The dashed line highlights the maximum canopy height attainable at a given location based on the climatic water balance, which is susceptible to vary with climate change (red). Once a certain canopy height is achieved, carbon stocks are at their maximum and will not increase further (in aboveground living biomass).