Managing Forest Ecosystems

Preface.- Acknowledgements.- 1. Introduction.- 1.1 Climatic conditions and forests of Finland.- 1.2 Early attempts to assess forest resources.- 1.3 The development of the National Forest Inventories in Finland.- 1.4 The use of the forest inventory results in forest policy.- 1.5 The use of national forest inventory data in the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol reporting.- 1.6 The role of national forest inventory in assessing the status of biodiversity.- 1.7 The content and structure of the book, further results of NFI9.- 2. Design and Measurements.- 2.1 Field sampling design.- 2.1.1 Sampling simulation.- 2.1.2 South Finland.- 2.1.3 North Finland (excluding North Lapland).- 2.1.4 North Lapland.- 2.2 Assessment units.- 2.2.1 Angle count plots.- 2.2.2 Stands.- 2.2.3 Other assessment units.- 2.3 Locating the field plots.- 2.4 Administrative information.- 2.5 Land use and classification of forestry land.- 2.6 Site variables.- 2.7 Soil variables.- 2.8 Drainage situation.- 2.9 Taxation class.- 2.10 Retention trees to maintain biodiversity of forests.- 2.11 Description of the growing stock of the stand.- 2.12 Damages.- 2.13 Silvicultural quality of stand.- 2.14 Accomplished and proposed measures.- 2.15 Key habitat characteristics.- 2.16 Tally tree measurements.- 2.17 Epiphytic lichens.- 2.18 Keystone tree species.- 2.19 All tree species.- 2.20 Dead wood measurements.- 2.21 Equipment for measurements.- 2.22 A correction to the height measurements of year 2001.- 2.22.1 The height correction models for the sample trees not re-measured.- 2.22.2 Models for correcting the height increments.- 2.23 Training and quality assurance.- 2.24 The workload and costs.- 3. Estimation Methods.- 3.1 Estimation of areas.- 3.2 Estimation of the current growing stock.- 3.2.1 Mean values per area unit.- 3.2.2 Mean diameters.- 3.2.3 Predicting sample tree form factors, volumes and timber assortment proportions.- 3.2.4 Predicting form heights for tally trees.- 3.3 Estimation of volume increment.- 3.3.1 Increment of a sample tree.- 3.3.2 Increment of survivor trees.- 3.3.3 Increment of drain.- 3.3.4 Total increment.- 3.4 Estimation of the volume of dead wood.- 3.5 Assessment of sampling error.- 3.5.1 Sampling error of ratio estimators.- 3.5.2 Sampling error of total volumes and aggregates.- 3.6 Thematic maps.- 4. Results.- 4.1 The areas of land use classes and their development.- 4.1.1 Forestry land.- 4.1.2 Forest land.- 4.1.3 Land classes based on FAO definitions.- 4.1.4 Land use changes based on the observations on the plot.- 4.1.5 Ownership information.- 4.2 Restrictions on forestry and area available for wood production.- 4.3 Soil classification and the areas of site fertility classes on mineral soils.- 4.4 Peatlands and their site classes.- 4.4.1 Peatland area and its changes.- 4.4.2 Land classes of peatlands.- 4.4.3 Drainage situation of peatlands.- 4.4.4 Principal site classes and site fertility classes on peatland soils.- 4.4.5 The thickness of the peat layer.- 4.5 Tree species dominance and composition.- 4.5.1 The dominant tree species.- 4.5.2. Tree species dominance by site fertility classes.- 4.5.3 Tree species mixtures.- 4.6 Age and development classes.- 4.6.1 The age distributions of stands and their changes.- 4.6.2 The development classes of stands and their changes.- 4.7 Growing stock.- 4.7.1 Mean volume estimates by tree species.- 4.7.2 Total growing stock estimates.- 4.7.3 Volume estimates of saw-timber.- 4.8. Volume increment.- 4.8.1. Increment estimates.- 4.8.2. Uncertainties in increment estimates and comparisons with estimates from earlier inventories.- 4.8.2.1 Sampling error.- 4.8.2.2 Changes in definitions, measurements, and estimation methods.- 4.8.2.3 Annual variation in increment.- 4.8.3. Forest balance.- 4.8.4. Changes in annual volume increment estimates since the 1950s.- 4.8.4.1 Changes in annual volume increment by age classes on mineral soils.- 4.8.4.2 Changes in annual volume increment estimates on peatland soil forests since the 1950s and the effect of peatland forestry on the increment.- 4.9 Protected areas.- 4.10 Forest damage.- 4.11 Silvicultural quality of forests.- 4.11.1 Silvicultural quality.- 4.11.2 Methods and success of regeneration.- 4.12 Management activities.- 4.12.1 Accomplished and proposed cuttings.- 4.12.2 Accomplished and proposed silvicultural measures.- 4.12.3 Drainage operations.- 4.13 Biodiversity indicators.- 4.13.1 Biodiversity measurements in NFI.- 4.13.2 Key habitats.- 4.13.3 Dead wood.- 4.13.3.1 The volume and quality of dead wood.- 4.13.3.2 Dead wood in forests not available for wood production.- 4.13.3.3 The volume of usable dead wood.- 4.13.4 Keystone tree species.- 4.13.5 Retention trees.- 5. Discussion.- 5.1 The development of volume and increment:, new estimates from NFI9.- 5.2 Estimation and error estimation.- 5.3 Comparisons of the NFI8 and NFI9 designs.- 5.4 Some experiences of the new measurements.- 5.5 Experiences with the new measurement devices.- 5.6 Changes in the design for NFI10.- Appendix.- References.- Subject Index.