Impact of Forest Management on Wood Production under Climate Change in the Bonis Catchment

Forest ecosystems are sensitive to the changing environment (climate, soil conditions, pollution., etc.), which affects tree dynamics, for example [1]. Climate change is a challenge for the forest since it has a direct impact on this ecosystem [2]. The projected climatic change trends showed to have both negative and positive impacts on forests [3] that are considered a key solution to mitigate climate change effects [4]. Adapting forest management to cope with climate change requires a better understanding of the interactions between climate projections and forest management options. The United Nations promoted the sustainable forest management concept, which mainly gained importance in the last century [5,6]. Today, several management options have been set, allowing for better and more sustainable forest growth, and have been adopted by forest managers targeting the optimization of wood yield [7]. Meanwhile, forest management options should account for several criteria and different conflicts of interest among stakeholders [8]. Forest managers tend to prioritize timber production when managing forests while risking the alteration of the trees’ production due to climate change [9]. In this context, the selection of management options needs to consider climate change impacts while preserving the ecosystem’s services [10]. In particular, forest management must achieve both economic and environmental aims focused mainly on biodiversity conservation and, at the same time, emphasize the ecological, economic, and social functions at both a local and global scale. Thinning proved its positive impact on forest growth since it decreases tree densities, thus reducing leaf area and competition among trees [11,12]. In addition, forest management through thinning takes into account not only the regulation of C-stocks and C-uptake capacity, but at the same time raises drought stress resistance with the reduction in water competition, and slows down the aging effects of Mediterranean forests as opposed to no forest management [13,14]. Commonly, various forest management options are carried out taking into account several usual densities and intervals according to the local and regional forest regulations and policies. Meanwhile, sometimes these decisions do not adjust to changing environmental and climatic conditions [15]. In the context of climate change and limited water resources, integrated water resource management has been proposed as a concept for watershed management [16]. In the latter, vegetation is considered one of the main components, especially in forested watersheds. In effect, to assist stakeholders in selecting the forest management options to be implemented, two kinds of support tools are available: long-term observations and simulation models [17]. Over the decades, several eco-hydrological models have been developed. These models take into consideration the interplay between the ecological and hydrological cycles [18]. In addition, these models made it possible to forecast the effect of the different forest management options on forest growth and the hydrological response of forest watersheds. These models are used for forecasting the impact of forest management scenarios combined with the effect of climate change scenarios.