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Recently, the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: a Second Notice was issued in response to ongoing and largely unabated environmental degradation due to anthropogenic activities. In the warning, humanity is urged to practice more environmentally sustainable alternatives to business as usual to avoid potentially catastrophic outcomes. Following the success of their warning, the Alliance of World Scientists called for discipline-specific follow-up papers. This paper is an answer to that call for the topic of wildland fire. Across much of Canada and the world, wildfires are anticipated to increase in severity and frequency in response to anthropogenic activities. The world scientists' second warning provides the opportunity for wildland fire researchers to raise the profile of the potential impacts that anthropogenic activities are likely to have on future fire regimes and, in return, what impacts future fire regimes may have on humanity. We discuss how wildfire is related to several issues of concern raised in the world scientists' second warning, including climate change, human population growth, biodiversity and forests, and freshwater availability. Furthermore, we touch on the potential future health impacts and challenges to wildfire suppression and management in Canada. In essence, our wildfire scientists' warning to humanity is that we, as a society, will have to learn to live with more fire on the landscape. We provide some recommendations on how we might move forward to prepare for and adapt to future wildfire regimes in Canada. Although this paper is primarily Canadian in focus, the concepts and information herein also draw from international examples and are of relevance globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an approach employing multiobjective optimization to support decision making in forest management planning under risk. The primary objectives are biodiversity and timber cash flow, evaluated from two perspectives: the expected value and the value-at-risk (VaR). In addition, the risk level for both the timber cash flow and biodiversity values are included as objectives. With our approach, we highlight the trade-off between the expected value and the VaR, as well as between the VaRs of the two objectives of interest. We employ an interactive method in which a decision maker iteratively provides preference information to find the most preferred management plan and learns about the interdependencies of the objectives at the same time. The method is illustrated with a case study in which biodiversity is assessed through an index calculated from the characteristics of the forest. Uncertainty is included both through modifying the input data according to the accuracy of current inventory methods and through growth model errors. This uncertainty is described using a set of 25 scenarios. Involving multiple components of risk is a highly relevant approach in multiobjective forestry; however, estimation of the uncertainty of biodiversity needs further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican temperate forests, at the southernmost end of the distribution range of this ecosystem, are the world's centre of diversity of pine and oak, with 55 and 161 species, respectively. Such forests are threatened by land-use change, unsustainable forest management practices, and climate change; these threats reduce their diversity, alter the distribution ranges of species, modify disturbance regimes, and reduce ecosystem adaptability. This paper briefly reviews ( i) the ecology of the Mexican temperate forests, ( ii) the ecological basis for the unique diversity of pine and oak species, ( iii) the main disturbances as well as the main drivers of global changes affecting these forests, in particular climate change, and ( iv) the social, economic, and cultural factors to be considered in proposing a new forest management approach. It proposes a new conceptual framework to manage Mexican temperate forests that are in line with ( i) their natural dynamics, ( ii) the rapidly changing and uncertain global environmental, social, and economic conditions, and ( iii) the complex adaptive system approach. This new forest management combines functional zoning, multispecies plantations, and sylvicultural interventions to increase the adaptive capacity of forests as a way to balance the increasing need for timber products with the need for other ecosystem services facing rapidly changing and uncertain future environmental, social, and economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uniform angle index (UAI) is used to characterize the spatial distribution of a forest community or of individual tree species within that community. This study presents an empirical assessment of the performance of a new statistical test used in conjunction with the UAI. In this study, the UAI is applied to observed and simulated communities. The effect of plot size and density are examined and the results are compared with the criteria of the aggregation index R of Clark and Evan (CE-R) and Ripley's L function (RL). The results suggest that the UAI performs well in determining a particular class of spatial pattern and that, in contrast to the CE-R index, it is unaffected by population density because the standard deviation can be estimated when the density is known using a new empirical relationship presented in this paper. The results of this study represent an improvement in the development of the UAI, verifying its performance and confirming its overall utility. Our comparative analysis positions the UAI among its historical competitors, the CE-R and RL criteria. The UAI index, which does not require expensive mapping of tree positions, can produce results that are equivalent to those obtained by RL and more robust and reliable than those obtained by CE-R. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of threatened and endangered species can be improved by understanding their patterns of genetic diversity and structure. This paper presents the results of the first analysis of the population genetics of butternut (Juglans cinerea L.) using nuclear microsatellites. Butternut once was an economically and ecologically valuable hardwood, but now its numbers are rapidly decreasing throughout its native range in eastern North America. By genotyping butternut trees (n = 157) from five populations at seven highly polymorphic loci, we determined that the remaining genetic diversity for the species is considerably higher than previously estimated (mean HE = 0.75). Populations were nearly genetically homogenous (FST = 0.025), with no evidence of isolation by distance. These results indicate that butternut retains a large amount of genetic diversity, and that it is not too late to implement strategies to conserve local butternut populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated three primary causes of old-growth forest pedodiversity imposed by top-down trophic interactions, including pit and mound topography from past tree fall events, current canopy gaps from tree falls, and the influence of individual tree species on soil properties and processes. In this paper, we discuss the effects of pits, mounds, gaps, and individual tree species on pedodiversity in a single soil map unit in an old-growth northern hardwood forest. Pits and level areas had significantly greater soil organic matter, cation-exchange capacity, and exchangeable K and Ca contents than mounds. Gap subplots had significantly less cation-exchange capacity, K, Mg, and Ca compared with level areas within the contiguous forest. Base cations (K, Mg, and Ca) were significantly greater under sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) compared with eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.). Extractable P was significantly greater under yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britt.) compared with eastern hemlock. We quantified pedodiversity in an old-growth northern hardwood forest stand and single soil map unit using principal components analyses, ArcGIS, and biodiversity indices. Our results suggest that pedodiversity should be considered in soil survey and forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]