Modelling Forest Management Approaches: Creating Our Own Toy Model & Collaborating with Our Indigenous Partners

An update on progress of two of DIVERSE’s themes: Functional Complex Networks and Evaluation of Various Forest Management Approaches Under Global Stressors 

Dr. Marie-Josee Fortin is leading DIVERSE’s 3^rd and 4^th themes: Functional Complex Networks and Evaluation of Various Forest Management Approaches Under Global Stressors, and her team has been busy getting things moving for this portion of the project. These two themes are so interconnected that many of the students and post-docs working in this part of the project are involved in both of them. Currently, the Theme 3 & 4 team includes two post-doctoral fellows and two PhD students.  

Modeling in Manawan 

To assess the impacts of different harvesting levels and methods (clearcutting vs. partial cutting), as well as climate change, on the Atikamekw territory, the team collaborated with the community of Manawan to conduct comprehensive simulations. The results have been made available through a user-friendly web app, allowing the Manawan community to easily access and explore the findings.  A connectivity analysis was also conducted for wildlife (moose), using different open-source software (Omniscape, Linkage Mapper). The methodology and scripts have also been made publicly available on GitHub, and they have since been used in other projects related to First Nations territories in Quebec 

Using LANDIS-II to Evaluate Forest Management Approaches 

To evaluate forest management approaches under global stressors, Marie-Josee’s team is working with LANDIS-II, a forest landscape simulation model. LANDIS-II simulates forest change over time, accounting for tree growth and succession, and—optionally—how these processes are influenced by various disturbances such as fire, wind, insects, forest management, and land use changes (see the LANDIS-II website for more info). Specifically, this evaluation is to be done utilizing the PnET-Succession extension of LANDIS-II (see more info here). To support this work, the DIVERSE project brought on Matthew Garcia as our LANDIS-II Programmer and Analyst, back in November 2024. He has been collaborating closely with Clément Hardy, DIVERSE’s LANDIS-II Technician.  

The LANDIS-II team has been working to make the calibration of the PnET-succession extension more streamlined, transparent and open to replicate for other regions, so that other research teams can participate or approve the process in future. 

Recently, the team has been working on developing a “toy” soil hydrology and runoff routing model, that will be integrated into the PnET-succession LANDIS-II model. This is necessary because PnET-Succession does not currently consider topography and lacks mechanisms to simulate how surface water and soil moisture are redistributed across the landscape. By adding this hydrological component, the model will be able to simulate how soil moisture varies with terrain—for example, drier conditions on ridgelines versus wetter, waterlogged soils in valley bottoms. These improvements will allow for more realistic modeling of forest dynamics, especially in terms of where and when new tree cohorts are likely to establish, based on more accurate, topographically informed estimates of soil moisture. 

Functional Complex Networks (FCN) 

Theme 3, “Functional Complex Networks”, will be integrated into the LANDIS-II model later in the project. 

Functional Complex Networks are a fundamental concept in the DIVERSE project, aiming to maximize adaptability and resilience of forests through implementing functional diversity and redundancy into our forests.  

In preparation for this, the Theme 3 team has been developing a working document to assist when it comes time to implement FCN. The team has also begun to address the issue of spatial scale in relation to the FCN approach, aiming to test whether implementing functional enrichment in forest stands can effectively enhance forest biomass and resilience. If so, the key question becomes: at what spatial scale should functional enrichment be implemented? These questions are being investigated using the LANDIS-II model in combination with the PnET succession extension and custom Python scripts.  

Data Acquisition 

The research team also developed a database to store data acquired for each DIVERSE site.  A call for data was sent out to each partner and stored in this database. 

If you are one of our partners, and you encounter any issues sending us your data, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We’re happy to help.