Facultatea de Silvicultură și exploatări forestiere

Summary

Forest dynamics is one of the major contributing factors to global change, affecting land use, climate and economic development (Geist and Lambin, 2001; 2002; Obersteiner et al., 2009). Loss of forests affects the provision of important ecosystem services, including increasing biodiversity, improving the environment, carbon storage and water resources (Foley et al., 2005). Long-term changes in forests have major consequences on ecosystem functioning, carbon storage, climate regulation and biodiversity (DeFries et al., 2004; Newbold et al., 2015).
The aim of the project is to quantify the dynamics of forests in the long and short term through satellite remote sensing and aerial imagery taken by drones, and to identify the influence of this dynamic on the ecosystem in terms of changing habitat conditions and species distribution

The existence of any individual regardless of species is conditioned by the existing habitat conditions. Habitat means the species-friendly environment (Fischer and Lindenmayer 2007), a concept similar to the growth space proposed for O'Hara forest trees (1988) as "all the resources needed for a tree to exist in a particular place". As such, changing habitat conditions may lead to the extinction of some species. However, it is known that the same place cannot offer conditions for all species at the same time, some being able to use the growth space (e.g. resources) and concentrations unfavorable to others (Oliver and Larson 1996). As such, certain structures of the forest will favor certain species and, at the same time, will favor others. In order to have as many species simultaneously (i.e. as complete biodiversity), conditions characteristic of the various phases of forest development as an ecosystem are needed simultaneously (Lindenmayer & Franklin, 2002; Tscharntke et al. 2005). Thus, the approach must be done on large areas (forest landscapes with areas between 3km2 and 300km2 - Fischer and Lindenmayer 2007). Given that the structure of the forest changes throughout its existence, with or without human intervention, knowledge of long and short-term changes becomes important for understanding and managing biodiversity (e.g. the species that exist at one point in time in a certain place).