Forestry
UCD Forest Research covers a wide range of areas, from forest nursery practices to the non-market benefits of forestry. The research can be divided into basic research, focussing on a better understanding of the biological, physiological and ecological processes that underpin the growth and development of trees and forests, and applied research where this understanding is combined with sociological, economic, mathematical, and computer science knowledge to develop new procedures and methodologies to improve the contributions of forests to society.
Many of our current research projects are focussing on developing solutions to problems associated with changes in the economic, environmental and social context in which forestry operates. Examples of such changes are the introduction of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) as the national standard, the move from state to private afforestation, the increased emphasis on broadleaf forestry and on the use of alternative silvicultural systems, the changing demands Irish society places on forest products and services, the changing attitudes of urban and rural people towards forestry, and climate change and the role of forests in terms of mitigation combined with a need for adaptation. Furthermore, the expansion and ownership diversification of the forest estate also requires more sophisticated inventory, planning and management systems.
Current research aims to:
- Understand dormancy mechanisms and develop
pretreatments to break dormancy of forest seeds and maximise germination in the
nursery
- Examine the impacts of cultural
practices on the morphological and physiological quality of important tree species
- Determine the effect of the amount
and method of nitrogen fertilisation on nutrient uptake, soil leaching dynamics
and seedling quality in pedunculate oak
- Evaluate the impact of forest
thinning practices on the physiological responses of underplanted tree species
- Determine the key factors affecting
the establishment and growth of tree species in mixtures
- Develop dynamic yield models for conifers,
broadleaves and mixtures of tree species
- Develop single tree volume models and stem profile
models
- Develop an inventory protocol and
decision support system for the management of privately-owned forests
- Evaluate the use of terrestrial
laser scanning for multi-resource forest inventories
- Assess the use of remote sensing
techniques for forest delineation, inventory and change detection
- Establish a
national resource of field trials and a database for forest research and
demonstration (www.natforex.com)
- Assess and model the carbon
sequestration potential of forest ecosystems, including above and below ground
components and wood decomposition (www.ucd.ie/carbifor)
- Develop a GIS-based multi-objective decision
support system for the optimal management of forests on sensitive sites
- Evaluate the susceptibility of
forest tree species to climate change impacts, especially drought
- Develop a geospatial model for the
forecasting of private sector timber supply
- Evaluate the impact of agro-forestry
systems on farmers’ livelihoods, biodiversity and carbon pools
- Explore the factors influencing a
farmer’s decision to afforest land and identify strategies to increase the
level of farm afforestation
- Estimate the value of the non-market
goods associated with different “types” of afforestation programmes
- Expand the knowledge base on low
impact silvicultural systems (LISS, CCF) in Ireland.
