Mixed Species Forest Experiments

Summary

There has been much debate in Swedish society regarding the benefits of mixed forests as an alternative to monoculture management in the managed forest landscape. Further, some research has suggested that mixed forests deliver more ecosystem services, including higher forest productivity. Existing analysis of the benefits of mixed forests has been almost entirely focused on correlation based approaches using national forest inventory type data; whereas, carefully implemented experiments designed to test species mixing effects are lacking. Experiments are needed to independently assess the benefits of mixed forests, and further identify which specific species combination achieve the highest growth.

ecosystem services mixed forests monoculture