Summary
Forest management agencies are increasingly interested in establishing desired future conditions that are compatible with projected changes in climate. Maintaining, conserving, or restoring tree species diversity and enhancing carbon stocks are often identified as important climate mitigation strategies. Mixed hardwood-softwood stands or “mixedwoods” are often structurally and compositionally diverse because of the differing shade tolerances, growth rates, longevities, phenology, and crown and root structure of the constituent species. There has long been interest in the benefits of mixedwoods because of their potential to produce a greater timber volume or biomass, to provide more diverse habitats, and to be more resistant or resilient to contemporary pests and pathogen than pure stands. They also may be better suited for projected climates although assessing this has remained a challenge. They adapted a method for assessing the compatibility and adaptability of contemporary mixedwood stands to projected climate scenarios. Their assessment suggests that some mixedwoods are more compatible with projected future climates than are others but that all of the mixedwoods that they examined appeared to be better adapted than pure softwood stands.
