Maintaining the high diversity of pine and oak species in Mexican temperate forests: a new management approach combining functional zoning and ecosystem adaptability

Abstract

Mexican temperate forests, at the southernmost end of the distribution range of this ecosystem, are the world’s centre of diversity of pine and oak, with 55 and 161 species, respectively. Such forests are threatened by land-use change, unsustainable forest management practices, and climate change; these threats reduce their diversity, alter the distribution ranges of species, modify disturbance regimes, and reduce ecosystem adaptability. This paper briefly reviews (i) the ecology of the Mexican temperate forests, (ii) the ecological basis for the unique diversity of pine and oak species, (iii) the main disturbances as well as the main drivers of global changes affecting these forests, in particular climate change, and (iv) the social, economic, and cultural factors to be considered in proposing a new forest management approach. It proposes a new conceptual framework to manage Mexican temperate forests that are in line with (i) their natural dynamics, (ii) the rapidly changing and uncertain global environmental, social, and economic conditions, and (iii) the complex adaptive system approach. This new forest management combines functional zoning, multispecies plantations, and sylvicultural interventions to increase the adaptive capacity of forests as a way to balance the increasing need for timber products with the need for other ecosystem services facing rapidly changing and uncertain future environmental, social, and economic conditions.