Helping forests face the future - Université du Québec à Montréal - Clément Hardy

Forests perform many very important functions for the Earth as a whole. They store carbon and provide habitat for many species, thus supporting biodiversity. But these functions may be compromised in future by the impacts of climate change and globalization. The UN has recognized the importance of protecting these functions in its sustainable development goals 13 and 15.
The purpose of our ecological research is to determine whether forest management can help to protect the ecological functions of Canadian forests by diversifying the species of trees that live in them. We use computer modelling to analyze forests on a large scale, over the long term, under various possible scenarios.
We hope that our research will serve as the basis for the development of new forestry practices that can be used to protect forests in a changing world.