We developed a life-cycle analysis (LCA) system to quantify the carbon dynamics for Canadian-made harvested wood products (HWP). We considered the carbon stocks of HWP in use and in landfills/dumps, emissions reduced by substituting HWP for non-wood construction materials, HWP production emissions and methane emissions from decomposing wood disposed of in landfills. Carbon dynamics analyses were conducted for five HWP production scenarios. Results indicate structural panels have the highest potential in mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, followed by lumber and non-structural panels. Net GHG effects of Canadian-made HWP were evaluated by integrating HWP carbon dynamics with forest carbon analysis using four forest management units (a total of 2.21 million ha of forests managed for timber production) from Ontario, Canada, as a case study. If HWP substitution benefits were estimated using the average displacement factor, and the wood obtained by increasing harvesting (relative to the baseline harvest scenario) in these four management units is used for structural panel, lumber, non-structural panel and business as usual HWP production, 0, 21, 39 and 84 years are needed to achieve net emission reductions, respectively; net emission reductions were, respectively, estimated to be 112, 93, 66 and 21 Mt CO₂-equivalent in 100 years. Our results suggest harvesting sustainably managed forests in Canada to produce long-lived solid HWP can significantly contribute to GHG mitigation.

Forest succession is a dynamic process of progressive compositional development of ecological communities of species following natural or anthropogenic disturbance. Despite a rich history of conceptual frameworks, models, and empirical advances, the complex interactions among climatic conditions, disturbances, edaphic factors, and silvicultural treatments still challenge our ability to accurately predict forest succession, hindering application to forest management. Our goal was to improve understanding of forest succession in the managed boreal forests of North America by clarifying advances in knowledge and limitations in our understanding. We reviewed 152 peer-reviewed papers to: ( i) document conceptual developments in forest succession; ( ii) summarize drivers of North American boreal forest succession, including changes to forest composition and successional trajectories given climate change; and ( iii) discuss the implications of the synthesized information for boreal forest management. While the element of stochasticity is expected to increase under climate change, successional dynamics are anticipated to remain predominantly deterministic. Southern boreal forests are at increased risk of mortality due to warming-driven drought and increased fires. Following disturbance, regeneration is likely to favor deciduous hardwoods. In boreal mixedwoods, increased fires would promote jack pine, and also black spruce on hydric and xeric sites. Dynamics of the northern boreal will depend on the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration. Forest management must carefully select prescriptions to promote forest regeneration and composition that consider the long-term effects of changing climate and disturbance regimes. For instance, combining retention cut with mechanical site preparation would maintain site productivity and reverse open black spruce stand development in northern boreal stands. Our work shows that multiple disturbances have compounding effects on forest development, but further work is needed to better define thresholds for synergistic and buffering interactions. Modeling of boreal forest succession can be improved by incorporating more of the influential factors, but this is often limited by the lack of data. This information will guide the development of forest management strategies by exploring combinations of prescribed fire and variable intensity selection cutting systems to reproduce the effects of multiple interacting natural disturbances under climate change on successional dynamics.