Multiple forest attributes underpin the supply of multiple ecosystem services.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Forestry
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Trade-offs and synergies among forest ecosystem services are prevalent but their underlying drivers remain unclear.
• Effective forest management requires understanding how to promote multiple services simultaneously.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationships between forest attributes and environmental factors with the supply of 14 ecosystem services.
• To identify key drivers of synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 12 stand-level forest attributes (structure, composition, heterogeneity, diversity) and 4 environmental factors.
• Assessment of proxies for 14 ecosystem services across 150 temperate forest plots.

Main Results:

• Forest attributes were the primary predictors for most ecosystem services and identified synergies/trade-offs.
• Environmental factors influenced ecosystem services, often in conjunction with forest attributes.

Conclusions:

• Increasing structural heterogeneity, retaining large trees, and maintaining canopy gaps can promote multiple ecosystem services.
• Forest management strategies can foster multifunctional forests, and landscape-scale coordination can mitigate service trade-offs.