Anna Maria Jönsson
Head of department
Recorded storm damage in Swedish forests 1901-2000
Author
Summary, in English
Severe storm damage has been a recurring problem to the Swedish forestry sector since, at least, the start of the 19th century. This short communication presents a regionally resolved time-series of storm damage in Swedish forests during the last century. Data on storm damage have been gathered from the National Board of Forestry, the Regional Forestry Boards and scientific reports. Storm damage in Swedish forests seems to have increased during the century with a peak around the 1980s. In total 110 million m 3 forest were destroyed by 77 recorded wind storms, with the severe storms in 1954 and 1969 accounting for 49% of the total damage. Reported damage in southern Sweden was normalised against the area of productive forest with trees older than 40 years, for inter annual comparisons. The geostrophic wind was used to describe the regional wind direction during the storm events. Most damage occurred during NNW to SW winds, and by winds from NNE. Apart from a possible shift in storm intensity and frequency, the increase in storm damaged trees can be attributed to changes in regeneration and thinning regimes, variations in storm damage reporting system, increase in forest cover and various damage to root architecture.
Department/s
- Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- Department of Biology
Publishing year
2004
Language
English
Pages
165-173
Publication/Series
Forest Ecology and Management
Volume
199
Issue
1
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Ecology
- Physical Geography
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1872-7042