Biometrical models as tools for forest ecosystem management. An European review and perspective

This paper sketches how forest management functions in Europe and how knowledge about forest ecosystems can be instilled into the planning process via models. Simulation models support decisions by scenario analysis, which display the consequences of management options with respect to decisive system variables. While elsewhere plantations for intensive wood-production are separated from forests for conservation, in European forests a multitude of functions is integrated. This concept requires models, which quantify the ecological, economical, and social consequences of treatment options. The required information can be delivered by hybrid models, which are on the one hand simple enough with respect to input data, driving variables, and application, on the other hand sufficiently mechanistic in order to display matter and energy flow. Recommendations are given for a convergence of empirical and mechanistic models, for integration of models into the information flow of management, and for a successful transfer of scientific knowledge to end-users.