Assessing the impacts of four alternative management strategies on forest timber and carbon values in northeast China

Forest management strategies, reflecting the cognition and the demands of the human population on forests, have significant effects on the forest structures and functions. Nowadays, numerous forest management strategies have been introduced and implemented worldwide for a long time. However, our knowledge about the impacts of alternative management strategies on forest multipurpose management practices is still insufficient. Therefore, the overall goal of this study quantitatively assessed the impacts of four alternative forest management strategies on forest timber and carbon values in a large forest area in northeast China, as an example. Four alternative forest management strategies: no intervention management (NIM), classical timber management (CTM), multi-purpose management (MPM), and spatial-constraints management (SCM), in conjunction with different management objectives and regulations, were quantitative assessed using optimization methods. The results of numerical analysis showed that implementin...