Data and statistical code for "Reconciling biodiversity with timber production and revenue via an intensive forest management experiment"

Abstract

Understanding how land-management intensification shapes the relationships between biodiversity, yield and economic benefit is critical for managing natural resources. Yet, manipulative experiments that test how herbicides affect these relationships are scarce, particularly in forest ecosystems where considerable time lags exist between harvest revenue and initial investments. We assessed these relationships by combining 7 years of biodiversity surveys (>800 taxa) and forecasts of timber yield and economic return from a replicated, large-scale experiment that manipulated herbicide application intensity in operational timber plantations. Herbicides reduced species richness across trophic groups (-18%), but responses by higher-level trophic groups were more variable (0–38% reduction) than plant responses (-40%). Financial discounting, a conventional economic method to standardize past and future cashflows, strongly modified biodiversity-revenue relationships caused by management intensity. Despite a projected 28% timber yield gain with herbicides, biodiversity-revenue tradeoffs were muted when opportunity costs were high (i.e., economic discount rates ≥7%). Although herbicides can drive biodiversity-yield tradeoffs, under certain conditions, financial discounting provides opportunities to reconcile biodiversity conservation with revenue.

摘要
厘清土地经营集约化如何塑造生物多样性、产量与经济效益之间的关联，对于自然资源管理至关重要。然而，旨在探究除草剂如何影响上述三者关系的控制性实验却十分匮乏，尤其是在采伐收益与初始投资存在显著时间滞后的森林生态系统中。本研究依托一项在商品用材林中开展的、调控除草剂施用强度的重复大尺度实验，结合7年的生物多样性调查（涵盖超800个分类群（taxa））数据与木材产量、经济收益预测结果，对上述关联进行了评估。除草剂降低了各营养级类群（trophic groups）的物种丰富度（降幅达18%），但高级营养级类群的响应（降幅0%~38%）相较于植物类群（降幅40%）更为多变。金融贴现（financial discounting）作为一种标准化过往与未来现金流的经典经济学方法，会显著改变由经营强度差异所带来的生物多样性-收益关联。尽管施用除草剂预计可使木材产量提升28%，但当机会成本（opportunity costs）较高（即经济贴现率≥7%）时，生物多样性与收益之间的权衡关系会被弱化。尽管除草剂可能引发生物多样性与产量之间的权衡，但在特定条件下，金融贴现可为协调生物多样性保护与收益增长提供可行路径。