OFRI Research: What's underway

For more than 60 years, OFRI researchers have been answering key questions related to sustainable forest management. Today they are working on MNR priorities such as:

OFRI Research Ecologist Jenn Dacosta measures a tree diameter near North Bay.

• climate change
• forest carbon
• invasive diseases
• Far North peatlands
• biomass energy
• plant biodiversity
• silviculture (the science of growing trees)
• and more!

Researchers do their work in the growth rooms, greenhouses, and labs at OFRI, in OFRI’s arboretum outside Sault Ste. Marie, and in field plots across the province—from the boreal forests near Thunder Bay to the peatlands around Attawapiskat to Halliburton’s hardwood forests to Port Dover’s red pine plantations.

 

Most of their projects involve partners whose contributions are critical to reaching research goals. These partners include MNR forest policy and science specialists, university and Canadian Forest Service researchers, and others. By working together, researchers can share resources, risks, rewards, and results.

 

Helpful hints!

• Scroll down to see what OFRI researchers are working on. We provide brief summaries of each research area as well as specific project titles (for those working in forest management and research).
• If you’d like to know more about a project, contact the lead researcher directly (first name listed under each project) or email information.ofri@ontario.ca.
• You can also visit researchers’ profiles on OFRI’s People page for links to web news articles, publications, and recorded seminars.
• For recent scientific/technical publications, visit the OFRI Publications page.  

 

Climate change

Researchers examine a peat core from a peatland near White River.

Ontario’s forests and peatlands store lots of carbon and help offset fossil fuel emissions. OFRI researchers are learning more about how carbon cycles through forests and peatlands and how to change management practices to ensure that forests and peatlands continue to take in and store carbon. They are also studying how to help forests withstand stressors related to climate change (frost damage, insect outbreaks). And they are looking at how to help forests adapt to a changing climate, for example, by making sure that trees genetically suited to a certain climate are planted where that climate will be in the future rather than where that climate is today.

Climate change and peatland carbon storage
Jim McLaughlin

Genecology studies to support forest adaptation to climate change, including assisted migration and genetic conservation
Bill Parker, Steve Colombo, Pengxin Lu, Rongzhou Man

Forest carbon modelling in Ontario
Steve Colombo, Michael Ter-Mikaelian, Jiaxin Chen

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in high-density tree plantations
Bill Parker, Steve Colombo, Pengxin Lu

Vulnerability of boreal trees to frost damage with warming climate
Rongzhou Man, Pengxin Lu, Steve Colombo

Climatic effects on height growth and site productivity of jack pine and black spruce plantations
Mahadev Sharma, Michael Ter-Mikaelian

Forest growth and yield/modelling

OFRI’s growth and yield modellers develop computer models to predict how Ontario’s forests will grow and change under varying conditions over time. Information about future forests is important to those who plan for how Ontario’s forests will be used.

Differences in height-diameter relationships between plantations and natural stands
Mahadev Sharma

Predicting tree and stand timber product recovery
Voyteck Zakrzewski 

Forest health and pathology

Glenna Halicki Hayden, supervisor of OFRI's pathology lab, examines samples of fungi that cause tree diseases.

Every year, far more Ontario trees are lost to forest diseases and insects than to harvesting. OFRI researchers are learning how forest diseases and insects affect Ontario’s trees and forest ecosystems, how these pests spread, and how they can be controlled. They are especially interested in invasive diseases that threaten native trees such as American beech and butternut.

Screening butternut for resistance to butternut canker and genetic diversity in butternut
John McLaughlin

Dynamics, impacts, and management of beechbark disease and effects of moving beech firewood
John McLaughlin

Response of aspen stands to forest tent caterpillar defoliation and subsequent overstory mortality
Rongzhou Man

Genetics

A tiny spruce tree germinated via somatic embryogenesis.

OFRI’s genetics researchers are studying how to protect the genetic diversity of Ontario’s trees. The more genetically diverse a population is, the more likely it will adapt to change (such as warming temperatures) or to survive a disease outbreak or other stressor. Researchers are also working on tree improvement—using tree breeding to produce higher-value trees with traits such as faster growth or the ability to resist disease.

Developing genetic resistance to blister rust in white pine
Pengxin Lu

Somatic embryogenesis (tree cloning) for genetic conservation and tree improvement
Pengxin Lu

Scientific support to provincial tree improvement programs
Pengxin Lu

Landscape ecology

The BFOLDS model is used to simulate fire patterns.

Some ecosystem components (caribou, songbirds, old growth) and some ecological processes (fire, succession) can be fully understood only when taking a big-picture view of the forest. OFRI’s landscape ecology researchers help resource managers make more informed decisions by developing models that show how ecological processes and patterns occur over large land areas and long time frames.

Developing the Boreal Forest Landscape Dynamics Simulator (BFOLDS) v. 2.0
Ajith Perera

Forest management and ecology

OFRI’s silviculture researchers are studying new ways to harvest, renew, and tend Ontario’s forests.

OFRI’s silviculture researchers are studying new ways to harvest, renew, and tend Ontario’s forests. They work in many forest types in the boreal, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence, and southern regions of the province. Their projects tie into key MNR priorities such as producing renewable biomass energy, ensuring that harvest patterns mimic natural disturbance as much as possible, sustaining plant diversity, and ensuring that healthy new forests grow back after harvest.

Developing sustainable mixedwood practices in a stand-level adaptive management (SLAM) framework
Rongzhou Man, Jim McLaughlin

Effects of windthrow and salvage logging on forest regeneration and succession of aspen-dominated boreal mixedwoods
Rongzhou Man

Intensive forest management: NEBIE Plot Network
Wayne Bell, Mahadev Sharma, John McLaughlin, Tom Noland, Jim McLaughlin

Plant ecology, diversity, and early succession: Traits of Plants in Canada Database
Wayne Bell

Fallingsnow Ecosystem Project: Competition for light and nutrients in spruce-aspen mixedwoods
Wayne Bell, Mahadev Sharma

Post-harvest residual stand density, understory light, and regeneration potential of boreal mixedwoods
Bill Parker

Ecophysiological aspects of silviculture
Bill Parker

Variable density thinning to restore conifer plantations to native forest types in southern Ontario
Bill Parker

Response of residual white cedar to partial harvesting
Rongzhou Man

Herbicide tolerance of northern white cedar seedlings
Tom Noland, Rongzhou Man

Effect of forest management on woodland caribou forage quality
Tom Noland

Modelling spatio-temporal variations in leaf chlorophyll content for broadleaf and needle forest canopies
Tom Noland

Sustainability of increased biofibre utilization in partial harvest silviculture systems in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest Region
Trevor Jones

Soils/hydrology

Soil and water form the foundation for ecosystems—they provide trees and plants with the nutrients and moisture they need to grow and thrive. OFRI’s soil and water researchers are learning about how forest management activities affect soil and water nutrients, water quality, and forest productivity, to help ensure forests are able to grow and thrive for future generations to use and enjoy.

Riparian areas and water quality in the boreal forest
Jim McLaughlin

Watershed carbon and nutrient cycling
Jim McLaughlin