Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UBC Okanagan
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Forest Ecology, University of British Columbia
GIS Land Use Planning & Watershed Assessment, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia
PhD, Forest Ecology, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
MSc, Forest Ecology, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
I have a broad interest in various aspects of sustainable management of forested watersheds, but particularly interactions between forests, water and aquatic habitat. Viewing myself as an eco-hydrologist, I am a strong advocate for an ecosystem-based approach for research and management at various spatial and temporal scales with a disturbance context in forested watersheds.
2026 Winter Workshop Presentation Abstract: Thinning as an Effective Adaptation Tool for a Changing Climate
Adam Wei (RPF), Professor of Forest Hydrology, UBC Okanagan, Canada
British Columbia (BC) forests are undergoing significant pressures from climate change and increasing forest disturbance such as wildfire, heatwave etc. How to manage BC forests to ensure resilient ecological functions (i.e., carbon sequestration, hydrological provision, productivity) in the new era is an important but critical question. Here, we reported a 10-year experimental study on the ecohydrological effects of thinning in a young, over-stocked lodgepole pine forest established at the Upper Penticton Experimental Watershed, BC in 2016. The experiment involves two thinning treatments (T1: 4,500 stems per ha; and T2: 1,100 stems per ha) and one control (C: 27,000 stems per ha) that were randomly assigned in three blocks. During the study period of 2016-2024, the plots experienced the drought event in 2017 and heatwave in 2021, which provided excellent opportunities for assessing how thinning treatments might mitigate the impacts caused by extreme climate events.
Our results show that the thinning treatments can significantly increase tree growth of remaining trees, while they greatly reduce water consumption (stand-level transpiration). Based on simulations considering future climate change scenarios, we recommend 2500–3500 stems per ha as suitable densities for a better balancing between total carbon and water. Our data also demonstrate that the thinning treatments effectively mitigated the impacts of both climatic events in terms of growth, water consumption and water use efficiency (WUE). We conclude that thinning can be an effective adaptation tool for young, over-stocked lodgepole pine forests to cope with future climate change impacts.
Additional Research by Adam Wei is presented in these Publications
https://siscobc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Heatwave-paper-2025.pdf
https://siscobc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Isotopes-2024.pdf
https://siscobc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Thinning-paper-2019.pdf