Dr. Teresa Fidalgo Fonseca is a Professor of Forest Science at the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) in Portugal, where she studies forest resources engineering and silviculture, focusing on the practice of aligning woodlands growth management with community values and needs. She serves as Division 1 Deputy Coordinator for Silviculture at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and Guest Editor of academic journals Forests and Frontiers in Forest Management.

Her recent publication, Management of Maritime Pine: Energetic Potential with Alternative Silvicultural Guidelines, was co-authored with José Lousada and published in Forest Biomass: From Trees to Energy in February 2021. In it, Teresa presents new guidance for managing maritime pine species, developed and verified using simulations in her ModisPinaster model. Ultimately, the results of this study, when implemented, have the potential to optimize yield of biomass, a cost-effective and sustainable source of renewable energy.

A statistical evangelist, Teresa has used JMP for many years, both in the classroom and in her own research.

Meg: Which came first – your interest in forestry or your interest in statistics?

Teresa: There was an excellent forestry engineering course of dendrometry I took as an undergraduate student at UTAD that was taught by a brilliant professor who introduced me to forest biometrics and modeling. At the time, I’d been feeling that I very much enjoyed statistics, and it was so exciting to find out that I could apply statistics in forestry!

After graduation, I completed my MS in forest resources engineering and worked on modeling stem taper of eucalyptus [the diameter of a tree’s bole as a function of height above ground]. Then I did my PhD – also in modeling – and created a model, now freely available through the French platform Capsis, that simulates the dynamics of maritime pine, including mortality, growth and diameter distributions.

That model, ModisPinaster, came about in answer to a problem: at that time we did not have a forest model for the most represented conifer species in Northern Portugal that could be used for forest planning! We implemented several permanent plots in the field, collected data and then I developed it into what was at first a conceptual creation. Now it is not just constrained to Portuguese forests but can be used by other researchers from other places.

Meg: What do you see as the potential impact of implementing the silvicultural guidelines you used ModisPinaster to develop?

Teresa: Forest management should always be based on science. Traditionally, managers have used guidelines derived from empirical studies that do not have the strength we can provide with statistical modeling. In the case of [my recent paper in Forests, Size–Density Trajectory in Regenerated Maritime Pine Stands after Fire], our model shows how to best manage naturally originating pine stands affected by forest fires through natural regeneration.

This model allows forest managers to identify the optimal standard density of plants along with development stages for the species. It’s so important that managers not base their work solely on numerical targets like “how many trees should we have?” but instead on a very good data set and appropriate models, which might be simple as a linear or a quadratic model, of which the description of the maximum-density line is an example.

I’ve always really enjoyed connecting my research with practical use, and whenever I can, I try to build models that will benefit forest managers…. If we can provide them with good support for forest management, I'm positive that this will bring impact on sustainability of forest resources.