Adam Wei

Forest and landscape restoration can have significant positive impacts on ecological functions, including biodiversity, carbon storage, local climate, soil erosion, aquatic habitat, and flow regimes. However, concerns about its effectiveness persist due to species selection, the use of monoculture plantations, simplified forest structure, and limited consideration of landscape patterns. These concerns are further exacerbated by a warming climate. This presentation will take a water or hydrological perspective to discuss restoration challenges and lessons. Drawing on more than a century of forest hydrology research, it will summarize major findings and discuss their implications for forest restoration. Finally, it will examine innovation needs, barriers, and the future outlook for restoration.

Speaker Biography

Adam Wei – Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of British Columbia Okanagan

Adam Wei is a Professor of forest hydrology and watershed management in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. He also serves as Coordinator of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) Task Force on Forests and Water Interactions in a Changing Environment and is an Associate Editor of Ecohydrology. Wei's research focuses on forest disturbance and hydrological responses, watershed ecosystem analysis, and the impacts of land use and climate change on water resources. He has authored approximately 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications, including papers in Science and Nature Communications, and leads research on the cumulative effects of forest disturbance, land use and climate change on water quantity and quality.

Recommended Readings

Creed, I. F., Jones, J. A., Archer, E., Claassen, M., Ellison, D., McNulty, S. G., Van Noordwijk, M., Vira, B., Wei, X., Bishop, K., Blanco, J. A., Gush, M., Gyawali, D., Jobbágy, E., Lara, A., Little, C., Martin-Ortega, J., Mukherji, A., Murdiyarso, D., … Xu, J. (2019). Managing Forests for Both Downstream and Downwind Water. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2, 64. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00064 

Jones, J., Ellison, D., Ferraz, S., Lara, A., Wei, X., & Zhang, Z. (2022). Forest restoration and hydrology. Forest Ecology and Management, 520, 120342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120342

Stanturf, J. A., Kleine, M., Mansourian, S., Parrotta, J., Madsen, P., Kant, P., Burns, J., & Bolte, A. (2019). Implementing forest landscape restoration under the Bonn Challenge: A systematic approach. Annals of Forest Science, 76(2), 50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-019-0833-z

Stanturf, J. A. (n.d.) Forest restoration in a global context.

Wei, X., Jones, J., Hou, Y., Liu, S., Asbjornsen, H., Zhang, Z., Shah, N., Wang, Y., Zhang, M., Creed, I., Sun, G., Del Campo, A., Otsuki, K., & Zhang, L. (2025). Local considerations are the key to managing global forests for water. Science Bulletin, 70(4), 448–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2024.11.045