Forests are a key element of terrestrial ecosystems. They play an important role in biogeochemical cycles and provide goods and services to populations. Due to climate change, the world's forests are under significant pressure, especially in recent decades. Forests are affected by a combination of elements caused by climate change, such as warming, altered precipitation regime, and a changing pattern of extreme events. In addition, climate change influences the regime of abiotic and biotic disturbances. Moreover, disturbances can overlap, amplifying their effects on ecosystem functioning. Warmer temperatures, for example, can facilitate fires, droughts, and insect outbreaks at the same time.
Depending on site conditions and the adaptive potential of trees, forests respond to climate change in different ways: i.e. increasing tree mortality, decreasing/increasing tree growth rate, changing of species composition. In addition, climate change can induce phenological and phenotypical modifications at all stages of tree development (i.e. from seed to adult stages). Also, biochemical responses can be induced in plants by harsh conditions, such as extreme droughts. However, the natural adaptation of forests, from individual trees to the entire ecosystem, is not always fast enough to cope with such rapid changes in climatic conditions, posing a major challenge to current forest management practices. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the range of evolutionary changes and plastic responses to forest processes, in order to better inform adaptive forest management actions that increase the forest resilience to climate change.
In this Research Topic, we welcome original research that takes a multiscale approach, going from the individual to the population, and covering a range of different disciplines (e.g., physiology, dendroecology, remote sensing, genetics, modeling, etc.).
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
• Quantification of forest responses to climate change/disturbances across spatial gradients (natural or controlled) and/or temporal gradients
• Identification of drivers and mechanisms behind forest responses to climate change/disturbances
• Effects of adaptive forest management interventions on long-term forest resilience
• Forest dynamics models under different climate change scenarios
Forests are a key element of terrestrial ecosystems. They play an important role in biogeochemical cycles and provide goods and services to populations. Due to climate change, the world's forests are under significant pressure, especially in recent decades. Forests are affected by a combination of elements caused by climate change, such as warming, altered precipitation regime, and a changing pattern of extreme events. In addition, climate change influences the regime of abiotic and biotic disturbances. Moreover, disturbances can overlap, amplifying their effects on ecosystem functioning. Warmer temperatures, for example, can facilitate fires, droughts, and insect outbreaks at the same time.
Depending on site conditions and the adaptive potential of trees, forests respond to climate change in different ways: i.e. increasing tree mortality, decreasing/increasing tree growth rate, changing of species composition. In addition, climate change can induce phenological and phenotypical modifications at all stages of tree development (i.e. from seed to adult stages). Also, biochemical responses can be induced in plants by harsh conditions, such as extreme droughts. However, the natural adaptation of forests, from individual trees to the entire ecosystem, is not always fast enough to cope with such rapid changes in climatic conditions, posing a major challenge to current forest management practices. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the range of evolutionary changes and plastic responses to forest processes, in order to better inform adaptive forest management actions that increase the forest resilience to climate change.
In this Research Topic, we welcome original research that takes a multiscale approach, going from the individual to the population, and covering a range of different disciplines (e.g., physiology, dendroecology, remote sensing, genetics, modeling, etc.).
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
• Quantification of forest responses to climate change/disturbances across spatial gradients (natural or controlled) and/or temporal gradients
• Identification of drivers and mechanisms behind forest responses to climate change/disturbances
• Effects of adaptive forest management interventions on long-term forest resilience
• Forest dynamics models under different climate change scenarios