Adaptation of forests and forest management to changing climate with emphasis on forest health: A review of science, policies and practices

摘要

There are mounting concerns that global climate is changing and leading to warmer and often drier conditions in many forest ecosystems around the world. Trees, as long-lived organisms, are adapted to their local environments and thus have evolved mechanisms to deal with the vagaries of natural climate and weather variability through a host of physical, phenological or biophysical traits. However, current and predicted climate anomalies of only a few degrees with respect to long-term normals mask the true impact on forests as the short-term variability in climate is pushed outside its long-term bounds. Responses of forest ecosystems to rising temperatures or shifting rainfall patterns are highly non-linear and exhibit strong thresholds beyond which there is often no return. In addition, external abiotic and biotic agents of change, such as fire and insects, add to the complexity of the system with their own non-linear relationships to climate and climate variability.