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Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Ecosystem Services and Forest...
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Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Ecosystem Services and Forest Management

A special issue of Climate (ISSN 2225-1154).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 8819

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Dominik Sperlich

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forest Economics and Forest Planning, Tennenbacher Str. 4 (2. OG), 79106 Freiburg i.Br., Germany
Interests: forest ecology; tree ecophysiology; drought; forest growth models; climate change; forest management; forest economics; ecosystem services; planning under uncertainty; robust adaptation strategies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forests and trees provide important ecosystem goods and services. They are important in many cultural traditions and offer recreation, protection, water, food, medicines, bioenergy, pulp, and of course timber. They also provide irreplaceable economic opportunities, especially in rural communities. Climate change affects forest dynamics directly through changes in air temperature, solar radiation, rainfall, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide or indirectly through changes in the composition and diversity of plant communities. Although the range and magnitude of climate change impacts are highly uncertain, they will likely threaten the manifold functions and services of forests. Around the globe, reports have documented increasing levels of mortality through drought, insect calamities, diseases, fires, storm events, etc., even though increases in productivity have been witnessed in parallel. The effects are regionally highly variable.

Forest management acts in a delicate balance between ecological, socioeconomic, and economic objectives. Climate change adds another great uncertainty to forest planning. Management may conserve forest structures or respond with active or passive adaptation depending on the options and possibilities of the forest owner. Feasible forest adaptation strategies must be developed considering the diversity in forest ownership.

This Special Issue of Climate aims at investigating the impacts of climate change on forest functioning and ecosystem services as well as at exploring adaption strategies for forest management. We welcome original research, review, method papers, commentaries providing experimental evidence of these changes as well as modeling studies trying to predict the future impacts of climate change. We also encourage studies dealing with adaptation strategies for forests with a focus on one or more of the manifold ecosystem services as described above.

Dr. Dominik Sperlich
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Climate is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Climate change uncertainty
  • Ecosystem services
  • Adaptation strategies
  • Planning under uncertainty
  • Multipurpose forestry
  • Forest growth modelling
  • Forest ecology
  • Forest economics and planning

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 3878 KiB  
Article
Gains or Losses in Forest Productivity under Climate Change? The Uncertainty of CO2 Fertilization and Climate Effects
by Dominik Sperlich, Daniel Nadal-Sala, Carlos Gracia, Jürgen Kreuzwieser, Marc Hanewinkel and Rasoul Yousefpour
Climate 2020, 8(12), 141; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cli8120141 - 30 Nov 2020
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4579
Abstract
Global warming poses great challenges for forest managers regarding adaptation strategies and species choices. More frequent drought events and heat spells are expected to reduce growth and increase mortality. Extended growing seasons, warming and elevated CO2 (eCO2) can also positively [...] Read more.
Global warming poses great challenges for forest managers regarding adaptation strategies and species choices. More frequent drought events and heat spells are expected to reduce growth and increase mortality. Extended growing seasons, warming and elevated CO2 (eCO2) can also positively affect forest productivity. We studied the growth, productivity and mortality of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and fir (Abies alba Mill.) in the Black Forest (Germany) under three climate change scenarios (representative concentration pathways (RCP): RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP8.5) using the detailed biogeochemical forest growth model GOTILWA+. Averaged over the entire simulation period, both species showed productivity losses in RCP2.6 (16–20%) and in RCP4.5 (6%), but productivity gains in RCP8.5 (11–17%). However, all three scenarios had a tipping point (between 2035–2060) when initial gains in net primary productivity (NPP) (6–29%) eventually turned into losses (1–26%). With eCO2 switched off, the losses in NPP were 26–51% in RCP2.6, 36–45% in RCP4.5 and 33–71% in RCP8.5. Improved water-use efficiency dampened drought effects on NPP between 4 and 5%. Tree mortality increased, but without notably affecting forest productivity. Concluding, cultivation of beech and fir may still be possible in the study region, although severe productivity losses can be expected in the coming decades, which will strongly depend on the dampening CO2 fertilization effect. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Ecosystem Services and Forest Management)
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20 pages, 3623 KiB  
Article
Expected Impacts of Mixing European Beech with Silver Fir on Regional Air Quality and Radiation Balance
by Boris Bonn, Jürgen Kreuzwieser, Ruth-Kristina Magh, Heinz Rennenberg, Dirk Schindler, Dominik Sperlich, Raphael Trautmann, Rasoul Yousefpour and Rüdiger Grote
Climate 2020, 8(10), 105; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cli8100105 - 26 Sep 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3314
Abstract
The anticipated climate change during the next decades is posing crucial challenges to ecosystems. In order to decrease the vulnerability of forests, introducing tree species’ mixtures are a viable strategy, with deep-rooting native Silver fir (Abies alba) being a primary candidate [...] Read more.
The anticipated climate change during the next decades is posing crucial challenges to ecosystems. In order to decrease the vulnerability of forests, introducing tree species’ mixtures are a viable strategy, with deep-rooting native Silver fir (Abies alba) being a primary candidate for admixture into current pure stands of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) especially in mountainous areas. Such a change in forest structure also has effects on the regional scale, which, however, have been seldomly quantified. Therefore, we measured and modeled radiative balance and air chemistry impacts of admixing Silver fir to European beech stands, including changes in biogenic volatile organic compound emissions. An increased fraction of Silver fir caused a smaller albedo and a (simulated) larger evapotranspiration, leading to a dryer and warmer forest. While isoprene emission was negligible for both species, sesquiterpene and monoterpene emissions were larger for fir than for beech. From these differences, we derived that ozone concentration as well as secondary organic aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei would increase regionally. Overall, we demonstrated that even a relatively mild scenario of tree species change will alter the energy balance and air quality in a way that could potentially influence the climate on a landscape scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Ecosystem Services and Forest Management)
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