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Forests
Special Issues
Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Health
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Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Health

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 March 2019) | Viewed by 14321

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Brad Seely

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, 4625-2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Interests: forest simulation modelling; ecosystem carbon storage; climate change impacts; water relations; stand dynamics; ecosystem services; forest entomology; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human-induced climate change poses a considerable threat to the health of forest ecosystems throughout the world. Shifting climate patterns including, but not limited to, elevated temperatures, prolonged drought, changes in snow pack, and an increased frequency of extreme weather events have been shown to influence forest growth rates, key ecosystem processes, natural regeneration, and the activity of pests and disease agents. Elevated endemic mortality rates have been observed in many forests and vast areas of forest including plantations and natural forests have been killed at unprecedented rates due to episodic natural disturbance events including fire, pests and disease. While it is often difficult to prove direct links to climate change, there is mounting evidence that shifting climate patterns play an important role. The long-term impacts of changing climate on forest health can be difficult to measure due to problems of scale, the inherent interannual variability of climate, and the expense associated with developing and maintaining long-term experiments. Ecosystem models provide an effective tool for exploring such relationships. Many different types of models have been employed to examine the potential impacts of alternative climate change scenarios on forest growth dynamics, natural disturbance agents, and the use of different adaptation strategies. We encourage studies from all fields and employing different tools including monitoring, experimental management trials, and modelling to contribute to this Special Issue to promote a better understanding of the long-term impacts of climate change on forest health and to develop effective adaptation strategies to maintain forest health and the flow of ecosystem services.

Dr. Brad Seely
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. Forests 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 2600 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
  • Forest Health
  • Adaptation Strategies
  • Process-based Modelling
  • Climate Niche Modelling
  • Natural Disturbance Agents
  • Drought Stress
  • Phenology
  • Dendrology

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3803 KiB  
Article
Response Characteristics of Chinese Pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) Radial Growth to Climate and Drought Variability Reconstruction in Western Liaoning, Northeast China
by Na Liu, Guang Bao and Ming Bao
Forests 2019, 10(9), 752; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10090752 - 01 Sep 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2136
Abstract
Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) plays an important role in maintaining ecosystem health and stability in western Liaoning Province and the southern Horqin sand land, Northeast China, with benefits including sand fixation and soil erosion. In the context of climate change, developing [...] Read more.
Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) plays an important role in maintaining ecosystem health and stability in western Liaoning Province and the southern Horqin sand land, Northeast China, with benefits including sand fixation and soil erosion. In the context of climate change, developing a better understanding of the relationship between climate factors and growth rates of this species will be extremely valuable in guiding management activities and meeting regional conservation objectives. Here, the results based on two groups of tree-ring samples show that the radial growth of Chinese pine is controlled primarily by water conditions. The longer chronology had the highest correlation coefficient with the January–September mean self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI); therefore, drought variability was reconstructed for the period 1859–2014. Statistical analysis showed that our model explained 41.9% of the variance in radial growth during the 1951–2014 calibration period. Extreme dry and wet events, defined as the criteria of one standard deviation less or greater than the mean value, accounted for 19.9% and 18.6% of the 156-year climate record, respectively. During the past century, the regional hydroclimate experienced significant long-term fluctuations. The dry periods occurred from the early-1900s–1930s and 1980s–2000s, and the wet periods occurred from the 1940s–1970s. The drought reconstruction was consistent with the decreasing trend of the East Asian summer monsoon since the late 1970s. The reconstructed temporal patterns in hydroclimate in western Liaoning were closely related to the large-scale climate drivers in the North Pacific and the tropical equatorial Pacific. The teleconnections were confirmed by spatial correlations between the reconstructed sequence and sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Pacific, as well as the correlations with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices. Aerosols played an important role in affecting drought variations over the past several decades. Moisture stress caused by global warming and interdecadal changes in the PDO will have long-term effects on the growth of pines in the study area in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Health)
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20 pages, 10789 KiB  
Article
Diverse Responses of Vegetation Dynamics to Snow Cover Phenology over the Boreal Region
by Tao Xiong, Hongyan Zhang, Jianjun Zhao, Zhengxiang Zhang, Xiaoyi Guo, Zhenhua Zhu and Yu Shan
Forests 2019, 10(5), 376; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10050376 - 30 Apr 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3391
Abstract
Snow cover phenology plays an important role in vegetation dynamics over the boreal region, but the observed evidence of this interaction is limited. A comprehensive understanding of the changes in vegetation dynamics and snow cover phenology as well as the interactions between them [...] Read more.
Snow cover phenology plays an important role in vegetation dynamics over the boreal region, but the observed evidence of this interaction is limited. A comprehensive understanding of the changes in vegetation dynamics and snow cover phenology as well as the interactions between them is urgently needed. To investigate this, we calculated two indicators, the start of the growing season (SOS) and the annual maximum enhanced vegetation index (EVImax), as proxies of vegetation dynamics using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) enhanced vegetation index (EVI). Snow cover duration (SCD) and snow cover end date (SCE) were also extracted from MODIS snow cover datasets. Then, we quantified the spatial-temporal changes in vegetation dynamics and snow cover phenology as well as the relationship between them over the boreal region. Our results showed that the EVImax generally demonstrated an increasing trend, but SOS varied in different regions and vegetation types from 2001 to 2014. The earlier onset of SOS was mainly concentrated in the Siberian boreal region. In the Eurasian boreal region, we observed an advance in the SCE and decrease in the SCD, while in the North American boreal region, the spatial distribution of the trends exhibited substantial heterogeneity. Our results also indicated that the snow cover phenology had significant impacts on the SOS and the EVImax, but the effects varied in different regions, vegetation types, and climate gradients. Our findings provide strong evidence of the interaction between vegetation dynamics and snow cover phenology, and snow cover should be considered when analyzing future vegetation dynamics in the boreal region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Health)
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14 pages, 2813 KiB  
Article
Drought and Moisture Availability and Recent Western Spruce Budworm Outbreaks in the Western United States
by Bingbing Xu, Jeffrey A. Hicke and John T. Abatzoglou
Forests 2019, 10(4), 354; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10040354 - 24 Apr 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3145
Abstract
Western spruce budworm (WSBW) is a common defoliating insect that has caused extensive damage and mortality to a number of tree species across the western United States (US). Past studies have linked outbreaks of WSBW to increased moisture stress of host trees in [...] Read more.
Western spruce budworm (WSBW) is a common defoliating insect that has caused extensive damage and mortality to a number of tree species across the western United States (US). Past studies have linked outbreaks of WSBW to increased moisture stress of host trees in the Northwest and decreased moisture stress in the Southwest. Our study analyzed seasonal drought stress metrics with WSBW outbreaks within Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forests in the western US during 1997–2015. Superposed epoch analysis and defoliation area growth rates (representing insect population growth rates) were assessed to quantify the drought conditions associated with the initiation and continuation of outbreaks, respectively. We found that multiple years of drought occurred prior to and during outbreak initiation in the Northwest, and that outbreak initiation in the Southwest was associated with only weak drought or neutral conditions. During the outbreak continuation stage, there was a weak positive correlation between May moisture availability and defoliation area growth rates in the Southwest (R2 = 0.12), but no clear relationship was identified in the Northwest. Increased frequency of summer droughts such as these expected from climate change may increase WSBW outbreaks and promote tree dieoff. Improved understanding of the role of different influences of drought and moisture availability across landscapes will lead to improved predictions and management of future outbreaks of WSBW. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Health)
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20 pages, 12962 KiB  
Article
Shifts in Growing Season of Tropical Deciduous Forests as Driven by El Niño and La Niña during 2001–2016
by Phan Kieu Diem, Uday Pimple, Asamaporn Sitthi, Pariwate Varnakovida, Katsunori Tanaka, Sukan Pungkul, Kumron Leadprathom, Monique Y. LeClerc and Amnat Chidthaisong
Forests 2018, 9(8), 448; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9080448 - 25 Jul 2018
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4985
Abstract
This study investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of tropical deciduous forest including dry dipterocarp forest (DDF) and mixed deciduous forest (MDF) and its phenological changes in responses to El Niño and La Niña during 2001–2016. Based on time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index [...] Read more.
This study investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of tropical deciduous forest including dry dipterocarp forest (DDF) and mixed deciduous forest (MDF) and its phenological changes in responses to El Niño and La Niña during 2001–2016. Based on time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) extracted from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the start of growing season (SOS), the end of growing season (EOS), and length of growing season (LOS) were derived. In absence of climatic fluctuation, the SOS of DDF commonly started on 106 ± 7 DOY, delayed to 132 DOY in El Niño year (2010) and advanced to 87 DOY in La Niña year (2011). Thus, there was a delay of about 19 to 33 days in El Niño and an earlier onset of about 13 to 27 days in La Niña year. The SOS of MDF started almost same time as of DDF on the 107 ± 7 DOY during the neutral years and delayed to 127 DOY during El Niño, advanced to 92 DOY in La Niña year. The SOS of MDF was delayed by about 12 to 28 days in El Niño and was earlier about 8 to 22 days in La Niña. Corresponding to these shifts in SOS and LOS of both DDF and MDF were also induced by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Health)
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