[MCN] Society should prepare for increasingly disturbed forests

[Lance Olsen]

Nature Climate Change  May 31 2017

REVIEW

Forest disturbances under climate change

·       Rupert Seidl <https://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v7/n6/full/nclimate3303.html#auth-1> et al

   Abstract

https://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v7/n6/full/nclimate3303.html <https://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v7/n6/full/nclimate3303.html>
Forest disturbances are sensitive to climate. However, our understanding of disturbance dynamics in response to climatic changes remains incomplete, particularly regarding large-scale patterns, interaction effects and dampening feedbacks. Here we provide a global synthesis of climate change effects on important abiotic (fire, drought, wind, snow and ice) and biotic (insects and pathogens) disturbance agents. Warmer and drier conditions particularly facilitate fire, drought and insect disturbances, while warmer and wetter conditions increase disturbances from wind and pathogens. Widespread interactions between agents are likely to amplify disturbances, while indirect climate effects such as vegetation changes can dampen long-term disturbance sensitivities to climate. Future changes in disturbance are likely to be most pronounced in coniferous forests and the boreal biome. We conclude that both ecosystems and society should be prepared for an increasingly disturbed future of forests.


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“Policy and management have focused primarily on ... fire suppression and fuels management. 
These strategies are inadequate to address a new era of western wildfires …. We propose an 
approach that accepts wildfire as an inevitable catalyst of change and that promotes adaptive 
responses by ecosystems and residential communities to more warming and wildfire. “
 
Schoennagel et al. Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes. 
PNAS Early Edition
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1617464114

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