Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.5
2.9
Journals
Forests
Special Issues
Climatic Variability Anticipation and Adaptation of Forest
share announcement

Climatic Variability Anticipation and Adaptation of Forest

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 10120

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Cyrus Samimi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Climatology, University of Bayreuth, Universitaetsstr. 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
Interests: climate variability; human-environmental interaction; remote sensing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Both the anticipation and the adaptation of forests and woodlands to climate variability and climate change are often more complex than in other ecosystems because of the longevity of the dominating woody species, but also because of their heterogeneous adaptation strategies. Therefore, the influence of climate variability on ecosystems dominated by woody species is of particular interest. Enhanced climatic variability with spatiotemporal changes in rainfall patterns in combination with variabilities of temperature regimes have various impacts on woody ecosystems. As an example, prolonged vegetation periods with an increasing possibility of late frost might have larger effects, even more when drought periods occur at the beginning of the vegetation period. In addition to direct influences of precipitation and temperature, increasing CO2 concentrations are also impacting the ecosystems, possibly changing nutrition cycles, but also propagating C3 plants in tropical ecosystems. The quantification and modeling of actual variabilities and changes, and future long-term changes are of great importance to manage sustainable adaptation. Especially the impact of climate has to be delinked from other impacts like wildfires or insect casualties that might also be related to climate.

Prof. Dr. Cyrus Samimi
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 variability
  • Climate change
  • Modelling
  • Experiments
  • Remote sensing
  • Ecosystem variability
  • Forest management

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

13 pages, 14799 KiB  
Article
Projecting the Impact of Climate Change on the Spatial Distribution of Six Subalpine Tree Species in South Korea Using a Multi-Model Ensemble Approach
by Sanghyuk Lee, Huicheul Jung and Jaeyong Choi
Forests 2021, 12(1), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12010037 - 30 Dec 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2665
Abstract
Climate change is recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity and has already caused extensive regional extinction. In particular danger are the plant habitats in subalpine zones, which are more vulnerable to climate change. Evergreen coniferous trees in South Korean subalpine zones [...] Read more.
Climate change is recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity and has already caused extensive regional extinction. In particular danger are the plant habitats in subalpine zones, which are more vulnerable to climate change. Evergreen coniferous trees in South Korean subalpine zones are currently designated as a species that need special care given their conservation value, but the reason for their decline and its seriousness remains unclear. This research estimates the potential land suitability (LS) of the subalpine zones in South Korea for six coniferous species vulnerable to climate change in the current time (1970–2000) and two future periods, the 2050s (2041–2060) and the 2070s (2061–2080). We analyze the ensemble-averaged loss of currently suitable habitats in the future, using nine species distribution models (SDMs). Korean arborvitae (Thuja koraiensis) and Khingan fir (Abies nephrolepis) are two species expected to experience significant habitat losses in 2050 (−59.5% under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 to −65.9% under RCP 8.5 and −56.3% under RCP 4.5 to −57.7% under RCP 8.5, respectively). High extinction risks are estimated for these species, due to the difficulty of finding other suitable habitats with high LS. The current habitat of Korean fir (Abies koreana), listed as a threatened species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, is expected to decrease by −23.9% (RCP 4.5) to −28.4% (RCP 8.5) and −36.5% (RCP 4.5) to −36.7% (RCP 8.5) in the 2050s and 2070s, respectively. Still, its suitable habitats are also estimated to expand geographically toward the northern part of the Baekdudaegan mountain range. In the context of forest management and adaptation planning, the multi-model ensemble approach to mapping future shifts in the range of subalpine tree species under climate change provides robust information about the potential distribution of threatened and endanger Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climatic Variability Anticipation and Adaptation of Forest)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 4290 KiB  
Article
Microclimatic Tipping Points at the Beech–Oak Ecotone in the Western Romanian Carpathians
by Stefan Hohnwald, Adrian Indreica, Helge Walentowski and Christoph Leuschner
Forests 2020, 11(9), 919; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11090919 - 22 Aug 2020
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3232
Abstract
European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is a drought-sensitive species that likely will retreat from its xeric distribution edges in the course of climate warming. Physiological measurements indicate that the species may not only be sensitive to soil water deficits, but also to [...] Read more.
European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is a drought-sensitive species that likely will retreat from its xeric distribution edges in the course of climate warming. Physiological measurements indicate that the species may not only be sensitive to soil water deficits, but also to high temperatures and elevated atmospheric vapor pressure deficits (vpd). Through microclimatological measurements in the stand interior across near-natural beech forest–oak forest ecotones, we searched for microclimatic tipping points in the contact zone with the aim to define the thermic and hydrometeorological limits of beech more precisely. In three transects in the foothills of the Romanian western Carpathians, we measured in mid-summer 2019 air temperature, relative air humidity, and vpd at 2 m height in the stand interior across the ecotone from pure oak to pure beech forests, and compared the readings to the microclimate in forest gaps. Mean daytime temperature (T) and vpd were by 2 K and 2 hPa, respectively, higher in the oak forests than the beech forests; the extremes differed even more. Especially in the second half of the day, the oak forests heated up and were more xeric than the beech forests. Part of the differences is explained by the elevation difference between oak and beech forests (200–300 m), but species differences in canopy structure, leaf area, and canopy transmissivity enhance the microclimatic contrast. Our T and vpd data point to thresholds at about 30 °C and 25 hPa as maxima tolerated by beech in the lowermost shade canopy for extended periods. In conclusion, the rather sharp stand microclimatic gradient demonstrated here for the xeric distribution limit of beech may well be the decisive factor that hinders the spread of beech into the warmer oak forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climatic Variability Anticipation and Adaptation of Forest)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 4992 KiB  
Article
Distribution Pattern of Endangered Plant Semiliquidambar cathayensis (Hamamelidaceae) in Response to Climate Change after the Last Interglacial Period
by Xing-zhuang Ye, Guang-hua Zhao, Ming-zhu Zhang, Xin-yue Cui, Hui-hua Fan and Bao Liu
Forests 2020, 11(4), 434; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11040434 - 10 Apr 2020
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 3912
Abstract
Semiliquidambar cathayensis is a special and endangered plant in China, used for traditional Chinese medicine and in landscape applications. Predicting the impact of climate change on the distribution of S. cathayensis is crucial for its protection and the sustainable use of resources. We [...] Read more.
Semiliquidambar cathayensis is a special and endangered plant in China, used for traditional Chinese medicine and in landscape applications. Predicting the impact of climate change on the distribution of S. cathayensis is crucial for its protection and the sustainable use of resources. We used the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model optimized by the ENMeval data packet to analyze the potential geographic distribution changes of S. cathayensis in 12 provinces of Southern China for the different periods since the last interglacial period (LIG, 120–140 ka). Considering the potential geographic distribution changes in the province, and based on the two climate scenarios of Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6 and RCP 8.5, the distribution range of S. cathayensis was analyzed and we predicted the range for the 2050s (average for 2041–2060) and 2070s (average for 2061–2080). The area under AUC (Area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve) is 0.9388 under these parameters, which indicates that the model is very accurate. We speculate that the glacial period refugia were the Nanling and Wuyi Mountains for S. cathayensis, and central and Western Fujian and Taiwan are likely to be the future climate refugia. In the mid-Holocene (MH, 6 ka), the growth habitat was 32.41% larger than the modern habitat; in the 2050s and 2070s (except RCP2.6–2070s), the growth habitat will shrink to varying degrees, so efforts to support its in situ and ex situ conservation are urgently needed. The jackknife test showed that the main factors affecting the geographical distribution of S. cathayensis were annual precipitation, precipitation of the wettest month, and precipitation of the driest month. The annual precipitation may be the key factor restricting the northward distribution of S. cathayensis. In general, the centroid of the distribution of S. cathayensis will move northward. The centroid of the adaptive habitats will move northward with the highest degree of climate abnormality. We think that Hainan Island is the most likely origin of S. cathayensis. These findings provide a theoretical basis for the establishment of genetic resources protection measures, the construction of core germplasm resources, and the study of the formation and evolution of Hamamelidaceae. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climatic Variability Anticipation and Adaptation of Forest)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop