Impacts of Climate Change on Tree Physiology and Responses of Forest Ecosystems

• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2021
• Subjects: Environmental economics; Research & information: general; acclimation; adaptation; Aleppo pine; basal area increment; carbon dioxide; cardinal temperatures; Cedrela odorata; climate; climate change; common garden; dendrochronology; diurnal variation; drought; ecodistance; ecology; extreme frost; forest dieback; forest ecology; gene expression analysis; germination; global climate change; heat and drought; leaf anatomy; Mediterranean forest; morphology evaluation; mortality; moving window analysis; n/a; National Park; nitrogen; open-top chamber; phenotypic plasticity; Phoebe bournei; photosynthesis; Pinaceae; Pinus arizonica Engelm.; Pinus ponderosa var. brachyptera (Engelm.); Ponderosae; Populus; Quercus; radial profile; response function; RNA sequencing; sap flux; sapwood depth; seasonal variation; seeds; stem growth; stomatal frequency; stomatal size; survival rate; thermal time; tree line shift; tree rings; trees adaptation; water availability
• Online Access: Open Access: DOAB: description of the publication; Open Access: DOAB, download the publication

 Extreme climatic events, such as intense and prolonged droughts and heat waves, are occurring with increasing frequency and with pronounced impacts on forests. Forest trees, as long-lived organisms, need to develop adaptation mechanisms to successfully respond to such climatic extremes. Whether physiological adaptations on the tree level result in ecophysiological responses that ensure plasticity of forest ecosystems to climate change is currently in the core forest research. Within this Special Issue, forest species' responses to climatic variability were reported from diverse climatic zones and ecosystem types: from near-desert mountains in western USA to tropical forests in central America and Asia, and from Mediterranean ecosystems to temperate European forests. The clear effects of constraints related to climate change were evidenced on the tree level, such as in differentiated gene expression, metabolite abundance, sap flow rates, photosynthetic performance, seed germination, survival and growth, while on the ecosystem level, tree line shifts, temporal shifts in allocation of resources and species shifts were identified. Experimental schemes such as common gardens and provenance trails also provided long-term indications on the tolerance of forest species against drought and warming and serve to evaluate their performance under the predicted climate in near future. These findings enhance our knowledge on the potential resilience of forest species and ecosystems to climate change and provide an updated basis for continuing research on this topic.