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Forest resilience and tipping points at different spatio-temporal scales: approaches and challenges

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 17:39 authored by Reyer, CPO, Brouwers, N, Rammig, A, Barry BrookBarry Brook, Epila, J, Grant, RF, Holmgren, M, Langerwisch, F, Leuzinger, S, Lucht, W, Medlyn, B, Pfeifer, M, Steincamp, J, Vanderwel, MC, Verbeeck, H, Villela, DM
  • Anthropogenic global change compromises forest resilience, with profound impacts to ecosystem functions and services. This synthesis paper reflects on the current understanding of forest resilience and potential tipping points under environmental change and explores challenges to assessing responses using experiments, observations and models.
  • Forests are changing over a wide range of spatio-temporal scales, but it is often unclear whether these changes reduce resilience or represent a tipping point. Tipping points may arise from interactions across scales, as processes such as climate change, land-use change, invasive species or deforestation gradually erode resilience and increase vulnerability to extreme events. Studies covering interactions across different spatio-temporal scales are needed to further our understanding.
  • Combinations of experiments, observations and process-based models could improve our ability to project forest resilience and tipping points under global change. We discuss uncertainties in changing CO2 concentration and quantifying tree mortality as examples.
  • Synthesis. As forests change at various scales, it is increasingly important to understand whether and how such changes lead to reduced resilience and potential tipping points. Understanding the mechanisms underlying forest resilience and tipping points would help in assessing risks to ecosystems and presents opportunities for ecosystem restoration and sustainable forest management.

    • History

    Publication title

    Journal of Ecology

    Volume

    103

    Pagination

    5-15

    ISSN

    0022-0477

    Department/School

    School of Natural Sciences

    Publisher

    Blackwell Publishing Ltd

    Place of publication

    9600 Garsington Rd, Oxford, England, Oxon, Ox4 2Dg

    Rights statement

    Copyright 2015 The Authors. Journal of Ecology © 2015 British Ecological Society

    Repository Status

    • Restricted

    Socio-economic Objectives

    Assessment and management of freshwater ecosystems

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      University Of Tasmania

      Categories

      Keywords

      foreststipping pointssynergyclimate change

      Licence

      In Copyright

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