Climate change, air pollution and global challenges. Understanding and perspectives from forest research

Abstract

Forests provide many supporting, regulating and cultural services. Extensive environmental changes have resulted in a substantial loss or degradation of forest ecosystem services (ES). Unclear interactions of climate-change phenomena make it difficult to estimate forest ES. Research on interactive effects of climate change and air pollution has become a central issue in forest science during the past decade. Climate change in interaction with air pollution brings novel combinations of severity and timing of multiple stresses, which may significantly affect many forest ES. The aims of the present chapter are to identify basic concepts of evaluating ES with a focus on forest ES, to provide physiological and ecological bases for their evaluation, and to discuss the interactive effects of climate change and air pollution on forest ES based on selected tree physiological functions. Climate regulation mediated by deforestation-induced changes in the hydrological cycle is discussed. Adaptive governance and communication to the public promotes sustainable forest–multi-stakeholder collaboration. A case study is presented evaluating selected ES in a forest–agricultural landscape in the Czech Republic on the basis of monitored energy, water and material flows estimation. From this study, it is apparent that future research must include multi-factorial anthropogenic and natural interactions of climatic changes and air pollution in conjunction with sustainable forest ES provisions. Sustainable forest management is an essential tool for reducing the vulnerability of forests to environmental change.