Defining, managing and coping with weather and climate related risks in forestry

Abstract

Risks of weather and (changing) climate in forestry are large and vary considerably in time and space. Among them, most observed risks relate to altitudinal shifts (Peters and Darling 1985; Kariuki et al. 1997; Scheffer et al. 2001; Zhao et al. 2005), changes in productivity, standing biomass and species composition and fire damages (Dixon et al. 1996; Dale et al. 2001; Flannigan et al. 2005; Scholze et al. 2006; FAO 2007), tree health and extinction (Thomas et al. 2004), and migration (Kienast et al. 1998; Stocks et al. 1998; Dale et al. 2001; Bush et al. 2004; Phillips et al. 2009; Jimenez et al. 2009). Weather and climate exert strong effects on herbivore and pathogen dynamics (Coley 1998; Matthew et al. 2000). These changes affect species composition and species richness (Kienast et al. 1998), ecosystem functions and socioeconomic values of forests (Keller et al. 2002). © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.