SILVICULTURE: CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

Abstract

After a brief introduction on climate change and its interaction with forests, contents of oral contributions are presented. Papers concern: the main results of the National Inventory of the Forests and the Forest reservoirs of Carbon (INFC); the present situation of the Italian network of forest flux stations measuring net carbon exchange; the issue of forest management for adaptation and mitigation; the relationship between climate change, air pollution and forest ecosystem response; the role of the “Register of agro-forest reservoirs of carbon”; the forest situation of the island of Sicily with special reference to the use of forest biomass for bioenergy production; the most recent results of the BIOREFUGIA research project on the potential risks of shift and migration of forest vegetation in Italy; a detailed forest carbon inventory conducted in the Piedmont region; the role of Long Term Ecosystem Research for the monitoring and understanding of the impacts of global change on forest functioning, on long temporal scales; the results of the dendroecological responses of Abies alba forests in the last century, in relation to the climatic trend of Central Apennine mountain sites; the role of such key ecological markers and tracers as stable isotopes (C13, O18, H2, N15) for the unravelling of forest ecosystem interactions with carbon, water and other biogeochemical cycles and with climatic factors. In synthesis, it appears necessary to sustain the concrete establishment of the “Register of agro-forest reservoirs of carbon” and the adoption of a kind of National Forest Fund, as recommended in the final statement of this Congress.