Forest Productivity Decreases in Response to Recent Changes in Vegetation Structure and Climate in the Latitudinal Extremes of the European Continent

IF 6.3 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Global Ecology and Biogeography Pub Date : 2025-02-17 DOI:10.1111/geb.70011

Julián Tijerín-Triviño, Emily R. Lines, Miguel A. Zavala, Mariano García, Julen Astigarraga, Verónica Cruz-Alonso, Jonas Dahlgren, Paloma Ruiz-Benito

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim

Climate change is driving increasingly frequent and intense extreme climatic events, pushing many forests worldwide beyond their physiological thresholds. Despite the major role played by forests in the global carbon cycle, climate change threatens the future potential for carbon sequestration in forests. Hence, studies of recent changes in stand productivity and the underlying drivers over large areas are critical to understand and assess the forest carbon sink. We aimed to describe recent changes in forest productivity in the latitudinal extremes of the European continent and the role of climate and climate change in driving these patterns.

Location

Latitudinal extremes of the European continent (Spain and Sweden).

Time Period

From 1980s to the present.

Major Taxa Studied

Trees.

Methods

We analysed data from > 13,900 plots in Mediterranean, temperate and boreal regions using three consecutive surveys from the Spanish and Swedish National Forest Inventories (NFI). Generalised linear models were parameterised to assess how forest structure, climate and climatic anomalies (mean temperature, annual precipitation, drought, heatwaves) influenced forest productivity across two time periods.

Results

Despite increases in stand basal area, forest productivity declined over time. The effects of recent climate change intensified, with temperature anomalies increasingly and negatively impacting productivity in most regions. Region-specific effects were observed: Heatwaves and reduced precipitation in the Mediterranean, intensified droughts in temperate regions and increased precipitation in boreal areas further influenced productivity dynamics.

Main Conclusions

Our results showed a marked decrease in forest productivity due to climatic warming over time and a differential sensitivity to extreme climatic events across regions, which will affect multiple dependent ecosystem functions. Our findings provide further evidence that altered forest productivity due to climate change may hinder the carbon sink capacity of European forests.

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欧洲大陆纬向极端地区植被结构和气候变化对森林生产力的影响

气候变化正在推动极端气候事件日益频繁和强烈，使全球许多森林超出其生理阈值。尽管森林在全球碳循环中发挥着重要作用，但气候变化威胁着未来森林固碳的潜力。因此，研究林分生产力的近期变化及其在大范围内的潜在驱动因素对于了解和评估森林碳汇至关重要。我们的目标是描述欧洲大陆纬度极端地区森林生产力的近期变化，以及气候和气候变化在推动这些模式中的作用。地理位置欧洲大陆纬度的极端（西班牙和瑞典）。时间跨度：20世纪80年代至今。主要分类群研究树木。方法利用西班牙和瑞典国家森林调查（NFI）的三次连续调查，分析了地中海、温带和北方地区13900个样地的数据。对广义线性模型进行了参数化，以评估森林结构、气候和气候异常（平均温度、年降水量、干旱、热浪）如何在两个时间段内影响森林生产力。结果尽管林分基面积增加，但森林生产力随着时间的推移而下降。近期气候变化的影响加剧，温度异常日益加剧，并对大多数地区的生产力产生负面影响。观察到具体区域的影响：地中海的热浪和降水减少、温带地区的干旱加剧以及北方地区降水增加进一步影响了生产力动态。研究结果表明，随着时间的推移，气候变暖导致森林生产力显著下降，不同地区对极端气候事件的敏感性存在差异，这将影响多种依赖的生态系统功能。我们的发现提供了进一步的证据，表明气候变化导致的森林生产力的改变可能会阻碍欧洲森林的碳汇能力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Global Ecology and Biogeography 环境科学-生态学

CiteScore

12.10

自引率

3.10%

发文量

170

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： Global Ecology and Biogeography (GEB) welcomes papers that investigate broad-scale (in space, time and/or taxonomy), general patterns in the organization of ecological systems and assemblages, and the processes that underlie them. In particular, GEB welcomes studies that use macroecological methods, comparative analyses, meta-analyses, reviews, spatial analyses and modelling to arrive at general, conceptual conclusions. Studies in GEB need not be global in spatial extent, but the conclusions and implications of the study must be relevant to ecologists and biogeographers globally, rather than being limited to local areas, or specific taxa. Similarly, GEB is not limited to spatial studies; we are equally interested in the general patterns of nature through time, among taxa (e.g., body sizes, dispersal abilities), through the course of evolution, etc. Further, GEB welcomes papers that investigate general impacts of human activities on ecological systems in accordance with the above criteria.