Projections (click here) of the future distribution of European tree species suggest that the northern boundaries of temperate and hemiboreal forests in Scandinavia will move northwards to achieve equilibrium with the new climate....
...The overarching question in our project is: how will climate change and other stress factors interact to transform Norway spruce forest ecosystems to beech forest ecosystems in the future? To address this question, we combine retrospective, descriptive and experimental methods in four approaches to:
I) Explore the relationship between past land-use stress, climate change and the occurrence of Norway spruce and beech forests in SE Norway;
It isn't as easy as cutting down and replanting. The soil and it's resident microbiotic communities can make or break successful forests.
The forest above to the left is a Spruce-fir understory from the Great Smokey Mountains, USA. This level of growth of microbiotic content on the forest floor takes a long time to establish. It is intricate in maintaining moisture in the ground. Restoration of forests is complicated in a hot climate.
III) determine rate of ecosystem transformation and spruce forest tipping point when beech invades; and
IV) assess if and how climate change and land-use stress by forestry (logging activities) interact to transfer spruce forests to beech forests. These four approaches tie together well because they integrate climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem function, and past and present stress by land-use.
Recent projections of the future distribution of European tree species and vegetation zones suggest that the northern boundaries of temperate and hemiboreal forestss in southern Scandinavia would move nortwards by about 300-500 km to achieve equilibrium with the new climate. In a South-East Norwegian perspective, such a future change of vegetation and forest types imply that huge areas and their ecosystems will go through fundamental transformations....
Below is an ancient beech forest in Germany. The forest floor and soils are completely different than a pine forest. Rapid climate change is not solved by simple ideas, so much as understanding detailed analysis and how to apply that analysis to what can be done to mitigate the future. The primary mitigation is to end the emissions of all greenhouse gases; without exception.
Nasmund National Park (click here) is situated in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the far north-east of Germany. Its most spectacular feature is without doubt the Königsstuhl chalk cliffs, immortalised by the painter Caspar David Friedrich. The national park also contains beech forests dating back to the 13th century, which grow on the chalky Stubnitz plateau, formed during the ice age....
