Abstract:
Studies of the effects of climate change on forests have focused on the ability of species to tolerate temperature
and moisture changes and to disperse, but they have ignored the effects of disturbances caused by climate change
(e.g., Ojima et al. 1991).Yet modeling studies indicate the importance of climate effects on disturbance regimes (He et al. 1999). Local, regional, and global changes in temperature and precipitation can influence the occurrence, timing, frequency, duration, extent, and intensity of disturbances (Baker 1995, Turner et al. 1998). Because trees can survive from decades to centuries and take years to become established, climate-change impacts are expressed in forests, in part, through alterations in disturbance regimes (Franklin et al. 1992, Dale et al. 2000).
