Pervasive shifts in forest dynamics in a changing world

Abstract

Shifting forest dynamics Forest dynamics are the processes of recruitment, growth, death, and turnover of the constituent tree species of the forest community. These processes are driven by disturbances both natural and anthropogenic. McDowell et al. review recent progress in understanding the drivers of forest dynamics and how these are interacting and changing in the context of global climate change. The authors show that shifts in forest dynamics are already occurring, and the emerging pattern is that global forests are tending toward younger stands with faster turnover as old-growth forest with stable dynamics are dwindling. Science , this issue p. eaaz9463

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Affiliated Institutions

• University of California, Berkeley US
• Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research CH
• University of Wisconsin–Madison US
• Los Alamos National Laboratory US
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory US
• Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute US
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute PA
• Northern Arizona University US
• Fort Collins Science Center
• Boston University US
• Duke University US
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory US
• Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement FR
• Technical University of Munich DE
• University of Maryland, College Park US
• University of Minnesota US
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory US
• Forest Institute US
• Stanford University US
• BOKU University AT
• University of Birmingham GB
• United States Geological Survey US
• University of Florida US
• Columbia University US
• Forest Research GB
• Goddard Space Flight Center US
• Joint Global Change Research Institute US

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