Forest resilience, tipping points and global change processes

Christopher P.O. Reyer, Anja Rammig, Niels Brouwers, Fanny Langerwisch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

70 Scopus citations

Abstract

Summary: Forests around the world are changing as a result of human activity. These changes have substantial impacts on the resilience of forests, possibly pushing them towards tipping points. The objective of this Special Feature is to present research that fosters the understanding of forest resilience and potential tipping points under global change. This editorial summarizes the key findings of the seven papers in this Special Feature and puts them in the wider context of resilience thinking. Synthesis. The contributions to this Special Feature show that resilience is a useful concept to understand ecosystem change but that we have to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms and feedback loops involved in forest resilience and potential tipping points. Finally, this Special Feature presents evidence about how resilience thinking is used to better understand and manage degraded forests.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-4
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Ecology
Volume103
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Forest management
  • Mechanism
  • Mortality
  • Paleo-ecology
  • Plant-climate interactions
  • Regime shifts
  • Seedling recruitment
  • Spatio-temporal scales

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