The aim of this questionnaire is to survey existing and planned adaptation strategies to cope with climate change impacts on forest and forestry in EU 27 Member States.
This questionnaire was designed by European Forest Institute (EFI) and is part of the Study on impacts of climate change on European forests and options for adaptation that is undertaken for DG Agriculture and Rural Development. The results of the questionnaire will be summarized and presented in the report of the study.
If you need more information about questionnaire, please contact Marja Kolström (e-mail marja.kolstrom(à)efi.int, phone +358 10 773 4334)
Background information
Climate change is expected to strongly affect forests and forestry in Europe. EFI, together with collaborating institutes from Austria, France, and Italy is currently reviewing the state-of-knowledge on climate change and its potential impacts in European forestry. The following summary provides a short overview of potential climate impacts in different bioclimatic regions.
The main climate change impact factor in the boreal region is the projected change in temperature. The increase in temperature may prolong the growing season and enhance the decomposition of soil organic matter and increase the supply of nitrogen. This may further enhance forest growth, consequent timber yield and the accumulation of C in the biomass. Precipitation is expected to increase which will further benefit growth of forests and may contribute to alter the current forest composition. However, these changes can increase biotic (e.g. insects and pathogens) and abiotic (e.g. windthrows) disturbances with corresponding losses in forest productivity. Moreover, the increase in winter temperatures and precipitation may affect logging operations (especially in swampy areas).
Temperature is predicted to increase in the temperate oceanic zone and this will have a positive impact in northern and western parts (i.e. less water limited) and a negative impact on southern and eastern parts (i.e. water limited). In the southern parts of the Atlantic forests the summer precipitations are the main constraint factor of forest growth and productivity through their role in determining the frequency of droughts. Temperature and precipitation changes may increase biotic (e.g. insects and pathogens) and abiotic (e.g. wildfire and windthrows) disturbances with corresponding losses in forest productivity.
In the temperate continental zone, forest production is more constrained by water than in the temperate oceanic zone. The demand of water during the growing season is normally larger than the amount of rainfall. This indicates that if global warming is not accompanied by increased rainfall, water could limit growth to larger extent than today. Therefore, production decreases at sites vulnerable to water stress and increases in sites where the increased evaporative demand under the elevated temperature is balanced by an increase in precipitation. In temperate forests, milder winters may reduce winter hardening in trees, increasing their vulnerability to frost. Fire danger is likely to increase.
In the Mediterranean region, rising temperatures without increase in precipitation or with decreasing rainfall can lead to drought which is the most important impact factor in this region. This leads to an increase in the most important abiotic risk in the Mediterranean region, the fire risk. In addition, forest stands will be weakened by unfavourable environment which will increase the biotic risks. Consequently, ecosystem production, growth and yield under climate change have been found to decrease in Mediterranean areas.
Within these different bioclimatic regions appear differences. Each bioclimatic zone includes many forest types and different impacts of climate change vary from one forest type to other one. These differences can be highlighted in the answers about adaptation measures.
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