The future is uncertain: Wind resilient forests in a changing climate

Abstract

Understanding the process of wind damage to trees and forests is an important requirement for developing strategies to create forests and urban environments resilient to climate change and for understanding the ecology of forests subject to wind damage. This special issue is a collection of papers based on work associated with the 10th IUFRO Wind and Trees Conference held in June 2023 in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy. The 1st IUFRO Wind and Trees Conference was held in 1993 in Edinburgh, Scotland and this latest publication allows us to reflect on how the subject has developed over the last 30 years. Familiar themes continue to be important including the interaction between trees and forests and the wind, and predicting the risk of damage to forests and trees. However, there has been an increased awareness of the importance of wind disturbance in shaping the ecology of many forests including broadleaf forests and forests in tropical and subtropical regions. Furthermore, there is now more emphasis on trying to understand the response of individual trees to the wind and together with the increased research on wind impacts on broadleaved trees this is allowing a better understanding of the risk that urban trees, trees in rural landscapes, and mixed species forests are facing. A new development has been the emergence of clear evidence of genetic differences in the wind resistance of different clones of the same species. This gives us the opportunity to breed trees with greater resistance to wind damage. At the same time a paper in this special issue shows that Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) trees across Europe adjusted their wind resistance to the local wind environment, demonstrating the high plasticity of this and other tree species. Understanding the interaction of genetics and environmental influences on tree resistance to wind remains a major challenge for future research. Further challenges are to develop a better understanding of tree dynamics, root fatiguing, and the interaction of roots, soil and moisture. It is clear that we need to take a holistic view of forest disturbance by understanding the interaction of wind with other disturbance agents such as drought, bark beetles, and fire. In this way we can hopefully help to develop forest ecosystems that are more resilient to our future climate.