Forest resilience, biodiversity, and climate change

This publication is a direct response to a request by the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD to explore the links between biodiversity, forest ecosystem resilience, and climate change. [...] Resilience is also influenced by the size of forest ecosystems (generally, the larger and less fragmented, the better), and by the condition and character of the surrounding landscape. [...] As the glob- al climate changes, forest ecosystems will change In the annex to decision II/9, the Conference of because species’ physiological tolerances may be ex- the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diver- ceeded and the rates of biophysical forest processes will be altered (Olesen et al. [...] We define resilience sive forest states might be able to provide most or as the capacity of an ecosystem (i.e., forest type, in all of the goods and services provided by the initial this paper) to return to the original state following a state, and all would be recognizable as a forest type. [...] In the during re-colonization of northern temperate forests face of rapid environmental change, it is important following the retreat of glaciers can be accounted to understand that the genetic diversity and adap- for by the underestimation of long-distance disper- tive capacity of forested ecosystems depends largely sal rates and events (Brunet and von Oheimb 1998, on in situ genetic variation wi