forests, carbon cycle and climate change

Résumé

Situated at the confluence of four climatic zones, oceanic, continental, Mediterranean and montane, metropolitan France includes the northern, southern or altitudinal margins of a large number of tree and pathogen species. French forests therefore offer a diversity of species and management options representative of temperate and Mediterranean European forests. This context is unique for analysing and simulating the effects of climate change on forests at the regional and subregional scales. The results presented in this book summarize the main findings of the Carbofor project, which brought together 52 scientists from 14 research units (INRA, CNRS, CEA, Météo-France, Universities of Paris-Sud and Orléans, IFN, CIRAD) to investigate the effects of future climate on the carbon cycle and the productivity and vulnerability of French forests.Forests, Carbon Cycle and Climate Change explains the current forest carbon cycle in temperate and Mediterranean climates, including the dynamics of soil carbon and the total carbon stock of French forests, based on forest inventories. It reviews and illustrates the main ground-based methods for estimating carbon stocks in tree biomass. Spatial variations in projected climate change over metropolitan France throughout the 21st century are described. The book then goes on to consider the impacts of climate change on tree phenology and forest carbon balance, evapotranspiration and production as well as their first order interaction with forest management alternatives.The impact of climate change on forest vulnerability is analysed and shows how the climate envelopes and geographical distribution of France's main tree species will be affected by climate change. A similar simulation study was carried put for a range of pathogenic fungi, emphasizing the importance of both warming and precipitation changes. The consequences of climate change on the occurrence of forest fires and the forest carbon cycle in the Mediterranean zone are also considered.This book is a valuable reference for researchers and academics, forest engineers and managers, and graduate level students in forest ecology, ecological modelling and forestry.