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Published on: January 5, 2024
Anthropogenic land-use legacies underpin climate change-related risks to forest ecosystems
Albert Vilà-Cabrera1, Julen Astigarraga2, Alistair S Jump3
1CREAF, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain; Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK; Universidad de Alcalá, Grupo de Ecología y Restauración Forestal, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
Forest ecosystems with long-lasting human imprints can emerge worldwide as outcomes of land-use cessation. However, the interaction of these anthropogenic legacies with climate change impacts on forests is not well understood. Here, we set out how anthropogenic land-use legacies that persist in forest properties, following alterations in forest distribution, structure, and composition, can interact with climate change stressors. We propose a risk-based framework to identify anthropogenic legacies of land uses in forest ecosystems and quantify the impact of their interaction with climate-related stress on forest responses. Considering anthropogenic land-use legacies alongside environmental drivers of forest ecosystem dynamics will improve our predictive capacity of climate-related risks to forests and our ability to promote ecosystem resilience to climate change.
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