Climate change impacts on drought-prone forests in western Canada

Abstract

From a climate change perspective, much of the recent international focus on forests has been on their role in taking up carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The question of climate change impacts on forest productivity is also emerging as a critical issue, especially in drought-prone regions such as the western Canadian interior. Because of the complexity of interacting factors, there is uncertainty even in predicting the direction of change in the productivity of Canada's forests as a whole over the next century. In the most climatically vulnerable regions, however, successful adaptation may require more innovative approaches to forest management, coupled with an enhanced capacity for early detection of large-scale changes in forest productivity, dieback and regeneration. Key words: climate change, boreal forest, productivity, drought, impacts, adaptation