Journal Tree Physiology (https://academic.oup.com/treephys)

What are the biggest challenges for tomorrow's forests and/or ecosystems found within forested landscapes?

Maurizio : We are beginning to unravel the biological processes that control the resistance of forests to extreme climate events. By contrast, we lack a clear understanding of what controls, and limits, post-disturbance and post-stress recovery of ecosystem processes. Also, while we are reasonably good at predicting events that occur on seasonal to yearly time scales, we do not understand the long-term dynamics of ecological processes very well. Scaling in space from individuals to landscapes remains a challenge, despite the increased availability of dataset from local monitoring to global satellite coverage.

In which area(s) should research focus for improving the resilience of tomorrow's forest landscapes?

Maurizio : Providing scientifically informed support for the restoration of damaged ecosystems following extreme climate change-related events is currently very difficult, both because of the complexities of moving genotypes and species from one location to another in anticipation of climate-related damages and because of our limited understanding of the ecological trade-offs that control tree and ecosystem biology.

How can local communities best contribute to protecting vulnerable ecosystems?

Maurizio : In the face of substantial future losses of some ecosystem functions and services, it is essential to Involve communities in the decision-making process, to make sure they are on board when difficult decisions will need to be taken with regard to how best to retain those functions and services that communities think should be prioritised.