Impacts of climate change on forests

The impact of climate change on global forests in their entirety would in all likelihood be modest. However, its impact on individual forests could be substantial as they adapted to new climate conditions. New forests might rise up in the tundra. Others might wane in places where moisture levels declined. Overall, the impacts would likely be greatest in the higher latitudes, where more warming is expected.

The effect of climate change on the industrial wood supply would probably be positive. The negative effects on most ecological, environmental, and recreational services would not be large, provided that climate change occurred gradually, as most of the recent GCMs now predict. The major negative impact would likely be on biodiversity, particularly on endemic species that would have difficulty migrating. Mitigating the negative impacts of climate change on forests will depend on enhancing the capacity for adaptation.