Towards a global understanding of tree mortality

Senf, Cornelius (research coworker), Pugh, Thomas A. M. (research coworker), Nagel, Thomas Andrew (research coworker)

Rates of tree mortality are increasing globally, with implications for forests and climate. Yet, how and why these trends vary globally remain unknown. Developing a comprehensive assessment of global tree mortality will require systematically integrating data from ground-based long-term forest monitoring with large-scale remote sensing. We surveyed the metadata from 466 865 forest monitoring plots across 89 countries and five continents using questionnaires and discuss the potential to use these to estimate tree mortality trends globally. Our survey shows that the area monitored has increased steadily since 1960, but we also identify many regions with limited ground-based information on tree mortality. The integration of existing ground-based forest inventories with remote sensing and modelling can potentially fill those gaps, but this requires development of technical solutions and agreements that enable seamless flows of information from the field to global assessments of tree mortality. A truly global monitoring effort should promote fair and equitable collaborations, transferring funding to and empowering scientists from less wealthy regions. Increasing interest in forests as a natural climate solution, the advancement of new technologies and world-wide connectivity means that now a global monitoring system of tree mortality is not just urgently needed but also possible.

• Language: English
• Keywords: disturbance, forest inventory, forest monitoring, remote sensing, tree dieback
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.03 - Other scientific articles
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 2377-2392
• Numbering: Vol. 245, iss. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-167510
• UDC: 630*5:632.163
• ISSN on article: 1469-8137
• DOI: 10.1111/nph.20407
• COBISS.SI-ID: 224912131

Note

V članku je navedenih še več virov financiranja.

• Publication date in RUL: 26.02.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: New phytologist
• Shortened title: New phytol.
• Publisher: Wiley, New Phytologist Foundation
• ISSN: 1469-8137
• COBISS.SI-ID: 517796633

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: motnje, gozdna inventura, monitoring gozdov, daljinsko zaznavanje, odmiranje dreves