Global temperature rise is leading to increased stress and mortality in forests globally and is driving more frequent and intense heatwaves

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the stated challenges and stated research gap and abstract and future-work section of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2025 and 2026, spanning 5 journals. Those papers have been cited 9 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 7 representative gaps

• Country-wide, high-resolution monitoring of forest browning with Sentinel-2 (2026) · ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences · doi

  Climate change and climatic extreme events are increasingly disturbing forest ecosystems. Monitoring disturbance impacts at scale is important to inform and drive forest conservation and adaptation efforts. There is a need for scalable approaches to monitor forest disturbances at scale.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: climate change climatic extreme events increasingly disturbing forest
• Climate Change, Vegetation Belts and Vitality of Pubescent Oak and Aleppo Pine on the Istrian Peninsula, Croatia (2026) · Climate · doi

  The gap in knowledge is the impact of climate change on forest ecosystem productivity, species composition, and ecological stability. The study identifies a lack of understanding of the relationships between climate-vegetation and ecosystem responses to environmental change.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: gap knowledge impact climate change forest ecosystem productivity
• Insights Into Nature‐Based Climate Solutions: Managing Forests for Climate Resilience and Carbon Stability (2025) · Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences · cited 9× · doi

  As forests face unprecedented stability risks in the face of ongoing climate change, much remains unknown regarding how management will impact forest stability, or how interactions with climate might shift the response of forests to management across spatiotemporal scales.

  generalabstractevidence 4/5
  Keywords: forests face stability climate management unprecedented risks ongoing change remains unknown regarding impact forest interactions
• Warming Drives Large‐Scale Shifts in Post‐Disturbance Vegetation Dynamics and Expansion of Deciduous Trees in the Boreal Forest in a Dynamic Vegetation Model (2026) · Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences · doi

  Abstract The intensification of disturbance regimes due to climate change is a growing concern in boreal forests, yet the long‐term consequences for forest recovery remain poorly understood, as boreal successional dynamics unfold over a century or longer and exceed the length of available observational records.

  generalabstractevidence 3/5
  Keywords: boreal abstract intensification disturbance regimes climate change growing concern forests long term consequences forest recovery
• Climate Change, Vegetation Belts and Vitality of Pubescent Oak and Aleppo Pine on the Istrian Peninsula, Croatia (2026) · Climate · doi

  Further research is needed to understand the impact of climate change on forest ecosystems, - Studies on other vegetation zones and species could provide more insights into the effects of climate change, - Research on the ecological niche of pubescent oak and Aleppo pine could be conducted

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 3/5
  Keywords: further research needed understand impact climate change forest
• Disturbance history and canopy structure drive growing season albedo dynamics in boreal forests (2026) · International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation · doi

  However, the effects of forest management practices, including total and partial disturbances, on these processes remain poorly understood, despite their importance for climate change mitigation This study analyses how forest characteristics and disturbances influence the spatial and temporal dynamics of albedo during the growing season, through their effect on forest structure and cover.

  generalabstractevidence 3/5
  Keywords: forest disturbances effects management practices including total partial processes remain poorly understood despite importance climate
• Higher growth temperatures compound heatwave recovery of photosynthesis in different populations of Corymbia calophylla (2026) · Functional Plant Biology · doi

  Global temperature rise is leading to increased stress and mortality in forests globally and is driving more frequent and intense heatwaves; however, the interaction between growth temperatures and heatwave events on tree populations remains poorly understood.

  generalabstractevidence 2/5
  Keywords: global temperature rise leading increased stress mortality forests globally driving frequent intense heatwaves interaction growth

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