The impacts of climate change and disturbance on spatio-temporal trajectories of biodiversity in a temperate forest landscape.

ABSTRACT: 1. The ongoing changes to climate challenge the conservation of forest biodiversity. Yet, in thermally limited systems, such as temperate forests, not all species groups might be affected negatively. Furthermore, simultaneous changes in the disturbance regime have the potential to mitigate climate-related impacts on forest species. Here, we (i) investigated the potential long-term effect of climate change on biodiversity in a mountain forest landscape, (ii) assessed the effects of different disturbance frequencies, severities and sizes and (iii) identified biodiversity hotspots at the landscape scale to facilitate conservation management. 2. We employed the model iLand to dynamically simulate the tree vegetation on 13 865 ha of the Kalkalpen National Park in Austria over 1000

SUBMITTER: Thom D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5245768 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature