Dendroecology: Lessons Learned and Future Frontiers

Abstract

Over the past four decades dendroecology has been instrumental in shaping contemporary understanding of how forests around the world change over time. Dendroecological research has provided important new insights into the functioning of temperate, boreal, and tropical forests at sub-annual, annual, decadal, and centennial time scales. Importantly, dendroecological research has provided the empirical framework for our current understanding of how individual trees respond to their environment, whether background climatic conditions, the effects of local competition, the impacts of biotic (e.g., herbivory by insects and vertebrates, disease) or abiotic (e.g., fire, wind, floods, drought) disturbances, or interactions among multiple environmental factors. The fundamental strength of dendroecology is in providing a universal framework for interpreting individualistic responses of trees to their environment.