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Extreme climatic events, such as intense and prolonged droughts and heat waves, are occurring with increasing frequency and with pronounced impacts on forests. Forest trees, as long-lived organisms, need to develop adaptation mechanisms to successfully respond to such climatic extremes. Whether physiological adaptations on the tree level result in ecophysiological responses that ensure plasticity of forest ecosystems to climate change is currently in the core forest research. Within this Special Issue, forest species’ responses to climatic variability were reported from diverse climatic zones and ecosystem types: from near-desert mountains in western USA to tropical forests in central America and Asia, and from Mediterranean ecosystems to temperate European forests. The clear effects of constraints related to climate change were evidenced on the tree level, such as in differentiated gene expression, metabolite abundance, sap flow rates, photosynthetic performance, seed germination, survival and growth, while on the ecosystem level, tree line shifts, temporal shifts in allocation of resources and species shifts were identified. Experimental schemes such as common gardens and provenance trails also provided long-term indications on the tolerance of forest species against drought and warming and serve to evaluate their performance under the predicted climate in near future. These findings enhance our knowledge on the potential resilience of forest species and ecosystems to climate change and provide an updated basis for continuing research on this topic.

Research & information: general --- Environmental economics --- Cedrela odorata --- seeds --- germination --- cardinal temperatures --- thermal time --- climate change --- dendrochronology --- ecology --- moving window analysis --- Pinaceae --- Pinus arizonica Engelm. --- Pinus ponderosa var. brachyptera (Engelm.) --- Ponderosae --- response function --- tree rings --- global climate change --- forest ecology --- trees adaptation --- phenotypic plasticity --- Phoebe bournei --- nitrogen --- carbon dioxide --- photosynthesis --- leaf anatomy --- National Park --- tree line shift --- acclimation --- adaptation --- common garden --- drought --- ecodistance --- mortality --- stomatal frequency --- stomatal size --- sap flux --- radial profile --- sapwood depth --- Aleppo pine --- diurnal variation --- seasonal variation --- climate --- basal area increment --- forest dieback --- Mediterranean forest --- stem growth --- water availability --- Quercus --- morphology evaluation --- survival rate --- extreme frost --- heat and drought --- open-top chamber --- RNA sequencing --- gene expression analysis --- Populus