ABSTRACT
The long life span of trees makes their response to climate very different from agricultural crops. This chapter summarizes what the author thinks will be the response of forest to climate changes in the future. The long life span of trees creates problems for forestry that differ from agriculture. A forester needs a precise prediction of what's going to happen 50 years from now because the turnover time for many forest plantations is about 50 years. The fossil record indicates that trees lag behind other organisms in their response to climatic change. The lags were due either to limited dispersal of seeds or to slow development of suitable soils. Past rapid climate changes were often accompanied by natural disturbances that speeded up the response of vegetation. There is evidence in the fossil record that disturbance rates are very closely tied to climate.
