Europe’s forgotten forests could become the 21st century’s ‘biodiversity hotspots’

Overlooked and long-ignored types of forests have enormous resilience that increases species diversity and resilience to climate change, according to an international team of forest scientists.

According to a new study published in Pro Swanthere is ample habitat for the Eurasian poplar, and as the global climate warms, these environments will continue to be suitable for this “keystone species.”

“The Eurasian poplar, and the world’s poplar species, is home to vast populations of other dependent plants and animals,” said the study’s lead author, from Brno, Czech Republic, also known as the Czech Republic. said Antonin Kusbach, an applied ecologist at Mendel University. Where the team’s research was conducted.

“Furthermore, because aspen systems rapidly regenerate and establish new areas, this type of forest is vulnerable to the increased risk of fires, diseases, insect infestations, and wind storms that are widely expected under climate warming scenarios.” It is ideally adapted to disturbance.”

Scientists used field measurements, remote sensing techniques, and advanced analytical techniques to better understand historical and potential poplar habitats, called “realized niches,” that are similar across the Czech forest landscape. conducted a survey of over 4 million forest locations using It resembles forests throughout central Europe. Aspen forests were once much more widespread throughout these regions, but commercial forestry, which typically favors monotypic stands of target conifer species, has transformed these habitats.

There is no need to leave it this way.

“A course correction in European forest management could help restore these great forests,” said co-author Paul Rogers of the Western Aspen Alliance, Ecology Center, and Utah State University’s Department of Environmental Sociology. . “Within every acre of returning aspen forest, plant and animal diversity will thrive.”

The Eurasian poplar, Populus tremula, is one of six poplar species in the genus Populus that are collectively distributed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere.

These species harbor extraordinary biodiversity compared to the surrounding forests. Eurasian aspen is widespread across Europe and Asia. The trembling poplar, Populus tremuloides, is the most widely distributed tree in North America and is also known as a keystone species, promoting biodiversity as the climate changes.

“Sometimes people say you can walk from coast to coast in North America and never leave the shade of an aspen tree,” Rogers says. “While that may not be literally true, it speaks to the flexibility and adaptability of these forests. Now we can better understand the huge potential for aspen to thrive across Europe as well. became.”

Reintroducing poplars to tens of millions of hectares of potential habitat across Europe will clearly be a difficult endeavor, but it may take little more than a ‘nudge’ to start the process.

“My personal field observations show that poplars naturally invaded central European forests after Norway spruce was extensively cleared following bark beetle outbreaks,” Kusbach said. Ta. So this might be considered a hidden solution.