Response of boreal forest ecosystem to global climate change: a review

The boreal forest, one of the largest biomes on the Earth, encompasses ~30% of the global forest area and provides ecosystem services that benefit society at levels ranging from local to global. Warming since the 1850s increases the annual mean temperature from 2000 to 2050 at least 2 ℃ or even more. Annual winter mean temperatures across the boreal zone could be 1.3-6.3 ℃ warmer than today’s by 2100. In the meantime, all aspects of boreal forest ecosystem function are likely to be affected. For about several decades, there have been many events of the potential ecological response in boreal regions to the currently warmer conditions. In this paper, we review the response of boreal forest ecosystem to the global climate change, such as carbon cycle, biodiversity, aridification, forest fire disturbance and permafrost. The different responses of boreal forest ecosystem to global climate change are as follows. 1) The impact of climate change on the boreal forest carbon cycle dynamic is very complicated, and so far it has not reached a consensus, there still exist a lot of uncertainties about the decomposition to reaction sensitivity of temperature. 2) The animals, plants and microorganisms (fungi) have produced a certain response to climate change, demonstrated by that the distribution of animals and plants moves further north, but the response mechanism of the fungal diversity and productivity to the climate change remains unclear. 3) The change of boreal forests with climate change tends to be further drought and an increasing number of forest fire events. 4) There is a symbiotic relationship between boreal forests and the permafrost, and the distribution of permafrost tends to be shrinking and the thickness of active layer is deepening with the climate warming. Collectively, the response of boreal forest to climate change is very obvious, and its trend is clearer although some mechanisms have not been disclosed yet so far. The purpose of this paper is to provide basic data and technical support for the operation and management of the boreal forests, in order to achieve sustainable management for boreal forests.