%0 Journal Article
%T What is the future of the ecosystem services of the Alpine forest against a backdrop of climate change?
%A Beno£¿t Courbaud
%A Georges Kunstler
%A Xavier Morin
%A Thomas Cordonnier
%J Revue de G¨¦ographie Alpine
%D 2011
%I Association pour la Diffusion de la Recherche Alpine
%R 10.4000/rga.1317
%X Mountain forests produce a large number of ecosystem services that are going to be affected by climate change. We are expecting an increase in high altitude species that could result in the decrease in resinous and subalpine species. These changes in species could adversely affect biodiversity and timber production. However, we also observe an increase in productivity that favours the production of energy wood and, at least temporarily, timber, as well as carbon storage. Given the possible rise in extreme climatic events, changes in vegetation could be marked by periods of decline, which will be very detrimental to the economic system, protection against natural hazards and biodiversity. Climate change will also have an indirect effect on the forest by increasing the demand for renewable energy and carbon storage. There is a lot of uncertainty about vegetation change predictions and this makes it difficult to define forest management adaptation strategies. Effective crisis management, monitoring of natural transformations of the forest based on the interaction between research and management (adaptive management) and the explicit factoring in of the concept of uncertainty appear to be essential to the maintenance of the ecosystem services provided by the forest. La for¨ºt de montagne produit de nombreux services ¨¦cosyst¨¦miques qui vont ¨ºtre affect¨¦s par les changements climatiques. On attend une remont¨¦e des essences en altitude qui pourrait conduire ¨¤ une diminution des r¨¦sineux et des esp¨¨ces du subalpin. Ces changements d¡¯essences pourraient avoir un impact n¨¦gatif sur la biodiversit¨¦ et sur la production de bois d¡¯ uvre. On observe cependant ¨¦galement une augmentation de la productivit¨¦ favorable ¨¤ la production de bois ¨¦nergie et au moins temporairement de bois d¡¯ uvre, ainsi qu¡¯au stockage de carbone. Face ¨¤ une augmentation possible des ¨¦v¨¨nements climatiques extr¨ºmes, les changements de v¨¦g¨¦tation pourront ¨ºtre marqu¨¦s par des ¨¦pisodes de d¨¦p¨¦rissements, tr¨¨s n¨¦gatifs pour la fili¨¨re ¨¦conomique, la protection contre les risques naturels et la biodiversit¨¦. Le changement climatique affectera la for¨ºt ¨¦galement de mani¨¨re indirecte en augmentant la demande en ¨¦nergie renouvelable et en stockage de carbone. Les incertitudes sur les pr¨¦dictions de changements de v¨¦g¨¦tation sont ¨¦lev¨¦es, ce qui rend d¨¦licate la d¨¦finition de strat¨¦gies d¡¯adaptation de la gestion foresti¨¨re. Une gestion de crises efficace, un accompagnement des ¨¦volutions naturelles de la for¨ºt bas¨¦ sur une interaction recherche-gestion (gestion adaptative), et la prise en compte expli
%K biodiversity
%K wood production
%K protection against natural hazards
%K carbon storage
%K forest management
%K biodiversit¨¦
%K production de bois
%K protection contre les al¨¦as naturels
%K stockage de carbone
%K gestion foresti¨¨re
%U http://rga.revues.org/1317