The forestry component
Climate Change poses a great challenge to forest production systems, potentially threatening those who particularly depend on local food and wood production for their livelihood.
The forestry model was the last component to be integrated in MOSAICC, and it was developed in accordance with the interests at national and regional level concerning the impacts of climate change on forest dynamics.
The forest tool, LANDIS-II, simulates how ecological processes such as succession, seed dispersal, disturbances and climate change affect a forested landscape over time.
The LANDIS-II model uses direct cause-and-effect relationships to link forest dynamics to fundamental climate drivers, including temperature, precipitation and CO2 concentration. It can produce robust predictions, using climate data from the statistical downscaling portal of MOSAICC as primary input.
The main output of the forestry component is changes in biomass and the distribution of tree species in response to climate change. It is also a useful tool to assess the impacts of disturbances such as fire or wind on forest production and on the economy.