Scientists from the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology at the Czech University of Life Sciences participated in a study published in the prestigious journal Science
How fires, storms, and bark beetle infestations may affect European forests during the 21st century.
Scientists from the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague participated in an international study published in the prestigious scientific journal Science. They determined how fires, storms, and bark beetle infestations could affect European forests during the 21st century. The co-authors of the study are experts from the FLD Forest Risk Research Department – Dr. Laura Dobor and Prof. Tomáš Hlásny.
The results suggest that in all scenarios of future development, the extent of damage to European forests will be greater than today. With warming exceeding 4 °C, the area of forests affected by fires, storms, and bark beetles could more than double by the end of the century compared to the period 1986–2020.
The authors used an artificial intelligence-based simulation model trained with 135 million values from forest development simulations across 13,000 European locations, combined with satellite data describing past forest damage.
The results can serve as an important basis for future forestry policies and for the adaptation of European forests and forestry to climate change.
The full article can be found here.