Forest Response to Disturbance and Anthropogenic Stress

Abstract

able through a retrospective view is the remarkable resiliency of these forests to a wide range of physical disturbances, including wind throw, fire, and land clearance (Boose et a]. Despite this resiliency 1 novel environmental stresses may surpass the ability of these forests to control important ecosystem processes (Likens et a1. 1996). For instance, changes in the global earthatmosphere system resulting from industrial and human land-use activities have increased the deposition of air pollution and may rapidly alter energy budgets in north tern-