Resilience of Forest Ecosystems to Climate Change

Long-term studies of the dynamics of forest ecosystems in various landscape-geomorphological conditions have shown their spatial heterogeneity: forests at different restoration stages predominate in different areas. A strong relationship is identified between soil formation processes and restoration cycles of the forest ecosystem: soils degrade during the phase of climax coniferous forests; in contrast, soil restoration is observed in the phase of secondary deciduous forests. It is established that succession duration is the main factor determining the resilience of forest ecosystems. The restoration time depends both on the edaphotope conditions and biological characteristics of the forest-forming species; it varies from 150 to 600 years, exceeding the duration of regional (secular and intrasecular) climatic cycles. Concurrently, the complex structure of the soil humus profile reflects past changes in landscape conditions caused by global climatic changes in millennial cycles. Anthropogenic transformations disturb the ecosystem balance; this significantly slows down the recovery of ecosystems or even makes it impossible in some cases.