Potential Impacts of Climate

A gap-typed forest dynamic model KOPIDE was used to assess the dynamic responses of a mixed broadleaved-Korean pine forest stand to climate change in northeastem China. The GFDL climate change scenario was applied to derive the changes in environmental variables, such as 10 ~ based DEGD and PET~P, which were used to implement the model. The simulation result suggests that the climate change would cause important changes in stand structure. Korean pine, the dominant species in the area under current climate conditions, would disappear under the GFDL equilibrium scenario. Oak and elm would become the dominant species replacing Korean pine, ash and basswood. Such a potential change in forest structure would require different strategies for forest management in northeastern China.