1.1 Variabilità nella risposta ai cambiamenti climatici delle faggete: un’analisi bibliografica

Climate change influences the stability and health of forests, impacting on forest structure, composition, and functioning. European beech is one of the most widespread and important tree species for the European forest sector, and the impact of climate change on this species was analysed through dendrochronology, phenological monitoring, model distribution and multilevel process. These studies highlighted how the beech productivity and distribution are influenced by temperature with contrasting future projections about the adaptability of this species to climate change. The increasing temperature plays a role in the length of the growing season, especially with increasing spring temperature that determined an early budbreak in leaf phenology or an early beginning of wood production. Low precipitation also limits beech forest productivity. Moreover, temperature defines the shifting climate zones pole ward in the mid to high latitudes and shifting upward in regions of higher elevation modifying the species distribution. However, large uncertainties exist due to the anomalies of precipitations that with temperature influence the soil water contents and the availability of soil nutrients modifying the growth. Finally, also repro duction is affected by climate and in relation to growth is subjected to trade-offs in the allocation and depletion of resources.