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Methods for evaluating and predicting forest growth responses to air pollution

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Summary

The challenges of quantifying and characterizing recent broad-scale changes in forest growth are substantial and exciting. The implications of these declines to the future growth and stability of forests in both Europe and the United States are significant. While the role of anthropogenic pollutants in initiating or exacerbating observed changes in growth and mortality is not clearly established, the possible implications of erroneous decisions with respect to pollution abatement are enormous and call for concerted, imaginative, and multidisciplinary research to provide much needed answers in the shortest possible time frame. Proof of cause and effect in complex natural ecosystems will not be absolute; however, diverse approaches can lead cumulatively to strong inferential evidence that substantially reduces the uncertainities of such decisions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 37831, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

    S. McLaughlin & O. U. Bräker

  2. Swiss Federal Institute of Forestry Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    S. McLaughlin & O. U. Bräker

Authors
  1. S. McLaughlin
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  2. O. U. Bräker
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Additional information

Research sponsored in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Interagency Agreement EPA 82-D-XO533 and by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract W-7405-eng-26 with Union Carbide Corporation. This manuscript has not been subjected to EPA review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of EPa and no official endorsement should be inferred. Environmental Sciences Division, ORNL.

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McLaughlin, S., Bräker, O.U. Methods for evaluating and predicting forest growth responses to air pollution. Experientia 41, 310–319 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02004491

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