There are significant pressures from climate change and air pollution that forests currently face. This book aims to increase understanding of the state and potential of forest ecosystems to mitigate and adapt to climate change in a polluted environment. It reconciles process-oriented research, long-term monitoring and applied modeling through comprehensive forest ecosystem research. Furthermore, it introduces "forest super sites for research for integrating soil, plant and atmospheric sciences and monitoring. It also provides mechanistic and policy-oriented modeling with scientifically sound risk indications regarding atmospheric changes and ecosystem services. Identifies current knowledge gaps and emerging research needs Highlights novel methodologies and integrated research concepts Assesses ecological meaning of investigations and prioritizing research need

This book discusses regional and international climate-change, air- pollution and human-health scenarios. The research, from both industrialized and developing countries, focuses on region-specific perspectives of climate change impacts on air pollution. After analyzing the variations of climate data over recent decades, the authors consider the different effects of climate change on air pollution and health. As stressed by the IPCC, “pollen, smoke and ozone levels are likely to increase in a warming world, affecting the health of residents of major cities. Rising temperatures will worsen air quality through a combination of more ozone in cities, bigger wild fires and worse pollen outbreaks,” according to a major UN climate report. The report follows the World Health Organization in finding that air pollution is the world’s greatest environmental health risk, killing 7 million people in 2014 (compared to 0.4 million deaths due to malaria). Deteriorating air quality will most affect the elderly, children, people with chronic ill-health and expectant mothers. Another report suggests that more than 5.5 million people die prematurely each year due to air pollution with over half of those deaths occurring in China and India. A study on the air pollution in the USA,suggests that more than half of US population lives in areas with potentially dangerous air pollution, and about six out of 10 of the top cities for air pollution in the USA are located in the state of California. In the face of future climate change, scientists have urged stronger emission controls to avoid worsening air pollution and the associated exacerbation of health problems, especially in more populated regions of the world. It is hoped that the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement will help minimize air pollution. Additionally the authors consider the various measures that different countries and groups of countries, like the European Union, have adopted to mitigate the problems arising from climate change and to safeguard the health of population. The book examines the increasing incidence of diseases largely caused by climate change. The countries/regions covered in this study include the USA, Northern Europe (U.K).,Southern Europe ( Italy), Canada, Australia, East Asia, Russia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Caribbean countries, and Argentina.

This chapter outlines the aims and scope of the book. An introduction is given to the current status of knowledge which is presented on the topic of the book. Arguments are presented for writing the book, in view of continued, long-term and process-based research needed for mitigating ecological and socio-economic risks to forests under global change. The book will conclude on suggestions for decision making and reasons for continued funding of related research.

Conclusions from the individual chapters are integrated into a synopsis, covering achievements and perspectives, and linking challenges for natural and social sciences, provisioning ecosystem services (ESs) under environmental change. The required research and policy making are facilitated by novel understanding of ecosystem functioning and internal factorial interactions with the atmosphere. A basis is provided through methodological progress for establishing forest research ‘supersites’ within global research networks, possessing capacities for creating generic mechanistic knowledge of ecological relevance. On such grounds, provisioning versus regulating ESs must accommodate diversification in the joint production of agricultural and forestry goods, backed by integrative bioeconomic land-use modelling. Advancement requires forest ecosystem-level unification of air pollution and climate change research while strengthening communication between experimentalists, monitoring experts, modellers, policy makers and stakeholders towards tool development for reliable risk assessment. A critical and appreciative view of forest functions and services is demanded in relation to the (post-)Kyoto debate.

A review of the current status of air pollution and climate change (CC) in the United States from a perspective of their impacts on forest ecosystems is provided. Ambient ozone (O3) and nitrogen (N) deposition have important and widespread ecological impacts in U.S. forests. Effects of sulphurous (S) air pollutants and other trace pollutants have significant ecological importance only at much smaller geographic scales. Complex interactive effects of air pollution and CC for selected future CC scenarios are reviewed. In addition, simulations of past, present, and future hydrologic, nutrient, and growth changes caused by interactive effects of air pollution and CC are described for two U.S. forest ecosystems. Impacts of O3, N deposition, and CC on growth and hydrology of mixed conifer forests in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California were projected with the DayCent model. Effects of N deposition, CO2 fertilization, N deposition, and CC on northern hardwood forests at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire were simulated with the PnET-BGC model. Projected changes in these forests can influence the provision of ecosystem services such as C sequestration and water supply. The extent of these effects will vary depending on the future intensity and extent of CC, air pollutant emission levels, the distribution of air pollution, and other factors such as drought, pest outbreaks, fire, etc. Our chapter ends with research and management recommendations intended to increase our ability to cope with uncertainties related to the future interactive effects of multiple air pollutants, atmospheric deposition, CC, and other biotic and abiotic stressors.

The air pollution and greenhouse gas emission problem has been exacerbated in India due to large population increase and rapid economic growth. The Indo-Gangetic Plains of Northern India, one of the most fertile regions of the world, has become one of the most polluted regions. The region has emerged as a ‘hot spot’ for air pollution, especially ozone (O3), threatening food-grain production. The air quality data show large parts of India suffering from high pollution load. Unfortunately, O3 monitoring is still in its infancy. There are reports of O3-caused yield and biomass losses in crops ranging between 10% and 51%, offsetting a significant portion of the Gross Domestic Productivity growth rate. There are no O3 experiments conducted with Indian tree species, but the crop losses suggest that O3 may have a deleterious impact also in long-lived trees in the Indian area. There is a critical need to study how O3will impact trees and forest ecosystems.