Resumen de Adapting forest management to climate change
Rubén Javier Mur Torrentó
Climate change is one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. The increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, in temperatures, and changes in the precipitation pattern are expected to alter the dynamics of forest ecosystems and the process of natural disturbances like fire or pests. Thus, it seems necessary to adopt policies to increase the resilience of forest ecosystems through management practices. At the same time, forest ecosystems can play an important role to mitigate climate change impacts through the sequestration of carbon. This thesis aims to integrate a biogeochemical and an economic model in order to determine the optimal management regime of a forest under climate change. It analyses the capacity of Mediterranean forests to adapt to new environmental conditions, to an increase in wildfires, and evaluate the associated costs and benefits. Likewise, it determines forest carbon sequestration costs, so that they can be compared with the costs of other mitigation policies
