Carbon absorption by temperate forest ecosystems: Problems and responses to a changing environment

Global change is becoming a decisive environmental issue of the present tim e; to elucidate causes and effects at the atmosphere and biosphere levels, a major effort is being devoted world-wide, by the scientific community. Fo rest ecosystems can contribute to mitigate these changes because of their k ey role played in the energy and mass exchanges between the atmosphere and the geosphere. Several, important scientific and methodological problems st ill need to be solved in order to fully understand mitigation potentials of temperate forests and to answer to questions about their optimal managemen t strategies. In this paper, results of recent researches conducted on glob al change and temperate forests will be provided.