Observing Climate Change Impacts on European Forests: What Works and What Does Not in Ongoing Long-Term Monitoring Networks

In Europe and North America are currently implemented programs for forest health assessment. The European ICP Forests program (www.icp-forests.net) consists of two networks of monitoring plots (extensive and intensive) where various monitoring activities are repeated at different temporal bases. These networks were designed to assess the effects of transboundary air pollution and atmospheric depositions (De Vries et al., 2014) and represent the most important tool to assess changes in forest ecosystems health condition at national and European scales. A change of perspective, from atmospheric pollution and deposition to multiple stress pressure related to climate change, suggests a revaluation of the overall structure of the surveys and of the indicators adopted to observe the impacts on forests. The aim of this study is to verify whether, and to what extent, the current European forest health monitoring program is suitable for assessing the impacts of new global environmental factors, and give suggestions to enhance its informative potential.