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Tropical cyclone migration mitigates the impact of climate change on cool-temperate and boreal forests
  • Jan Altman,
  • Kirill Korznikov
Jan Altman
Institute of Botany Czech Academy of Sciences

Corresponding Author:altman.jan@gmail.com

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Kirill Korznikov
Institute of Botany Czech Academy of Sciences
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Abstract

The poleward migration of tropical cyclones (TCs) inevitably triggers unprecedented ecological consequences for cool-temperate and boreal forests, including shifts in species distribution, global carbon dynamics, or forest policies. However, our current understanding of the impact of TCs’ expansion into new regions is limited and lacks attention by both, the media and research community, compared to TCs’ impact on (sub-)tropical forests. We suggest that TCs should not only be perceived as destructive weather phenomena but also as vehicle mitigating the impact of climate change on forest ecosystems via enabling the forest transition and reducing the negative impact of prolonged drought periods. Hence, it is vital to establish globally coherent long-term and large-scale research to capture unique ongoing (and currently overlooked) ecological processes induced by TC migration, which may lead to a complex unprecedented forest transition dynamic.