Climate change impacts on tropical forests: identifying risks for tropical Asia

There is growing evidence that global climate change is significantly altering forest ecosystems, and will continue to do so in the future. Changes in mean climate and climate extremes such as drought, storms, cyclones and wildfires can fundamentally alter species distribution, composition, phenology, and forest structure. This study reviewed the available evidence of climate change impacts on tropical forests. We selected 85 studies based on two selection criterias and recorded the impacts of climate change on different areas of tropical forests. The majority of the studies examined climate change impacts on forest structure and composition (72%), with few considering phenology (8%). This study focused on tropical Asian forests because of their high biodiversity values and their vulnerability to the interacting…