Understanding forest dynamics by integrating age and environmental change

How much carbon a forest ecosystem can sequester is determined by both
post-disturbance regrowth and environmentally modified growth. Disturbance
causes sharp declines in the short term and is followed by regrowth in the
long term. Environmental change may alter carbon accumulation through
increasing CO2, nitrogen deposition, and climate change. Regrowth and
modified growth occur simultaneously, yet they are usually studied
separately and assessed using an additive approach. Alternatively, an
interactive approach using hierarchical models can address their
concurrent nature and evaluate their joint effects. Hierarchical models
are informed by forest age data, which have recently become available at
global scales. The age-based hierarchical framework provides a coherent
and feasible way to integrate regrowth and modified growth in
understanding forest dynamics.