Recent advances in the mechanistic modelling of forest stands and catchments

Mechanistic approaches describing the complex processes that underpin forest system dynamics are increasingly required in order to manage forests from a multi-purpose perspective. When describing future forest dynamics the environmental implications of climate change on long-lived organisms such as trees also focus attention on the need to adopt a holistic perspective. In turn, any future perspective has to account for the interacting dynamics of the wider processes resulting from environmental, ecological and land-use change. Therefore considerable understanding of the biological, biophysical and physical processes influencing the life cycle of trees and the forest ecosystem is required to achieve full representation of the system and its dynamics. Sam Evans, Tim Randle, Paul Henshall, Catia Arcangeli, Jennifer Pellenq, Sebastien Lafont and Chris Vials