by Matteo Cavallito<\/p>\n
Higher elevations are offering forests less protection from the effects of drought<\/strong>. Evidence of this trend comes from Switzerland<\/strong>, where even forests growing above two thousand metres show signs of decline, while their ability to withstand and recover from extreme events is weakening. These are the findings of a study<\/a> by the Bern University of Applied Sciences<\/strong> and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL<\/strong>), published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change<\/em>.<\/p>\n Analysing four decades of data on protective forests, the authors found a gradual weakening of the link between elevation and drought resilience. \u201cThe historical advantage of higher altitudes<\/strong> against drought stress is diminishing, suggesting a convergence of acclimation levels where drought stress thresholds are increasingly exceeded across all belts, regardless of altitude\u201d, the study explains. \u201cThis convergence, however, does not yet translate into uniform structural responses\u201d.<\/p>\n