Why monitor forests globally?
Widespread tree mortality has now been observed across forested biomes. These events suggest that forests may be increasingly threatened by rapid climate change and human land use, but a reliable global assessment is still needed to establish where mortality is changing, by how much and why.
Isn’t tree mortality already monitored?
Yes—but existing systems see different parts of the process. Forest inventories record stems and individual trees, while satellites and airborne sensors detect canopy loss over much larger areas. They also work at very different spatial and temporal scales. Connecting them is essential for a consistent picture from tree to continent.
How can the network make a difference?
ITMN enables international and interdisciplinary collaborations that combine field monitoring, satellite observations, LiDAR, experiments and modelling. Together, these methods increase spatial coverage and resolution while providing independent lines of evidence for large-scale mortality trends and their causes.
Is ITMN a new plot network?
No. ITMN complements existing forest inventories, research plots and monitoring networks rather than replacing them. The network helps create and assemble comparable products that can be intercompared and used across disciplines. Its database portal makes published mortality observations easier to discover, map, download and cite.
What are tree-mortality data useful for?
Changes in mortality through time reveal trends in forest health. Comparing those trends with climate, environmental conditions and management can clarify the mechanisms behind tree death.
Areas of intense mortality also provide natural laboratories for studying the processes that create mortality hotspots. This knowledge can improve vegetation models and forecasts of how forests will respond to continuing climate and land-use change.