Latest Trends in Modelling Forest Ecosystems: New Approaches or Just New Methods?

Purpose of ReviewForest models are becoming essential tools in forest research, management, and policymaking but currently are under deep transformation. In this review of the most recent literature (2018-2022), we aim to provide an updated general view of the main topics currently attracting the efforts of forest modelers, the trends already in place, and some of the current and future challenges that the field will face.Recent FindingsFour major topics attracting most of on current modelling efforts: data acquisition, productivity estimation, ecological pattern predictions, and forest management related to ecosystem services. Although the topics may seem different, they all are converging towards integrated modelling approaches by the pressure of climate change as the major coalescent force, pushing current research efforts into integrated mechanistic, cross-scale simulations of forest functioning and structure.We conclude that forest modelling is experiencing an exciting but challenging time, due to the combination of new methods to easily acquire massive amounts of data, new techniques to statistically process such data, and refinements in mechanistic modelling that are incorporating higher levels of ecological complexity and breaking traditional barriers in spatial and temporal scales. However, new available data and techniques are also creating new challenges. In any case, forest modelling is increasingly acknowledged as a community and interdisciplinary effort. As such, ways to deliver simplified versions or easy entry points to models should be encouraged to integrate non-modelers stakeholders into the modelling process since its inception. This should be considered particularly as academic forest modelers may be increasing the ecological and mathematical complexity of forest models.

Automated summary

This review summarizes the main topics, trends, and challenges in current forest modeling based on recent literature. The major topics include data acquisition, productivity estimation, ecological pattern predictions, and forest management related to ecosystem services. These topics are converging towards integrated modeling approaches under the pressure of climate change, leading to mechanistic, cross-scale simulations of forest functioning and structure.