Forests affected by climate change

because if there is global warming, the extreme events occur more frequently and cause a perturbation in the forests and possible droughts.

"These situations could be negative for agricultural and forest activities, which means that several farming practices would be seriously affected," affirmed Schneider.

For the professor, it is necessary to join all the efforts being performed related to climate change and connect different models to help the forests. "We need climate experts to work with other professionals to develop interdisciplinary research projects to find different relations existing between the climate change and the affected forests."

Laura Schneider was one of the international experts who attended the IV Forest National Symposium, led by the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of Universidad Nacional in Medellin. In her exhibition, Schneider mentioned the environmental perturbations and climate change that affects the tropical dry forests: case study of the Yucatán peninsula (Mexico).

Regarding this investigation, Schneider mentioned: "What we are witnessing at this moment is that if you add the effects on the farming activities to perturbations such as hurricanes, forests tend to be less diverse. Besides, the vegetation structure can be quickly recovered, but the effect on its composition can be slower."

Schneider explained that in the region of Yucatán the most common uses for the soil are related to agricultural activities for survival, specially the production of small pieces of land to grow corn, beans and pumpkin, and also for cattle farming, selective timber extraction and urban center contractions.

The professor also mentioned that, regarding the problem, similar to other countries in Latin America, some strategies are being implemented to capture carbon for the preservation of the forest and their sustainability.