The direct effects of climate change on forests will be variable and strongly dependent on interactions with other disturbances, especially novel fire regimes that are expanding into new areas because of invasion by fire-prone exotic grass and shrub species, such as fountain grass and common gorse in Hawaii and guinea grass across the region. Combined with warmer and drier conditions, these invasions have the potential to alter or even eliminate native forests through conversion of forested systems to open, exotic-dominated grass and shrub lands. In wet forests, invasive plants can alter hydrologic processes by increasing water use by vegetation, and these effects may be more severe under warmer or drier conditions.
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