Is this the end of forests as we've known them?

Around the globe, research has suggested that the tree mortality rate in some temperate and tropical forests has doubled or more in recent decades. While in some places there will be wholesale tree die-offs as a result of climate change, in other places it will alter the very composition and feel of forests. They will not be what they were. 

 In the Amazon, climate change has lengthened the dry season and caused the rainfall to decline in parts. These shifts are reorganizing the forest: trees that prefer drier conditions are thriving, while those that prefer wetter conditions, and which make up the majority of tree species in Amazonia, are dying off in greater numbers, a study has found. These changes demonstrate just how far-flung the impacts of climate change can be.

 more