Table 2 Research questions and research proposed formulated by the workshop participants to improve our understanding of the decline of the central Chile MTE forest. The research questions are organized by drivers, impacts, and adaptation without any order of priority

Drivers

Water Resources Management

• Did the overuse of groundwater in central Chile watersheds, condition the forest water status in the face of the megadrought?

Forest Management

• Did the current management and the type of forest management amplify the magnitude of the forest decline in 2019 (hyper-drought)?

Soil-vegetation-atmosphere feedback

• Do the decrease in soil moisture and native vegetation cover alter atmospheric conditions at a local and/or regional scale?

• Could these alterations amplify the effects of the drought?

Forest fires

• Did past fires influence the forest response to the megadrought?

Impacts

Ecological

(composition, structure and functioning of the forest)

• What are the tolerance thresholds of the species that make up the sclerophyllous forest to water stress and high temperatures?

• What consequences will the megadrought have on pollination and seed dispersal processes?

• Will new communities be formed due to changes in relative abundance of species and/or by new processes of colonization and extinction of species?

A reduction in tree cover and tree size,

• Would it affect the water and nutrient retention capacity in the soil?

• How would carbon fluxes be altered?

• How would it affect the ability to regulate humidity and atmospheric surface temperature?

Social and cultural

• What impact does the loss of greenery in the forest have on the perception of conserving this ecosystem?

• What knowledge and traditional knowledge could be lost with the loss of the forest?

• Will visits to private and state natural parks decrease as a result of the decline of the forest in the central zone?

• Do inhabitants of urban-rural interface areas have a higher perception of the risk of floods or forest fires as a result of the decline of the forest?

Adaptation

Management approach of the sclerophyllous forest

• Identify localities that were not severely affected by the drought to define protection areas against future extreme drought events and where propagation material of native species (seeds, cuttings, bulbs, etc.) can be provided.

Biological and ecosystem approach

• Evaluate the physiological strategies and functional traits of the species that survived the hyper drought event of summer 2019.

• Determine the relationship between the functional diversity of plant species and the resistance to that which leads to processes of forest decline.

• Compare the adaptive capacity against the drought of plantations of exotic species (avocados, citrus, pines) vs. native species in natural forests.

Socio-ecological approach

• Relate the recovery capacity of the forest with the socioeconomic characteristics of the territory.

• Study the adaptive capacity of local communities (humans) that live around forests that have suffered processes of decline and degradation.

• Learn about and support forest protection initiatives carried out by local communities and by those who make productive use of forest resources (e.g. non-timber forest products).