Forest Ecosystem Health Assessment: Frameworks, Challenges, and Strategies for the Future

Forest ecosystems are vital for biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and ecosystem service provision. This review underscores the crucial role of forest health assessments in advancing sustainable forest management across diverse global ecosystems. It traces the evolution of forest health concepts and proposes a systematic framework with robust indicators and methodologies. Key challenges include fragmented data collection, limited spatiotemporal coverage, inadequate monitoring of belowground processes, underutilized genomic and soil microbial data, and overlooked indigenous knowledge. Additionally, understanding how forest ecosystems respond and adapt to multiple global change factors, such as climate change, land-use shifts, and invasive species, remains critical. The novel integration of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and genomic tools, with traditional knowledge offers innovative solutions. To address these challenges, we recommend standardized data protocols, enhanced long-term monitoring with remote sensing and AI-driven systems, integrated above- and belowground assessments, inclusive community engagement, and increased field experiments to examine the interactions of multiple global change factors. Future research should prioritize predictive modeling, interdisciplinary approaches, region-specific studies to address complex global change interactions, and proactive strategies to enhance forest ecosystem resilience and sustainability in a rapidly changing world.