Depending on their concentrations, air pollutants are dangerous to forests. With the exception of some industrial areas in the east, concentrations of air pollutants in Central Europe are below the damaging threshold as shown by the records of the monitoring stations.

Calcium avaiability to forests has been shown to be reduced by acidic deposition in several ways including: increased leaching from foliage, increased leaching from soils, and decreased availability from poorly buffered soils when aluminium is mobilized. Studies documented that acidic deposition has altered the growth and vigour of red spruce during the past three decades by changing calcium availability.

Deposition rates in Baden-Wuerttemberg, which are monitored by sampling grid, mostly exceed critical loads. This applies especially for nitrogen input and the deposition of total acidity. In a periodic inventory of tree nutrition on a basic grid of 4 km, regions abundant and persistent Mg and K deficiency could be identified.

There is a strong evidence to indicate that sulphates and nitrogen oxides cause increased leaching of base cations, principally calcium and magnesium from soils supporting old-growth sugar maple forest in central Canada. Sugar maple trees sequester Ca, especially in bark. A site low in exchangeable bases might become less productive, if subjected to prolonged high rates of leaching and full tree harvesting.

Tropospheric ozone is the most important single air pollutant of importance to forests in eastern United States. Both broadleaf and needled trees may suffer premature foliar senescence following even low ozone exposure years. Genetic sensitivity within species is likewise prevalent.

Air pollutants cause subtle changes in natural resistance that can prediscope plants to insect attack. The majority of reports in the area of plant-pollutant-insect interactions have been correlative in nature. In the last ten years, there has emerged a growing body of literature, the vast majority with herbaceous crops, reporting on cause-effect relationships among insects and their hosts.

Most concern about the effects air pollution has been directed towards central and northern Europe, although considerable damage has been attributed to air pollution in the Mediterranean countries. The damage is mostly in the vicinity of point sources and can usually be related to specific pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and hydrogen fluoride.

The ranges of the ecosystems move when the climatic pattern changes. Simulations have shown that a global warming would cause important changes of the species composition in subalpine forests. Deciduous trees would invade today's subalpine belt. Various conifers would be displaced and migrate into alpine zone. The model simulations are based on the IPCC climate scenarios.

Visible chlorotic injury and reduced foliar biomass are found in Pinus ponderosa and P. jefreyi in the mountains of southern California and the west slope of Sierra Nevada. Reduced tree growth and accelerated rates of forest succession has been documented in this area, with ozone resistant, shade tolerant species replacing P. ponderosa. There may also be some interactions among ozone, drought stress, insects and fungal pathogens.

Destruction of forests leads to the release of carbon dioxide stored in the wood and also usually results in major releases of carbon dioxide stored in soil. Annual releases of carbon dioxide from destruction of tropical forests was estimated at about 1650 million tonnes per year.