1. In Florida, outbreak populations defoliated laurel, water and Shumard oaks in Gainesville from 1996 until 2001.

2. Loring) were mechanically defoliated and the influence of temperature on formation of the primary protective layer and phellogen generation in the leaf abscission region was examined histologically.

3. When the defoliated shoot was treated apically with IAA-paste (0,1%), on the horizontal klinostat also the untreated leafy shoot showed a strong epinastic curvature, which could only be explained by an acropetal transport of IAA to the leaves.

4. Congratulates the Commission on the exhaustive analysis of biotic and abiotic threats in its Green Paper, and draws attention to the need to examine, in addition, other factors directly linked to the impact of climate change on forests, such as defoliation, recalling that the defoliated treetop surface in southern European forests has doubled in the last 20 years, resulting, in terms of direct consequences, in reduced capacity and efficiency in the carbon-fixing processes and in the reduction of forests’ tempering effect in periods of drought or heatwaves, due to trees’ premature loss of leaves;