This session will be the inaugural meeting of the newly launched IUFRO Task Force ‘Global monitoring network of tree mortality patterns and trends’, which aims to facilitate: (1) sharing of knowledge about best methods for data collection, integration of existing field data sources, and facilitation of an approach for data sharing; (2) Interdisciplinary and international collaboration for a coordinated integration of different data sources and knowledge analyses; (3) Identification of areas of rapid changes in forest cover, and (4) derivation of mechanistic relationships from monitoring and field observation that can be used as predictors in global vegetation models for forecasting of vegetation dynamics under ongoing climate change. During this session research on each of these topics will be presented, ranging from examples of forest inventory data analysis and new approaches for detecting disturbance and mortality events via remote sensing to progress in large-scale vegetation modelling.