Post on 02-Feb-2016
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Effects of Climatic Variability and Change on Forest Resources
Dave PetersonForest Service – PNW Research Station
Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences LabUW College of Forest Resources
Why study forests?
Forests are the primary source of productivity and carbon storage in the terrestrial biosphere.
Forest ecosystems are managed for a range of ecological benefits and economic outputs.
Climate is an important top-down control of ecological disturbance.
Forests interact with hydrology to affect water supply and other resources.
Research questions – climatic variability and change
How do species distribution and abundance respond across ecosystems?
How will the growth of dominant tree species respond at various spatial and temporal scales?
How will ecological disturbance, especially fire, respond in different ecosystems?
How do forest productivity and management affect water supply and quality?
Overall strategy: Multi-scale analysis in mountain ecosystems
http://www.cfr.washington.edu/research.fme/climet
Spatial scale: local / watershed / mtn. range / region
Temporal scale: paleo contemporary modeling
Highlights of past research
PDO affects growth and productivity of forests at the regional scale
Climatic variability and PDO affect fine-scale patterns of forest growth
Drought and PDO affect spatial and temporal patterns of fire in eastern Washington
Specific synoptic climatology affects forest fire patterns in the Pacific Northwest
Highlights continued…
Fire occurrence and fire effects on vegetation in the Cascades over past 10,000 years
Streamflow and drought reconstructions for the Columbia River since 1850
Produced most accurate reconstruction of PDO based on tree-ring and coral chronologies
Future research – guiding questions1. How will climatic variability and change
affect disturbance regimes, especially fire?
2. How are changing climate and disturbance
regimes likely to affect the composition, structure, and productivity of vegetation?
3. Which mountain resources and ecosystems
are likely to be most sensitive to future climatic change, and what are possible management responses?
The Western Mountain Initiative
A network of mountain protected areas for global change research
http://www.cfr.washington.edu/research.fme/wmi
A collaboration between USGS, US Forest Service, and universities
2004 – 2008
WMI scientific approach
Data synthesis and integration; limited collection of new data
Modeling and interdisciplinary efforts
Focused workshops and synthesis publications
Annual workshop for managers
Common-language publications for managersand general public
Integrated activities in the UW Climate Impacts Group
Paleoecological studies
Forest growth and climatic variability
Fire and climatic variability
Forest hydrology
Teaching and mentoring
THANK YOU!
David L. Petersonpeterson@fs.fed.us
206.732.7812http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/fera