Climate Impacts
Status
Ongoing
Start Date
February, 2023
The Pacific Northwest FMA program collects and analyzes long-term data at multiple spatial scales, ideal for predicting tree distribution, growth, and mortality in relation to regional climate gradients and potential shifts in climate. The FMA scientists also assess climate impacts to understory plant and lichen communities.
Project Description
- Interior Alaska
- Inventory and monitoring of Interior Alaska’s boreal forests by the USFS Pacific Northwest Forest Inventory and Analysis Program. PNW-FIA Interior Alaska Inventory
- Tree species distribution
- PNW-FMA researchers use FIA data to predict tree distribution, growth, and mortality in relation to regional climatic gradients.
- Multiple research projects are underway to improve our understanding of the constraints to migration in tree species in south-central and southeastern Alaska.
- Plant associations
- Several scientists with PNW-FMA are assessing climatic impacts on forest and non-forest plant and lichen communities.
- Plant associations are highly-informative classifications that integrate the effects of climate, topography, and soils as experienced by plant communities and enable improved analyses of forest growth, mortality, and disturbance.
- Tundra ecosystems
- PNW-FMA researchers in Alaska are evaluating how warming and snow manipulations impact tundra ecosystems, especially on the north slope of Alaska and other arctic tundra ecosystems.
- Other tundra ecosystem projects include characterizing environmental change in interior Alaska (1982-2012) using multi-temporal, multi-scale remote sensing data and field measurements.
Purpose and Scope
A major goal of Forest Monitoring and Assessment (FMA) research is to identify how inventory and monitoring data can be used to understand the effects of climate on the forest and rangeland condition.
Related Projects:
Key Personnel
Project Contact
-
Person
Andrew Gray, PhD
Research Ecologist, Team Leaderhttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/andrew.gray
Investigators
-
Person
Vicente Monleon
Mathematical Statisticianhttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/vicente.monleon -
Person
Sarah Jovan, PhD
Research Ecologisthttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/sarah.jovan -
Person
Hans Andersen, PhD
Research Forester/VMaRS Team Leaderhttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/hans.andersen -
Person
Demetrios Gatziolis
Research Foresterhttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/demetrios.gatziolis -
Person
David M. Bell, PhD
Research Foresterhttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/david.bell -
Person
Sean MP. Cahoon, PhD
Research Ecologisthttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/sean.cahoon -
Person
Kathryn C. Baer, PhD
Research Ecologisthttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/kathryn.baer
Collaborators
- Chugach National Forest
- Dr. Jeff Weler in the Department of Biology at the University of Alaska Anchorage
- Janet Jorgenson from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS)
- Martha Raynolds at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
- The Kenai NWR
- Region 10, Chugach National Forest (Forest Plan Revision Team)
- Region 6, Pacific Northwest Ecology Program
Related Projects
-
Project
https://research.fs.usda.gov/pnw/projects/pnwfiainterioralaskainventory -
Center or Group
https://research.fs.usda.gov/pnw/centers/cdri
Publications
- Bruce McCune, Sunia Yang, Sarah Jovan, Heather T. Root. 2022. Climate and epiphytic macrolichen communities in the Four Corners region of the U.S.A.
- Paul F. Hessburg, Susan Charnley, Andrew Gray, Thomas Spies, David W. Peterson, Rebecca Flitcroft, Kendra Wendel, Jessica Halofsky, Eric M. White, John Marshall. 2021. Climate and wildfire adaptation of inland Northwest US forests
- Robert J. Smith, Sarah Jovan, Bruce McCune. 2020. Climatic niche limits and community‐level vulnerability of obligate symbioses
- Jacob L. Strunk, Connie Harrington, Leslie C. Brodie, Janet S. Prevéy. 2020. Seeing the forest below the trees: occurrences of shrubs in the Pacific Northwest
- Robert Pattison, Hans Andersen, Andrew Gray, Bethany K. Schulz, Robert Smith, Sarah Jovan. 2018. Forests of the Tanana Valley State Forest and Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska: results of the 2014 pilot inventory
- Robert Smith, Peter R. Nelson, Sarah Jovan, Paul J. Hanson, Bruce McCune. 2018. Novel climates reverse carbon uptake of atmospherically dependent epiphytes: Climatic constraints on the iconic boreal forest lichen Evernia mesomorpha
- Robert J. Smith, Sarah Jovan, Bruce McCune. 2017. Lichen communities as climate indicators in the U.S. Pacific States.
- Robert J. Smith, Sarah Jovan, Andrew Gray, Bruce McCune. 2017. Sensitivity of carbon stores in boreal forest moss mats - effects of vegetation, topography and climate
- Andrew Gray, Thomas R. Whittier, Mark E. Harmon. 2016. Carbon stocks and accumulation rates in Pacific Northwest forests: role of stand age, plant community, and productivity
- Dominick A. DellaSala, Patric Brandt, Marni Koopman, Jessica Leonard, Claude Meisch, Patrick Herzog, Paul Alaback, Michael I. Goldstein, Sarah Jovan, Andy MacKinnon, Henrik von Wehrden. 2015. Climate change may trigger broad shifts in North America's Pacific Coastal rainforests
- Linda S. Heath, Sarah M. Anderson, Marla R. Emery, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Jeremy Littell, Alan Lucier, Jeffrey G. Masek, David L. Peterson, Richard Pouyat, Kevin M. Potter, Guy Robertson, Jinelle Sperry, Andrzej Bytnerowicz, Sarah Jovan, Miranda H. Mockrin, Robert C. Musselman, Bethany K. Schulz, Robert Smith, Susan I. Stewart. 2015. Indicators of climate impacts for forests: recommendations for the US National Climate Assessment indicators system
- Vicente Monleon, Heather E. Lintz, Sylvain Delzon. 2015. Evidence of tree species’ range shifts in a complex landscape
- Sarah Jovan, Robert Smith, Juan C. Benavides, Michael Amacher, Bruce McCune. 2015. A rapid method for landscape assessment of carbon storage and ecosystem function in moss and lichen ground layers
- Susan Will-Wolf, Sarah Jovan, Peter Neitlich, JeriLynn E. Peck, Roger Rosentreter. 2015. Lichen-based indices to quantify responses to climate and air pollution across northeastern U.S.A
- Heather T. Root, Linda H. Geiser, Sarah Jovan, Peter Neitlich. 2015. Epiphytic macrolichen indication of air quality and climate in interior forested mountains of the Pacific Northwest, USA
- Kevin M. Potter, Barbara Conkling. 2014. Forest health monitoring: National status, trends, and analysis 2012
- Heather T. Root, Bruce McCune, Sarah Jovan. 2014. Lichen communities and species indicate climate thresholds in southeast and south-central Alaska, USA
- Marie Oliver, Jeremy S. Fried. 2013. Do carbon offsets work? The role of forest management in greenhouse gas mitigation
- John L. Campbell, Robert Kennedy, Warren B. Cohen, Richard F. Miller. 2012. Assessing the carbon consequences of western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) encroachment across Oregon, USA
- Tara M. Barrett, Andrew Gray. 2011. Potential of a national monitoring program for forests to assess change in high-latitude ecosystems
External Publications
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- Smith RJ, Jovan S, Stanton D, Will-Wolf S. 2020. Epiphytic macrolichen communities indicate climate and air quality in the US Midwest. The Bryologist. http://dx.doi.org/10.1639/0007-2745-123.3.516
- Will-Wolf S, Jovan S, Nelsen MP, Trest MT, Rolih K, Reis A. 2018. Lichen indices assess local climate and air quality status in the Mid-Atlantic Region, U.S.A. Bryologist. 121:461-479.
Last updated January 17, 2024