Download (PDF 202 KB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/26492.pdf
Abstract
The Sierran Global Change Program in Sequoia-Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks includes a nearly decade-long integrated study of the interactions between climate, forest processes, and fire. This study is characterized by three recurring themes: (1) the use of systems-level models as a framework for integration and synthesis, (2) an effort to extrapolate an understanding from the local scale of field studies to the much larger extent of the two parks and the southern Sierra Nevada, and (3) an iterative model-data dialogue in which model development and analysis provide a context and focus for field studies. This paper provides a brief overview of recent efforts, couched in the framework of a model-data dialogue. The first part presents a systems-level simulation model, developed as a working model, and reviews some implications of applying the model. The second part of this paper illustrates how model development and analysis have helped establish priorities for follow-up field studies aimed at improving understanding of Sierra Nevada systems. This iterative approach has proven to be a powerful method for extending an understanding of a system that would otherwise be intractably large and complicated.
Parent Publication
Citation
Urban, Dean L. 2004. Landscape pattern and ecological process in the Sierra Nevada. In: Murphy, Dennis D. and Stine, Peter A., editors. Proceedings of the Sierra Nevada Science Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-193. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: 105-108
