Treesearch

This publication provides an overview of forest resources in Michigan based on inventories conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research Station. Since 1999, FIA has employed an annual inventory measuring data on a nominal 20 percent of sample plots each year. For the 2013 inventory, estimates for current variables such as area, volume, and biomass are based on 6,528 plot samples collected from 2009-2013. Change variables such as net growth, removals, and mortality are based on 6,145 samples collected in 2004-2008 and resampled...

In this chapter we begin to assess the potential effects of climate change on future outdoor recreation in the South, a region spanning 13 states from Virginia to Texas (Chapter 1). Our goal is to provide some useful insights about future natural resource-based recreation-an important nontimber product derived from southern forests-in the face of climate change. We develop and present projections of participation and consumption for 10 traditional natural resource-based recreation activities in the South. The work builds on previous outdoor recreation forecasts (Bowker et al. in press) by...

Fuel-reduction treatments are used extensively to reduce wildfire risk and restore forest diversity and function. In the near future, increasing regulation of carbon (C) emissions may force forest managers to balance the use of fuel treatments for reducing wildfire risk against an alternative goal of C sequestration. The objective of this study was to evaluate how long-term fuel treatments mitigate wildfires and affect forest C. For the Lake Tahoe Basin in the central Sierra Nevada, USA, fuel treatment efficiency was explored with a landscape-scale simulation model, LANDIS-II, using five...

Water is a critical resource of the Southern United States and is intimately linked to other ecosystem and societal values. The South is known for its warm climate, rich water resources (Figure 9.1), and large acreage of forest lands that provide an ideal place for people to live. Indeed, water availability is central to sustaining an economy that relies on irrigation agriculture, forestry, recreation, industry, power generation, transportation, and most importantly, the long-term future of natural ecosystems and human society (Hossian et al. 2011).

Wildfire is among the most common forest disturbances, affecting the structure, composition, and functions of many ecosystems. The complex role that wildfire plays in shaping forests has been described in terms of vegetation responses, which are characterized as dependent on, sensitive to, independent of, or influenced by fire (Myers 2006). Fire is essential in areas where species have evolved to withstand burning and facilitate the spread of combustion, such as the Pinus spp. found in the Coastal Plain of the Southern United States. Notable fire-dependent ecosystems include many boreal,...

The consensus among most scientists is that the global climate is changing in response to a rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the past 150 years. This perspective has prompted research on potential changes in future forest conditions so that management interventions might be developed to protect desired ecosystem services. Some of the most significant forest trends expected in response to climate change are: a shift in tree habitats and ranges perhaps in surprising directions (Iverson et al. 2008, 2011; Zhu et al. 2011); an increase in the rate and severity of disturbances...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded, with 90% certainty, that human or “anthropogenic” activities (emissions of greenhouse gases, aerosols and pollution, landuse/ land-cover change) have altered global temperature patterns over the past 100-150 years (IPCC 2007a). Such temperature changes have a set of cascading, and sometimes amplifying, effects on the entire global climate system, including the water cycle, cryosphere, hurricane intensity, and sea level. This chapter develops a set of scenarios for exploring potential climate and resource effects futures in...

Anthropogenic climate change is a relatively new phenomenon, largely occurring over the past 150 years, and much of the discussion on climate change impacts to forests has focused on long-term shifts in temperature and precipitation. However, individual trees respond to the much shorter impacts of climate variability. Historically, fast growing, fully canopied, non-chronically stressed (NCS) trees (e.g., those with minimal insect or disease damage, growing on high nutrient, moist soils), have been considered the model of individual health, while slower growing, broken crown, chronically...

The transition of surface fire to live shrub crown fuels was studied through a simplified laboratory experiment using an open-topped wind tunnel. Respective surface and crown fuels used were excelsior (shredded Populus tremuloides wood) and live chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum, including branches and foliage). A high crown fuel bulk density of 6.8 kgm-3 with a low crown fuel base height of 0.20m was selected to ensure successful crown fire initiation. Diagnostics included flame height and surface fire evolution. Experimental results were compared with similar experiments performed in an...

Estimating the thermal response of streams to a warming climate is important for prioritizing native fish conservation efforts. While there are plentiful estimates of air temperature responses to climate change, the sensitivity of streams, particularly small headwater streams, to warming temperatures is less well understood. A substantial body of literature correlates subannual scale temperature variations in air and stream temperatures driven by annual cycles in solar angle; however, these may be a low-precision proxy for climate change driven changes in the stream energy balance. We...