FW4421 Climate Change And Forests Week 2

Leading edge

Area that is cooler and/or wetter, usually northerly or higher elevation

Trailing edge

are of range that is warmer and/or drier, usually southerly or lower elevation

Productivity

• Positively correlated with max tree height

• Correlated w/ amount of carbon storage

Peaks of tree height in the US

West coast, Southeast

Average projected biomass in NA Forests

100 Mg/Ha

Ownership trends of NA forests

More federal ownership in the West, more family ownership in the East; higher corporate ownership in high value/high productivity areas

Orographic effect

Moist air masses undergo it producing abundant precipitation over mountains and causing rain shadows

E Lucy Braun

Wrote Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America; IDed first accurate regional forest types

Tension Zone

• Hemlock-white-pine-northern-hardwoods and Southerly forest types, named by John Curtis in Wisconsin

• Goes at a diagonal, meaning fire/precip are important as well as temp

Succession

Gradual replacement of one community of plants by another over long time periods

Succession Process

1. Bare Rock

2. Mosses, Grasses

3. Perenials

4. Woody Pioneers

5. Fast Growing Trees

6. Climax Forest

Types of Distrubences

Stand-replacing, gap creation

Aggregation

Fastest growing trees aggregate resources, excluding other trees

Stages of Disturbence

1. Clear Cut

2. Stand initiation (reorganization)

3. Stem exclusion (aggregation)

4. Understory initiation (transition)

5. Old growth (steady state)

Forest biomass trend since early 1900s

Increasing

Chronosequence

Sampling forests that differ in age to project temporal dynamics; substituting space for time

Big assumption of chronosequencing

Soil conditions and site productivity are comparable across forests

Exceptional forests

Can store immense amounts of biomass, up to 400 Mg/Hectare

Impact of forest industry

Keeps forests young and minimizes the amount of dead biomass, impacting carbon storage and biodiversity