Global climate change will have far reaching impacts on forest ecosystems. Warming temperatures have already altered the water balance of forested watersheds above major water supply systems and shifted the range of both invasive and native organisms. The Center aims to develop and test appropriate management strategies for forested watersheds that will flourish under different climate change scenarios. It is in the public interest to address:
Maintaining the ability of managed forests to continue to sustainably produce high quality wood products and bioenergy feedstocks that substitute for fossil-fuel intensive alternative products such as cement, steel, coal, and natural gas.
- Changing risk factors associated with altered fire regimes, air pollution, and invasive species
- Changing values for water runoff volume, timing, and quality;
- Changing stresses on rare species associated with stand composition and structure;
- Changing greenhouse gas fluxes from forest vegetation and soils;
- Changing stresses affecting growth and yields of timber species.
Recent Projects:
Climate Adaptive Forest Management
Selected Publications:
Full Citation: Battles, John J., Timothy Robards, Adrian Das, and William Stewart. 2009. Projecting climate change impacts on forest growth and yield for California's Sierran Mixed Conifer forests: California Energy Commission PIER CEC-500-2009-047-F.
Estimating tree growth from complex forest monitoring data
Full Citation: Eitzel, M., J. Battles, R. York, J. Knape, and P. de Valpine. 2013. Estimating tree growth from complex forest monitoring data. Ecological Applications 23: 1288-1296.