EFMCC

Capitalizing on Forest Service long-term silvicultural research to show how climate change adaptation can be integrated into silvicultural planning and actions

Project locations

  • Argonne Experimental Forest, WI
  • Bartlett Experimental Forest, NH
  • Birch Lake Plantation, Superior NF, MN
  • Black Hill Experimental Forest, SD
  • Cutfoot Experimental Forest, MN
  • Fort Valley Experimental Forest, AZ
  • Penobscot Experimental Forest, ME
  • Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest, OH

Project Overview

Summer drought frequency and severity are expected to increase according to most climate change projections, with possible negative effects on forest health and productivity. Developing adaptive forest management practices aimed at minimizing drought vulnerability and impacts is a major need and challenge for resource managers. Long-term thinning studies on US Forest Service Experimental Forests provide a unique opportunity to investigate effects of density management on forest drought vulnerability. These studies often maintain a range of basal area stocking treatments for 50 or more years, with measurements spanning several past drought events. The overall purpose of this Project is to examine the capacity of forest management strategies, such as density management, to impart resilience and resistance of ecological processes to changing climate and increasing weather variability on Experimental Forests across the United States.

Approach

  1. Establish an efficient long-term monitoring protocol for repeated annual or near annual measurements of demographic processes.
  2. Install a network of monitoring plots on experimental forests to collect annual demographic data.
  3. Use dendrochronological methods (tree cores) to estimate establishment, growth and mortality for the recent past on each plot.
  4. Relate past growth and annual demographic responses to climatic variation.

Benefits of the project

Study results from this effort will:

  • Revitalize a network of long-term silviculture research to address a critical global issue.
  • Provide managers with silvicultural approaches to adapt forests to climate change.

Project team and partners

  • COPIs: Brian Palik (USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station), John Bradford (U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center), Anthony D’Amato (The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont), Shawn Fraver (School of Forest Resources, University of Maine), Alessandra Bottero (Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota).
  • Key Collaborators: John Brissette (USDA FS, NRS), Mike Battaglia (USDA FS, Rocky Mountain Research Station), Louis Iverson (USDA FS, NRS), Todd Hutchinson (USDA FS, NRS).

Funding

NE Climate Science Center – US Department of the Interior, USDA FS NRS, MN Agricultural Experiment Station.

Links

Publications and other Outcomes (selected)

Gleason K.E., J.B. Bradford, A. Bottero, A.W. D’Amato, S. Fraver, B.J. Palik, M.A. Battaglia, L. Iverson, L. Kenefic, and C.C. Kern. 2017. Competition amplifies drought stress in forests across broad climatic and compositional gradients. Ecosphere 8(7): 1-16.

Curzon M.T., A.W. D’Amato, S. Fraver, B.J. Palik, A. Bottero, J.R. Foster, and K.E. Gleason. 2017. Harvesting influences functional identity and diversity over time in forests of the northeastern U.S.A. Forest Ecology and Management 400: 93-99.

Bottero A., A.W. D’Amato, B.J. Palik, J.B. Bradford, S. Fraver, M.A. Battaglia, and L.A. Asherin. 2017. Density-dependent vulnerability of forest ecosystems to drought. Journal of Applied Ecology 54(6): 1605-1614.

D’Amato A. W., J. B. Bradford, S. Fraver, and B. J. Palik. 2013. Effects of thinning on drought vulnerability and climate response in north temperate forest ecosystems. Ecological Applications 23:1735–1742.

D’Amato A. W., J. B. Bradford, S. Fraver, and B. J. Palik. 2011. Forest management for mitigation and adaptation to climate change: insights from long-term silviculture experiments. Forest Ecology and Management 262:803–816.

Bottero A., A.W. D’Amato, B.J. Palik, J.B. Bradford, S. Fraver, M.A. Battaglia, and L.A. Asherin. 2017. Thinning enhances the resistance and resilience of forest ecosystems to drought. IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress 2017 (Sept. 18-22). Freiburg, Germany.

Palik B. J., L. Nagel, A. W. D’Amato, A. Bottero, and C. Kirschbaum. 2015. Adaptive silviculture for climate change in Minnesota red pine forests. Society of American Foresters National Convention (Nov. 3-7). Baton Rouge (LA), USA.

Bottero A., A. W. D’Amato, B. J. Palik, J. B. Bradford, and S. Fraver. 2015. Thinning reduces vulnerability of forest ecosystems to drought. X National Congress of the Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (Sept. 15-18). Florence, Italy.

Bradford J. B., A. Bottero, A. W. D’Amato, B. J. Palik, S. Fraver, D. M. Bell, M. A. Battaglia, L. A. Asherin, and W. K. Lauenroth. 2015. Forest vulnerability to drought: disentangling weather from stand structure. North American Forest Ecology Workshop (June 14-18). Veracruz, México.

Bottero A., A. W. D’Amato, B. J. Palik, J. B. Bradford, and S. Fraver. 2014. Forest thinning alters drought vulnerability in temperate North American forests. Society of American Foresters National Convention (Oct. 8-11). Salt Lake City (UT), USA.

Palik B. J. 2014. Building Forests That are Adapted to Drought. USDA FS Research Highlights, Highlight ID 613. [read more]