Sponsor
Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act and Bureau of Lands Management
Published In
Global Change Biology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-11-2013
Subjects
Climatic changes, Carbon sequestration -- United States, Forest ecology
Abstract
Understanding how climate change may influence forest carbon (C) budgets requires knowledge of forest growth relationships with regional climate, long-term forest succession, and past and future disturbances, such as wildfires and timber harvesting events. We used a landscape-scale model of forest succession, wildfire, and C dynamics (LANDIS-II) to evaluate the effects of a changing climate (A2 and B1 IPCC emissions; Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory General Circulation Models) on total forest C, tree species composition, and wildfire dynamics in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, and Nevada. The independent effects of temperature and precipitation were assessed within and among climate models. Results highlight the importance of modeling forest succession and stand development processes at the landscape scale for understanding the C cycle. Due primarily to landscape legacy effects of historic logging of the Comstock Era in the late 1880s, C sequestration may continue throughout the current century, and the forest will remain a C sink (Net Ecosystem Carbon Balance > 0), regardless of climate regime. Climate change caused increases in temperatures limited simulated C sequestration potential because of augmented fire activity and reduced establishment ability of subalpine and upper montane trees. Higher temperatures influenced forest response more than reduced precipitation. As the forest reached its potential steady state, the forest could become C neutral or a C source, and climate change could accelerate this transition. The future of forest ecosystem C cycling in many forested systems worldwide may depend more on major disturbances and landscape legacies related to land use than on projected climate change alone.
Rights
Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
DOI
10.1111/gcb.12310
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/10245
Citation Details
Loudermilk, E. L., Scheller, R. M., Weisberg, P. J., Yang, J., Dilts, T. E., Karam, S. L. and Skinner, C. (2013), Carbon dynamics in the future forest: the importance of long-term successional legacy and climate–fire interactions. Global Change Biology, 19: 3502–3515. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12310