Sponsor
This research was supported through funding by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, the U.S. Department of Interior Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, and the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station.
Published In
Ecological Applications
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
9-16-2020
Subjects
Forest management -- Environmental aspects, Water-supply -- Effect of climatic changes on, Forest hydrology, Forest ecology
Abstract
Warming climate and resulting declines in seasonal snowpack have been associated with drought stress and tree mortality in seasonally snow‐covered watersheds worldwide. Meanwhile, increasing forest density has further exacerbated drought stress due to intensified tree–tree competition. Using a uniquely detailed data set of population‐level forest growth (n = 2,495 sampled trees), we examined how inter‐annual variability in growth relates to snow volume across a range of forest densities (e.g., competitive environments) in sites spanning a broad aridity gradient across the United States. Forest growth was positively related to snowpack in water‐limited forests located at low latitude, and this relationship was intensified by forest density. However, forest growth was negatively related to snowpack in a higher latitude more energy‐limited forest, and this relationship did not interact with forest density. Future reductions in snowpack may have contrasting consequences, as growth may respond positively in energy‐limited forests and negatively in water‐limited forests; however, these declines may be mitigated by reducing stand density through forest thinning.
Rights
This work was authored as part of the Contributor's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is, therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1002/eap.2211
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34209
Citation Details
Gleason, K. E., Bradford, J. B., D’Amato, A. W., Fraver, S., Palik, B., & Battaglia, M. A. (2020). Forest density intensifies the importance of snowpack to growth in water‐limited pine forests. Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/EAP.2211
Description
Data files supporting the research are available at: https://doi.org/10.15760/esm-data.2