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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2016

• Title: Redefining temperate forest responses to climate and disturbance in eastern North America: new insights at the mesoscale
• Primary Author: Daniel Druckenbrod (Rider University)
• Additional Authors: Dario Martin Benito (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH-Zurich)); David Orwig (Harvard Forest); Neil Pederson (Harvard Forest); Ben Poulter (Montana State University); Katherine Renwick (Montana State University); Herman Shugart (University of Virginia)
• Abstract:

  Climate and disturbance alter forest dynamics from individual trees to biomes and from years to millennia leaving legacies that vary with scale. Yet, processes at the mesoscale are poorly understood due to challenges of simultaneously studying forests over large spatial and long temporal scales. While ecologists have recognized the influence of scale on forest dynamics, more data are needed that span both spatial and temporal scales, especially with projected climate change. Characterizing mesoscale forest dynamics bridges fine scale processes and global scale forest dynamics in ways that are highly relevant for climate change science and ecosystem management. We revisit ecological concepts related to spatial and temporal scales and discuss approaches to better understand the legacy of climate-forest interactions. We highlight and investigate examples of climate-forest dynamics across scales in the temperate, broadleaf-dominated forests of eastern North America (ENA) because of their high tree species diversity and variety of disturbance regimes. Using a literature review of old-growth forest dynamics, model simulations, and a synthesis of tree mortality studies associated with climate, we find that synchronous patterns of drought-driven mortality at the mesoscale have been overlooked within these forests and that such disturbances can impact terrestrial carbon dynamics. As ecologists, land managers, and policymakers consider the intertwined drivers of climate and disturbance, a focus on spatiotemporal scales equivalent to those of the drivers will provide insight into long-term forest change such as drought impacts. Spatially extensive studies should also have a long temporal scale to provide insight into pathways for forest change, evaluate predictions from dynamic forest models, and inform development of global vegetation models. We recommend integrating data collected from spatially well-replicated networks consisting of centuries-long, high-resolution records with models to provide a better understanding the mesoscale response of forests to climate change in the past and in the future.

• Research Category: Ecological Informatics and Modelling
  Historical and Retrospective Studies
  Regional Studies