Please submit to our session (B005)! Session Title: Alteration of disturbance-driven forest dynamics under a changing climate
Conveners: Tara Hudiburg (U. Idaho), Philip Higuera (U. Montana), Kristina Anderson-Teixeira (Smithsonian), and Alan Tepley (Smithsonian) Session Description: Climate change and disturbance are two of the major forces shaping the dynamics of forests worldwide. Their interactive effects can be particularly consequential; climate change is expected to impact the frequency and intensity of disturbances, including drought, bark beetle outbreaks, and wildfires. Moreover, climate change may alter the resilience of forests to such disturbances, in some systems potentially resulting in shifts to alternative ecosystem states or trajectories. The result will be alteration of forest composition, biogeochemistry, and interactions with the climate system on scales ranging from single trees to biomes and from minutes to millennia. Anticipating the impacts of these changes requires both empirical and modeling studies that link mechanistic processes across spatial and temporal scales. This session will include research incorporating current, paleo ecological, modeling, or data-model integration studies to answer critical questions concerning disturbance and climate interactions in forest ecosystems across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Primary Section/Focus Group: Biogeosciences SWIRL Theme: Global Planetary Processes
