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This data represents an assessment of forest composition used in the ecological assessment of upland hardwood systems by the GCPO LCC. We used a combination of remote sensing products including 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) forest classes and the 2011 MAV forest classification layer produced by the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture to delineate patches of all forest types in the GCPO LCC. We used NLCD as the primary data source when assessing forests outside the GCPO LCC MAV subgeography, and the LMVJV forest classification as the primary data source for forest assessment within the MAV. NLCD was developed using 2011 Landsat TM imagery, with forest classes including only areas with trees exceeding...
Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: BIOSPHERE, BIOSPHERE, Conservation planning, Data, EARTH SCIENCE, All tags...
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Within the time frame of the longevity of tree species, climate change will change faster than the ability of natural tree migration. Migration lags may result in reduced productivity and reduced diversity in forests under current management and climate change. We evaluated the efficacy of planting climate-suitable tree species (CSP), those tree species with current or historic distributions immediately south of a focal landscape, to maintain or increase aboveground biomass, productivity, and species and functional diversity. We modeled forest change with the LANDIS-II forest simulation model for 100 years (2000–2100) at a 2-ha cell resolution and five-year time steps within two landscapes in the Great Lakes region...
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Landscape-scale conservation of threatened and endangered species is often challenged by multiple, sometimes conflicting, land uses. In HawaiĘ»i, efforts to conserve native forests have come into conflict with objectives to sustain non-native game mammals, such as feral pigs, goats, and deer, for subsistence and sport hunting. Maintaining stable or increasing game populations represents one of the greatest obstacles to the recovery of Hawaii’s 425 threatened and endangered plant species. Many endemic Hawaiian species have declined and become endangered as a result of herbivorous non-native game mammals. Meanwhile, other environmental changes, including the spread of invasive grasses and changing precipitation patterns...
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The objective of this project is to map the supply of ecosystem services (where natural ecosystems have the capacity to provide a certain product or service that could be of use to people), use of those services (where people or other entities that use the product or service exist), and the condition of ecosystems providing these services over time. The resulting datasets were used to generate metrics for pilot ecosystem accounts for the southeast – part of natural capital accounts that assess ecosystems’ contributions to the economy in order to help governments better understand their reliance on natural systems and manage natural resources to ensure their benefits are sustained into the future. These data were...
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This shapefile represents The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) “essential forests” and “key connectors” in the Central Appalachians Whole System. Essential Forests are built around groups of large forest patches, ecoregional portfolio roll-up sites, and areas with high local integrity and high flow density (from M. Anderson’s resiliency analysis). Key Connectors provide physical linkages among essential forests, have high flow density, and may also include large forest patches and matrix blocks. The polygons were originally delineated by TNC staff at a workshop near Petersburg, West Virginia, on March 9 and 10, 2011. The boundaries were hand-drawn on paper maps and then hand-digitized by A. Watland (TNC-VA) and T. Gagnolet...
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In southwestern Colorado, land managers anticipate the impacts of climate change to include higher temperatures, more frequent and prolonged drought, accelerated snowmelt, larger and more intense fires, more extreme storms, and the spread of invasive species. These changes put livelihoods, ecosystems, and species at risk. Focusing on communities in southwestern Colorado’s San Juan and Gunnison river basins, this project will expand opportunities for scientists, land managers, and affected residents to identify actions that can support resilience and adaptation in the face of changing climate conditions. This project builds on the project “Building Social and Ecological Resilience to Climate Change in southwestern...
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Climate change is causing an increase in the amount of forested area burned by wildfires in the western U.S. The warm, dry post-fire conditions of the region may limit tree regeneration in some areas, potentially causing a shift to non-forest vegetation. Managers are increasingly challenged by the combined impacts of greater wildfire activity, the significant uncertainty about whether forests will recover, and limited resources for reforestation efforts. Simultaneously, there has been an increased focus on post-fire reforestation efforts as tree planting has become a popular climate change mitigation strategy across the nation. Therefore, with increased interest and need, it is crucial to identify where varying...
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In the Western U.S., approximately 65% of the water supply comes from forested regions with most of the water that feeds local rivers coming from snowmelt that originates in mountain forests. The Rio Grande headwaters (I.e. the primary water generating region of the Rio Grande river) is experiencing large changes to the landscape primarily from forest fires and bark beetle infestations. Already, 85% of the coniferous forests in this region have been affected by the bark beetle, and projections indicate greater changes will occur as temperatures increase. In this area, most of the precipitation falls as snow in the winter, reaches a maximum depth in the late spring, and melts away due to warmer temperatures by early...
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Wildfire, drought, and insects are reshaping forests in the Western United States in a manner that is being exacerbated by warming temperatures. Disturbance events such as these can significantly alter the amount of land that is covered by forest in an area or region. Consequently, changes in forest cover from disturbance can impact water runoff conditions leading to dangerous flooding, erosion, and water quality issues. These events can be costly for society. In response, many land managers are using forest thinning and prescribed burning practices to reduce disturbance impacts, especially those that are caused by high-severity wildfire. In contrast to the wealth of research on the advantages of forest thinning...
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The sky island forests of the southwestern United States are one of the most diverse temperate forest ecosystems in the world, providing key habitat for migrating and residential species alike. Black bear, bighorn sheep, mule deer, and wild turkey are just a few of the species found in these isolated mountain ecosystems that rise out of the desert landscape. However, recent droughts have crippled these ecosystems, causing significant tree death. Climate predictions suggest that this region will only face hotter and drier conditions in the future, potentially stressing these ecosystems even further. Simple models predict that vegetation will move to cooler and wetter locations in response to this warming. However,...
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Society makes substantial investments in federal, Tribal, state, and private programs to supplement populations of valued species such as stocking fish, planting trees, rebuilding oyster reefs, and restoring prairies. These important efforts require long-term commitment, but climate change is making environmental conditions less predictable and more challenging to navigate. Selection of species for population supplementation is often based on performance prior to release, and one or a few species may then be used for decades even as the environment is changing. When these species are propagated in large numbers, they can become the dominant population as well as genetically overtake any local adaptations. Therefore,...
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National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) along the East Coast of the United States protect habitat for a host of wildlife species, while also offering storm surge protection, improving water quality, supporting nurseries for commercially important fish and shellfish, and providing recreation opportunities for coastal communities. Yet in the last century, coastal ecosystems in the eastern U.S. have been severely altered by human development activities as well as sea-level rise and more frequent extreme events related to climate change. These influences threaten the ability of NWRs to protect our nation’s natural resources and to sustain their many beneficial services. Through this project, researchers are collaborating with...
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In the northern Gulf of Mexico, mangrove forests have been expanding their northern range limits in parts of Texas, Louisiana, and north Florida since 1989. In response to warming winter temperatures, mangroves, which are dominant in warmer climates, are expected to continue migrating northward at the expense of salt marshes, which fare better in cooler climates. The ecological implications and timing of mangrove expansion is not well understood, and coastal wetland managers need information and tools that will enable them to identify and forecast the ecological impacts of this shift from salt marsh to mangrove-dominated coastal ecosystems. To address this need, researchers will host workshops and leverage existing...
Abstract (from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hyp.11144/full): The extensive forests that cover the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, USA, modify snow processes and therefore affect snow water storage as well as snow disappearance timing. However, forest influences on snow accumulation and ablation vary with climate, topography, and land cover and are therefore subject to substantial temporal and spatial variability. We utilize multiple years of snow observations from across the region to assess forest-snow interactions in the relatively warm winter conditions characteristic of the maritime and maritime-continental climates. We (1) quantify the difference in snow magnitude and disappearance timing...
Abstract (from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015WR017873/abstract): Spatially distributed snow depth and snow duration data were collected over two to four snow seasons during water years 2011–2014 in experimental forest plots within the Cedar River Municipal Watershed, 50 km east of Seattle, Washington, USA. These 40 × 40 m forest plots, situated on the western slope of the Cascade Range, include unthinned second-growth coniferous forests, variable density thinned forests, forest gaps in which a 20 m diameter (approximately equivalent to one tree height) gap was cut in the middle of each plot, and old-growth forest. Together, this publicly available data set includes snow depth and density observations...
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The Rio Grande River is a critical source of freshwater for 13 million people in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. More than half of the Rio Grande’s streamflow originates as snowmelt in Colorado’s mountains, meaning that changes in the amount of snowmelt can impact the water supply for communities along the entire river. Snowmelt runoff is therefore an important component of water supply outlooks for the region, which are used by a variety of stakeholders to anticipate water availability in the springtime. It is critical that these water supply outlooks be as accurate as possible. Errors can cost states millions of dollars due to mis-allocation of water and lost agricultural productivity. There is a perception...
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Live tree species basal area from 2000 - 2009 for loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), and slash pine (Pinus elliottii) clipped to the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks LCC geography.Data were derived from the USFS live tree species basal area of the contiguious United States (2000-2009) Wilson, Barry T.; Lister, Andrew J.; Riemann, Rachel I.; Griffith, Douglas M. 2013. Live tree species basal area of the contiguous United States (2000-2009). Newtown Square, PA: USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. Abstract from html metadata for USFS live tree species basal area of the contiguious United States (2000-2009). This data product contains raster maps...
Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service, Raster; Tags: BIOSPHERE, BIOSPHERE, Basal Area, Conservation planning, Data, All tags...
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Ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangroves provide an effective first line of defense against coastal hazards and represent a promising nature-based solution to adapt to sea-level rise. In many areas, coral reefs cause waves to break and lose energy, allowing for sediment to accumulate on the inshore portion of reef flats (i.e. the shallowest, flattest part of a reef) and mangroves to establish. Mangroves cause further attenuation (i.e. energy loss) waves and storm surge as water moves through roots and trunks of the trees. Together, these ecosystems provide valuable protection from coastal flooding, but is unclear how this protection may be affected by sea-level rise. An assessment of future sea-level rise vulnerability...
map background search result map search result map Predicting Sky Island Forest Vulnerability to Climate Change: Fine Scale Climate Variability, Drought Tolerance, and Fire Response Live Pine Tree Species Basal Area (2000 -2009) in the GCPO LCC (Loblolly, Longleaf, Shortleaf, Slash) Climate Change Adaptation for Coastal National Wildlife Refuges Developing Tools for Improved Water Supply Forecasting in the Rio Grande Headwaters Mean Forest Composition in 10 km Landscape (GCPO LCC) Building Social and Ecological Resilience to Climate Change in Southwestern Colorado: Phase 2 Publication: Measuring and managing resistance and resilience under climate change in northern Great Lake forests Essential Forests and Key Connectors in the Central Appalachians Whole System Managing Non-native Game Mammals to Reduce Future Conflicts with Native Plant Conservation in Hawai‘i Identifying the Ecological and Management Implications of Mangrove Migration in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Science to Inform Post-fire Conifer Regeneration and Reforestation Strategies Under Changing Climate Conditions Estimating the Future Effects of Forest Disturbance on Snow Water Resources in a Changing Environment The Impact of Sea-Level Rise on Coral Reef and Mangrove Interactions and the Resulting Coastal Flooding Hazards Climate-Adaptive Population Supplementation (CAPS) to Enhance Fishery and Forestry Outcomes The Role of Forest Structure in Regulating Water Availability and Implications for Natural Resources and Ecosystem Function Mapping Ecosystem Services for Natural Capital Accounting Climate Change Adaptation for Coastal National Wildlife Refuges Estimating the Future Effects of Forest Disturbance on Snow Water Resources in a Changing Environment Predicting Sky Island Forest Vulnerability to Climate Change: Fine Scale Climate Variability, Drought Tolerance, and Fire Response Building Social and Ecological Resilience to Climate Change in Southwestern Colorado: Phase 2 The Impact of Sea-Level Rise on Coral Reef and Mangrove Interactions and the Resulting Coastal Flooding Hazards Climate-Adaptive Population Supplementation (CAPS) to Enhance Fishery and Forestry Outcomes The Role of Forest Structure in Regulating Water Availability and Implications for Natural Resources and Ecosystem Function Essential Forests and Key Connectors in the Central Appalachians Whole System Publication: Measuring and managing resistance and resilience under climate change in northern Great Lake forests Mean Forest Composition in 10 km Landscape (GCPO LCC) Live Pine Tree Species Basal Area (2000 -2009) in the GCPO LCC (Loblolly, Longleaf, Shortleaf, Slash) Science to Inform Post-fire Conifer Regeneration and Reforestation Strategies Under Changing Climate Conditions Identifying the Ecological and Management Implications of Mangrove Migration in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Mapping Ecosystem Services for Natural Capital Accounting