Simulations show decreasing carbon stocks and potential for carbon emissions in Rocky Mountain forests over the next century

Climate change has altered the environment in which forests grow, and climate change models predict more severe alterations to come. Forests have already responded to these changes, and the future temperature and precipitation scenarios are of foremost concern, especially in the mountainous western United States, where forests occur in the dry environments that interface with grasslands. The objective of this study was to understand the trade-offs between temperature and water controls on these forested sites in the context of available climate projections. Three temperature and precipitation scenarios from IPCC AR4 AOGCMs ranging in precipitation levels were input to the process model Biome-BGC for key forested...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Ecological Applications, Ecological Society of America, carbon, climate change, forest, All tags... northern U.S. Rocky Mountains, water temperature balance, Fewer tags