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Ecosystem Controls and the Impacts of Climate on Vegetation Production and Patterns in California's Mountains

Ecosystem Controls and the Impacts of Climate on Vegetation Production and Patterns in California's Mountains PDF Author: Aaron William Fellows
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781267158048
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
Climate change is anticipated to have widespread impacts on the biosphere, including redistribution of vegetation and increases in tree mortality. In California, climate change is predicted to lead to warmer and possibly drier conditions. The response of vegetation to these changes remains uncertain due to our limited understanding of the sensitivity of vegetation to weather and the range of potential responses. This dissertation addresses these uncertainties by examining the effects of climate-mediated tree mortality and weather controls on vegetation in California's mountains. Climate-mediated tree mortality occurred in 2002-04 in the semi-arid San Jacinto Mountains, CA. Conifer tree mortality was widespread, rapid, and focused at low elevations. This pattern of tree mortality was consistent with reduced precipitation associated with climate variability. Increased mortality at low elevation rapidly drove mid-montane vegetation distributions upslope. Low elevation forests are thought to be vulnerable to climate change, but a limited understanding of their function constrains predictions of possible responses to changes in climate. We found that low elevation mixed conifer forests in Southern California maintain a year-round growing season by continuing carbon uptake in the cool winters, and extracting water stored from deep soils in the dry summers. Low elevation forests may be sensitive to certain changes in climate including increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit and reductions in precipitation. We hypothesized that reduced temperatures at high elevations and increased temperatures and reduced water availability at low elevations shape elevation patterns of canopy level photosynthesis in the San Jacinto Mountains. Short-term meteorological controls on canopy photosynthesis were insufficient to predict the elevational pattern of production. Additional controls may also be important, including controls on leaf-area, feedbacks and thresholds to growth, fire disturbances, and edaphic properties. Ecosystem level processes may also be affected by fire suppression. Increased forest stem density due to fire suppression in Western US forests is thought to account for a portion of the North American carbon sink. Stem density increased in California's mountains from 1930s- 1990s, but this did not appear to increase carbon stored in aboveground biomass due to a concomitant loss of large trees.

Ecosystem Controls and the Impacts of Climate on Vegetation Production and Patterns in California's Mountains

Ecosystem Controls and the Impacts of Climate on Vegetation Production and Patterns in California's Mountains PDF Author: Aaron William Fellows
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781267158048
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
Climate change is anticipated to have widespread impacts on the biosphere, including redistribution of vegetation and increases in tree mortality. In California, climate change is predicted to lead to warmer and possibly drier conditions. The response of vegetation to these changes remains uncertain due to our limited understanding of the sensitivity of vegetation to weather and the range of potential responses. This dissertation addresses these uncertainties by examining the effects of climate-mediated tree mortality and weather controls on vegetation in California's mountains. Climate-mediated tree mortality occurred in 2002-04 in the semi-arid San Jacinto Mountains, CA. Conifer tree mortality was widespread, rapid, and focused at low elevations. This pattern of tree mortality was consistent with reduced precipitation associated with climate variability. Increased mortality at low elevation rapidly drove mid-montane vegetation distributions upslope. Low elevation forests are thought to be vulnerable to climate change, but a limited understanding of their function constrains predictions of possible responses to changes in climate. We found that low elevation mixed conifer forests in Southern California maintain a year-round growing season by continuing carbon uptake in the cool winters, and extracting water stored from deep soils in the dry summers. Low elevation forests may be sensitive to certain changes in climate including increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit and reductions in precipitation. We hypothesized that reduced temperatures at high elevations and increased temperatures and reduced water availability at low elevations shape elevation patterns of canopy level photosynthesis in the San Jacinto Mountains. Short-term meteorological controls on canopy photosynthesis were insufficient to predict the elevational pattern of production. Additional controls may also be important, including controls on leaf-area, feedbacks and thresholds to growth, fire disturbances, and edaphic properties. Ecosystem level processes may also be affected by fire suppression. Increased forest stem density due to fire suppression in Western US forests is thought to account for a portion of the North American carbon sink. Stem density increased in California's mountains from 1930s- 1990s, but this did not appear to increase carbon stored in aboveground biomass due to a concomitant loss of large trees.

Ecosystems of California

Ecosystems of California PDF Author: Harold Mooney
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520278801
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1008

Book Description
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for CaliforniaÕs remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem typeÑits distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of CaliforniaÕs ecological patterns and the history of the stateÕs various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the stateÕs ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of CaliforniaÕs environment and curious naturalists.

Ecosystems of California

Ecosystems of California PDF Author: Harold Mooney
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520962176
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1009

Book Description
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for California’s remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem type—its distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of California’s ecological patterns and the history of the state’s various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the state’s ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of California’s environment and curious naturalists.

Climate Change Impacts on California Vegetation

Climate Change Impacts on California Vegetation PDF Author: William K. Cornwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Book Description


Fire in California's Ecosystems

Fire in California's Ecosystems PDF Author: Jan W. van Wagtendonk
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520961919
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 567

Book Description
Fire in California’s Ecosystems describes fire in detail—both as an integral natural process in the California landscape and as a growing threat to urban and suburban developments in the state. Written by many of the foremost authorities on the subject, this comprehensive volume is an ideal authoritative reference tool and the foremost synthesis of knowledge on the science, ecology, and management of fire in California. Part One introduces the basics of fire ecology, including overviews of historical fires, vegetation, climate, weather, fire as a physical and ecological process, and fire regimes, and reviews the interactions between fire and the physical, plant, and animal components of the environment. Part Two explores the history and ecology of fire in each of California's nine bioregions. Part Three examines fire management in California during Native American and post-Euro-American settlement and also current issues related to fire policy such as fuel management, watershed management, air quality, invasive plant species, at-risk species, climate change, social dynamics, and the future of fire management. This edition includes critical scientific and management updates and four new chapters on fire weather, fire regimes, climate change, and social dynamics.

Topographic Controls on Southern California Ecosystem Function and Post-fire Recovery

Topographic Controls on Southern California Ecosystem Function and Post-fire Recovery PDF Author: George Azzari
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781321645965
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 75

Book Description
Southern Californian wildfires can influence climate in a variety of ways, including changes in surface albedo, emission of greenhouse gases and aerosols, and the production of tropospheric ozone. Ecosystem post-fire recovery plays a key role in determining the strength, duration, and relative importance of these climate forcing agents. Southern California's ecosystems vary markedly with topography, creating sharp transitions with elevation, aspect, and slope. Little is known about the ways topography influences ecosystem properties and function, particularly in the context of post-fire recovery. We combined images from the USGS satellite Landsat 5 with flux tower measurements to analyze pre- and post-fire albedo and carbon exchanged by Southern California's ecosystems in the Santa Ana Mountains. We reduced the sources of external variability in Landsat images using several correction methods for topographic and bidirectional effects. We used time series of corrected images to infer the Net Ecosystem Exchange and surface albedo, and calculated the radiative forcing due to CO2 emissions and albedo changes. We analyzed the patterns of recovery and radiative forcing on north- and south-facing slopes, stratified by vegetation classes including grassland, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and evergreen oak forest. We found that topography strongly influenced post-fire recovery and radiative forcing. Field observations are often limited by the difficulty of collecting ground validation data. Current instrumentation networks do not provide adequate spatial resolution for landscape-level analysis. The deployment of consumer-market technology could reduce the cost of near-surface measurements, allowing the installation of finer-scale instrument networks. We tested the performance of the Microsoft Kinect sensor for measuring vegetation structure. We used Kinect to acquire 3D vegetation point clouds in the field, and used these data to compute plant height, crown diameter, and volume. We found good agreement between Kinect-derived and manual measurements.

Oxidant Air Pollution Impacts in the Montane Forests of Southern California

Oxidant Air Pollution Impacts in the Montane Forests of Southern California PDF Author: Paul R. Miller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146121436X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 445

Book Description
This volume presents a body of research conducted over more than thirty years, including an intensive interdisciplinary five-year study begun in 1991. Chapters include studies of the relationships of biogeography and climate to the region's air pollution, the chemical and physiological mechanisms of ozone injury, as well as the impacts of nitrogen-containing pollutants and natural stresses on polluted forests.

Climate Change in California

Climate Change in California PDF Author: Fredrich J. Kahrl
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520271815
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
While California is undeniably unique and diverse, the challenges it faces will be mirrored everywhere.

Climate Change Impacts on California Vegetation

Climate Change Impacts on California Vegetation PDF Author: William K. Cornwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description


California Grasslands

California Grasslands PDF Author: Mark R. Stromberg
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520252209
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
"This highly synthetic and scholarly work brings together new and important scientific contributions by leading experts on a rich diversity of topics concerning the history, ecology, and conservation of California's endangered grasslands. The editors and authors have succeeded admirably in drawing from a great wealth of recent research to produce a widely accessible and compelling, state-of-the-art treatment of this fascinating subject. Anyone interested in Californian biodiversity or grassland ecosystems in general will find this book to be an invaluable resource and a major inspiration for further research, management, and restoration efforts."—Bruce G. Baldwin, W. L. Jepson Professor and Curator, UC Berkeley "Grasses and grasslands are among the most important elements of the California landscape. This is their book, embodying the kind of integrated view needed for all ecological communities in California. Approaches ranging across an incredibly broad spectrum -- paleontology and human history; basic science and practical management techniques; systematics, community ecology, physiology, and genetics; physical factors such as water, soil nutrients, atmospherics, and fire; biological factors such as competition, symbiosis, and grazing -- are nicely tied together due to careful editorial work. This is an indispensable reference for everyone interested in the California environment."—Brent Mishler, Director of the University & Jepson Herbaria and Professor of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley "The structure and function of California grasslands have intrigued ecologists for decades. The editors of this volume have assembled a comprehensive set of reviews by a group of outstanding authors on the natural history, structure, management, and restoration of this economically and ecologically important ecosystem."—Scott L. Collins, Professor of Biology, University of New Mexico