Decadal Changes in Forest Adaptability and Vulnerability to Climate, Insects, and Disease

Uploaded by vmc on 02/12/2023

Tags: Climate Change  

Attachments: Slide14.jpeg (251KB) Donisvitch.srt (31KB)

This was presented by Soren Donisvitch as a part of a series of contributed talks from the 2022 FEMC Annual Conference. To learn more about the conference, visit: https://www.uvm.edu/femc/cooperative/conference/2022. United States forests east of the Mississippi are observed to be becoming more vulnerable to climate, insects, and disease, coupled with a general reduction in adaptability. The decadal changes in forest adaptability and vulnerability may be an indicator of increased stress on forest ecosystems. Utilizing USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis data coupled with national trait-driven scoring systems, this study seeks to capture the changes in forest functional trait space and evaluate functional drivers of the observed regional changes. Although a semi-national study, this presentation will focus on changes observed in the Northeastern United States. The Northeast, as a region, is undergoing regionally similar shifts in vulnerability and adaptability scores as well as in captured functional trait space.