The increase in fires and summer drought brought on by climate change is increasingly altering the type of tree species and the carbon sequestration of forest landscapes, particularly in the Klamath region of the United States.
An increase in the number of wildfires and summer droughts caused by climate change is drastically changing a globally unique bio-region of northern California and southwestern Oregon, according to new research funded by the National Science Foundation and published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
Because of its unique geological features, the rugged mountains of the Klamath harbors a rich biodiversity, with several distinct plant communities, including temperate rain forests, moist inland forests, oak forests and savannas, high elevation forests, and alpine grasslands.
This is because as plants begin to recover from a fire, the iconic conifers must compete with fast-growing shrubs and other species that are more fire-resistant.
The research method used in the study To study the dynamics of Klamath forest landscape, Thompson and his colleagues from the Harvard Forest, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and Portland State University simulated the next 100 years of forest dynamics in the Klamath according to five potential climate futures, reports ZME Science.
The projected shifts ranged from conservative to extreme, in warming and seasonal precipitation.
The models agree that it will be warmer, but some predict wetter and some drier.
Not surprisingly, the drier climate scenarios were associated with the largest losses of conifer forests,” Thompson told ZME Science.
Because climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of wildfires, fast-growing shrubs will take over the forests – and because they can regenerate quickly when subjected to high-intensity wildfires, they will squeeze out the conifers.
So, the replacement of old conifer forests with shrubs will mean much more carbon in the atmosphere.