Download Climate change

FRST 532
COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM, GLOBAL CHANGE SCIENCE AND
ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY
Presentation paper
Forest response to climate change in the NorthWestern
United States: Ecophysiological Foundations for Adaptive
Management.
Churma DJ et al., 2011
OUTLINE
 What is Climate Change?
 Climate change Impacts in NW US
 Impacts of Climate change in forest
 Forest response to climate change
 What is Adaptive Management
 Questions
 What is Climate change?
Climate change is the modification of climate parameters
during a minimum period of 30 years due to human
activities and to the natural evolution of the earth climate.
Climate change resulting from increased concentration of
atmospheric CO2 is expected to result in warmer
temperatures and changed precipitation regime in this
century.
The impacts of climate change are wide-ranging
and are going to be felt ecologically, economically,
and socially. All of these impacts are interlinked.
 Climate change impacts in the NW US
In the NorthWestern US, these climate change will
-Decrease snowpack, cause snowmelt;
:
-Increase summer evapotranspiration;
-Increase the frequency and the severity of
droughts;
-Predispose forest to disturbance by wildfire, insect
and disease;
a-Fire
b-Insects
-Change forest structure and composition at the
landscape scale;
-Affect flowering and seed germination for some
species
- change species composition in forest…
 Impacts of climate change on trees and forest in the NW US
Climate change effects
Impacts on forest
Elevated CO2
Influence tree growth, reproduction and
mortality
(Bad effect on physiological processes of
photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration)
Elevated temperatures
Biogeochemical plant cycle
Precipitations ( future projection are les
certain)
Physical damage to plant and soil through
mechanical stresses, Physiological injuries.
Droughts
Tree growth( during low severity drought,
root growth decrease)
Climate change will bring changes in natural forest disturbance
Forest fire regimes in NW US are strongly related to climate
Short video on climate change in NW US ( 15’)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE
7N30pEFuA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT
zRh-kRP8k( cameroon climate change)
Forest response to climate change
Forest response to climate change depends on the
magnitude of the changes and on the ability of
individual trees to acclimate and for trees population
to adapt in situ, or to migrate to suitable habitats.
Population of trees may cope with new climate by
acclimating, migrating to new locations or evolving
in place.
‘ if they cannot cope, they will disappear from their
ecosystem’
In one word forest response depends on
Ecophysiological aptitude of trees species to cope
with the new climatic and biotic environment.
In order to help natural Forest response to climate
change, Genetic and silvicultural approaches to
increase adaptive capacities and to decrease
climate-related vulnerabilities of forest should be
based on ECOPHYSIOLOGICAL knowledge.
Plant ECOPHYSIOLOGY study the physiology of
plant, deal with the impact of biotic ( insects…) and
abiotic( climate…) factors on plant functioning and
physiological adaptation to the environment.
Ecophysiology integrate the present knowledge
on the impact of the environment on plant
functioning and adaptation at various levels: from the
molecular, biochemical and physiological to a whole
plant level.
Ecophysiology processes are the foundation of
acclimation and evolutionary adaptation to climate
change.
The proper way to integrate Ecophysiology
processes is through.
ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT
ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT
is a form of structured decision making with an
emphasis to the value of reducing uncertainties
over the time to improve management.
it is also a systematic management
paradigm that assumes natural resource
management policies and actions are not
static, but are adjusted based on the
combination of new scientific and socioeconomic
information
and
on
ecophysiology.
Finally, natural forest response is not enough to
face climate change impacts.
This natural response should be supply by an
Adaptive Management
which Include forest
Ecophysiological Processes
THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION
 Questions
-Sustainable Forest Management (SFM)/
-Sustainable Adaptive Management for Forest
(‘SAMF’).
Which one is suitable for a better forest
response to climate change?
-Do scientist are able to modify ecophysiolocal
processes of all forest species on the earth for
their better adaptation to climate change?