Environmental Variability and Forest Pattern: A Comparison of Eastern and Western Landscapes

9652656城市物理场地特征、生物过程和人类影响之间的相互作用混淆了我们预测生态系统对环境变化响应的能力。由于这些复杂情况，在资源管理和缓解所需的时间尺度上，相关的影响评估方法可能是无关紧要的。本研究将阐明森林对环境约束的响应机制，并将这些响应从林分扩展到景观。实地研究将在四个截然不同的地区进行：太平洋西北部、内华达山脉、东北部和东南部。我们将利用林分尺度和景观尺度模型探讨这些森林对模拟气候变化的敏感性。将在所有地点使用一个共同的建模框架，为评估地点之间森林反应的差异提供一个明确的、结构化的方法。这项研究的结果将为森林对气候变化响应的环境控制提供新的站点和区域尺度的见解。

9652656 Urban Interactions among physical site features, biological processes, and human influences confound our ability to predict ecosystem response to environmental change. Because of these complications, correlational approaches to impact assessment may be irrelevant at the time scales required for resource management and mitigation. This study will elucidate the mechanisms of forest response to environmental constraints, and scale these responses from stands to landscapes. Field studies will be conducted for four contrasting regions: the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada, the Northeast, and the Southeast. We will explore the sensitivity of these forests to simulated changes in climate using stand- and landscape-scale models. A common modeling framework will be used across all sites to provide an explicit, structured method for assessing differences in forest response among sites. The results of this study will provide new site- and regional-scale insights into the environmental control of transient forest responses to climatic change.