Temperature-driven changes in tree species abundance and carbon cycling along latitudinal and altitudinal gradients

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Global warming is expected to alter the composition and productivity of forests, particularly at high latitudes and altitudes where temperature will increase the most. These changes may have significant economic and social consequences, as well as cascading environmental impacts, such as changes in forest carbon storage that may exert a positive or negative feedback on the rate climate change. Predicting the impacts of global warming requires a better understanding of how temperature influences the species composition and productivity of forests. Toward this end, the proposed research will use forest inventory data to examine how trees and forests respond to spatial variation in temperature. Employing space-for-time substitution, the inventory data will also be used to parameterize a model for predicting how forests will respond to global warming, including responses that may exert a positive or negative feedback on climate change.