Climate Studies;
A Medley
Connie Millar, Bob Westfall,
Diane Delany
PSW Albany & Lee Vining, CA
Pubs/pdfs are
on my SNRC
staff page
Climate Change
#1. Re-Framing
Resource Management
Strategies
What can resource managers do?
Climate Change Science Program;
Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems
SAP 4.4 Reports Online
Managing In The Face of Change
A Toolbox of Options - “5-R + 1”
Adaptation Strategies
*Create Resistance
*Increase Resilience
*Allow Forests to Respond
*Realign Highly Altered Ecosystems
Mitigation Strategies
*Reduce Greenhouse Gases & Ecologic Footprint
Overall
*Set Priorities (Tiered,Triage,Vulnerabilities)
A Toolkit for Adapting to Climate Change on
Western National Forests: Incorporating
Climate into Resource Management and Planning
Connie Millar, Linda Joyce, Ron Neilson, Dave Peterson
with
Michael Furniss, Mark Nechodom, Mike Landram, Carl Skinner, Pat Manley, Sharon Yeh,
Brad Burmark, and a gang from PNW, RMRS, and WWETAC
Phase II, Tahoe National Forest Case Study
Sharon Yeh
#2. Treeline Response
to Climate:
Up, Down, All Around
How did/do changing climates
affect subalpine forests?
Paleohistoric to modern
During the past 3600 yrs, forests died out,
shifted aspects, and recolonized watersheds
- multi-century droughts had most influence
Limber pine, Sierra Nevada and Great Basin
A Mixed Conifer Forest Grew
on Whitewing Mtn (now
above treeline) during the
Medieval Centuries
(900-1350 CE)
Comprising:
Deadwood spp
Now growing at…
Whitebark Pine
↓ krumm
W White Pine
↓250 m
Lodgepole Pine
↓250 m
Jeffrey Pine
↓500 m
Mountain Hemlock ↓250 m
Sugar Pine
↓600 m &
W SN
Effect of Warming on Current Forests
Treeline elevation incorporated into regional warming models
Projected Loss of Alpine &
Subalpine Forests: ≤95%
Hayhoe et al. 2004 PNAS
Subalpine Forests Respond
Complexly to Climate
* Increase in Forest Density
* Change in Secies Compositions;
Growth & Form; Mortality & Insect
Relations, Genetic Diversities
* Shift Aspects
* Move Down & Up in Elevation
#3. Sierra Nevada Rock Glaciers
Little Known High-Elevation
Water Storage & Biodiversity
Refugia in a Warming World
Rock Glaciers and related RIFs abound in Sierran
canyons and cirques, but remain widely overlooked…
RIFs hoard ice and seep water
persistently to wetlands below
Rock mantle insulates the
ice from warming and melting,
and disguises the feature as
an ordinary scree slope
RIF outlet streams
don’t dry up
Temp dataloggers placed in water & air:
Outlet streams freeze
°C
Snow covers
Snow melts
RIF Wetland Plant Communities
High Species Diversity
Rock glacier wetlands harbor rare species in otherwise xeric
alpine locations; these wetlands will persist under warming
climates and serve as important biodiversity refugia
#4 American Pika; A ClimateEndangered Alpine Species?
cute
o
s
I ’m
Laws 2007
For Immediate Release, August and Sept, 2007
Endangered Species Act Protection Sought for American Pika:
High-Elevation Rabbit Relative Could Become California’s
First Animal Driven Extinct by Global Warming
We find that pika is abundant in
Sierra Nevada & SW Great Basin Ranges
Pika are most abundant on RIFs
We located 173 pika sites in summer 2007;
82% are RIF habitats
We extended the lower
elev range in SN and GB:
5593’ – 12,661’
MinTemperature for 173 Pika Locations; PRISM
Annual
January
July
Tmin
Tmin
Tmax
Pika pellet archives have
taken over my bedroom
DON’T MISS THE
“SIERRA PIKATEERS”
TONIGHT AFTER DINNER
DON’T MISS THE
“SIERRA PIKATEERS”
TONIGHT AFTER DINNER
or:
“Effects on Human Behavior
of Over-Exposure to High
Elevations”…