Mountain ecosystems are highly sensitive to climate change, and USGS is conducting montane research across the West to help resource managers plan now for the future. Coordination with scientists around the world has led to mountain research networks to expand our understanding of how these ecosystems respond to climate change.
Mountain Ecosystem Research
Ecosystems We Study: Forests
Climate change links fate of glaciers and rare alpine stream invertebrates in Glacier National Park
Building Resilience to Invasive Species in Ohia Forests
Wetland Forest Regeneration Dynamics and Productivity in Southeastern Cypress Swamp Ecosystems
Climate and Management Effects on Soil Infiltration and Runoff in Hawaiian Forests
Alpine Wildlife and Snowpack Dynamics in the North Cascades
Adaptation in Montane Plants
Fire Effects and Forest Recovery
Ecosystem Baselines and Restoration
Climate and Ecosystem Biogeochemistry
Detection, Attribution, and Interpretation of Forest Changes
Forest Restoration in the Western U.S.
Recent data (2020-2022) related to USGS forest and mountain research is listed below. A complete listing of USGS forest and mountain data is available from the button below.
Pinyon-juniper basal area, climate and demographics data from National Forest Inventory plots and projected under future density and climate conditions
Calibration and Validation Data and Model Coefficients for Mixed Conifer Vulnerability Project from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park 2015 to 2019
Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks Mortality and Fire Data (1990-2019) for Competition-Fire-Drought Interaction Analysis
Data for Use in poscrptR Post-fire Conifer Regeneration Prediction Model
Estimated tree mortality, basal area, climate, and drought conditions for ponderosa pine in forest inventory plots across the western U.S.
Forest Structure Data for Burned and Unburned Sites at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Survey Data for Chaparral Vegetation in Masticated Fuel Treatments on the four Southern California National Forests (2011-2012)
Post-fire conifer regeneration observations for National Forest land in California (2009 - 2017)
Ecosystem water balance and ecological drought patterns under historical and future climate conditions for the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) Landscape
Data on cone production in pinyon pine in the Southwestern USA from 2003-2016
Long term cone production of white spruce throughout boreal forests in North America
Stand density and climate data in the Taylor Woods study area (Fort Valley Experimental Forest) on the Colorado Plateau in Northern Arizona, 1961-2011
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS forest and mountain research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS forest and mountain publications is available from the button below.
Influence of riparian thinning on trophic pathways supporting stream food webs in forested watersheds
Riparian buffers provide refugia during secondary forest succession
Climate change risks to global forest health: Emergence of unexpected events of elevated tree mortality worldwide
Long-term effects of prescribed fire on large tree growth in mixed conifer forests at Lassen Volcanic National Park, California
Riparian forest productivity decline initiated by streamflow diversion then amplified by atmospheric drought 40 years later
From flowering to foliage: Accelerometers track tree sway to provide high-resolution insights into tree phenology
Mechanisms of forest resilience
Pathways of productivity and influences on top consumers in forested streams
Soil moisture response to seasonal drought conditions and post-thinning forest structure
Empirically validated drought vulnerability mapping in the mixed conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada
Crowding, climate, and the case for social distancing among trees
The importance of forests in bumble bee biology and conservation
- Overview
Mountain ecosystems are highly sensitive to climate change, and USGS is conducting montane research across the West to help resource managers plan now for the future. Coordination with scientists around the world has led to mountain research networks to expand our understanding of how these ecosystems respond to climate change.
Mountain Ecosystem ResearchFilter Total Items: 16Ecosystems We Study: Forests
Forests are a key component of a healthy ecosystem. Management of these resources is vital to their protection as a recreational resource as well as an environmental resource.Climate change links fate of glaciers and rare alpine stream invertebrates in Glacier National Park
The extensive loss of glaciers in Glacier National Park (GNP) is iconic of the global impacts of climate warming in mountain ecosystems. However, little is known about how climate change may threaten alpine stream species, especially invertebrates, persisting below disappearing snow and ice masses in GNP. Two alpine stream invertebrates – the meltwater stonefly and the glacier stonefly – are...Building Resilience to Invasive Species in Ohia Forests
ʻŌhiʻa (Metrosideros polymorpha) is the dominant tree in Hawaiian forests, but Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD), a newly emerging disease that stands to cause high mortality of this ecologically important tree, may lead to invasions by exotic plants as gaps open in the forest. To better understand if planting of ʻōhiʻa seedlings can be used as a restoration tool, we investigated the survival of ʻōhiʻa...Wetland Forest Regeneration Dynamics and Productivity in Southeastern Cypress Swamp Ecosystems
Relict forests (i.e., forests unable to reestablish after disturbance) may develop in the southeastern U.S. in future predicted extreme climates of temperature, flooding, and drought, according to the International Panel on Climate Change.Climate and Management Effects on Soil Infiltration and Runoff in Hawaiian Forests
Hawai‘i's precipitation is greatest in upland areas that are typically forested. This precipitation provides water for both people and ecosystems. Precipitation can either run off and contribute to streamflow, or infiltrate into the ground and provide water for plants, base flow to streams, or recharge to aquifers. The exact routing that water takes is controlled by many factors, including the...Alpine Wildlife and Snowpack Dynamics in the North Cascades
Mountain ecosystems are expected to change with continued reductions in annual snowpack that have been observed worldwide over the past half-century. Recent snow droughts in North America have been attributed to unusually warm temperatures that cause winter precipitation to fall as rain, rather than snow. Many species of alpine wildlife depend on snowpack for insulation from extreme cold and for...Adaptation in Montane Plants
Montane plant communities in widely separated intact natural environments of the world have responded to changes in precipitation and temperature regimes by shifting both margins and core distributional ranges upward in elevation. Reduced evapotranspiration rates in cooler climate zones at higher elevation may compensate for less precipitation and higher temperatures within species’ former ranges...Fire Effects and Forest Recovery
This research theme examines the impacts of prescribed fire on plant productivity, soil physical, chemical, and biological characteristics, and nutrient leaching. Results from this research will enable improved decision-making of how to manage fire-prone forests to maintain long-term forest fertility and productivity, especially across wide climate gradients characteristic of the Pacific Northwest...Ecosystem Baselines and Restoration
This research theme coalesces studies of old-growth temperate forests in several major thematic areas including landscape and ecosystem controls on watershed nutrient export, wildfire disturbance legacies on biogeochemical cycling, and the imprint of tree species on soil nutrients in old-growth forests.Climate and Ecosystem Biogeochemistry
This research theme advance fundamental understanding of climate-biogeochemistry interactions, with wide applicability to virtually all terrestrial ecosystems.Detection, Attribution, and Interpretation of Forest Changes
Dr. Nathan Stephenson and colleagues seek to determine what changes are occurring in forests, why they are occurring, and what they mean. For example, they have documented a long-term, apparently climatically-induced increase of tree mortality rates in otherwise undisturbed old forests across the western U.S., implying that these forests could become net sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide.Forest Restoration in the Western U.S.
This project uses new and existing field data to assess forest restoration treatment effects across broad spatial and temporal scales. WERC's Dr. Phil van Mantgem and project partners are considering the effects of restoration treatments in terms of forest structure, forest stand development, subsequent tree mortality patterns mortality, and how climate influences the success or failure of... - Data
Recent data (2020-2022) related to USGS forest and mountain research is listed below. A complete listing of USGS forest and mountain data is available from the button below.
Filter Total Items: 14Pinyon-juniper basal area, climate and demographics data from National Forest Inventory plots and projected under future density and climate conditions
These data were compiled to help understand how climate change may impact dryland pinyon-juniper ecosystems in coming decades, and how resource management might be able to minimize those impacts. Objective(s) of our study were to model the demographic rates of PJ woodlands to estimate the areas that may decline in the future vs. those that will be stable. We quantified populations growth rates acrCalibration and Validation Data and Model Coefficients for Mixed Conifer Vulnerability Project from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park 2015 to 2019
These datasets contain the attributes of individual trees located in and around Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. Attributes include remote sensing indices, terrain characteristics, and-- for the calibration data-- tree size and growth rates. Calibration data (mixedconifervulnerability_calibrationdataset.csv) were collected in long term research plots where trees are visited annually to cheSequoia and Yosemite National Parks Mortality and Fire Data (1990-2019) for Competition-Fire-Drought Interaction Analysis
This dataset records mortality-- including involvement of bark beetles-- and burn severity information for trees in long term forest dynamics plots in Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park that experienced fire. These data support the following publication: Furniss, T.J., Das, A.J., van Mantgem, P.J., Stephenson, N.L. and Lutz, J.A., 2021. Crowding, climate, and the case for sociData for Use in poscrptR Post-fire Conifer Regeneration Prediction Model
These data support poscrptR (Wright et al. 2021). poscrptR is a shiny app that predicts the probability of post-fire conifer regeneration for fire data supplied by the user. The predictive model was fit using presence/absence data collected in 4.4m radius plots (60 square meters). Please refer to Stewart et al. (2020) for more details concerning field data collection, the model fitting process, anEstimated tree mortality, basal area, climate, and drought conditions for ponderosa pine in forest inventory plots across the western U.S.
These data consist of environmental covariates and estimated plot-level mortality of ponderosa pine trees. Environmental covariates include growing season temperature and soil moisture, and values are summarized into long-term mean conditions, and anomalies observed between forest inventory sampling events for each plot. Data also include plot locations (with uncertainty introduced by the US ForesForest Structure Data for Burned and Unburned Sites at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
These data represent tree diameter, species, mortality status, and plot attributes from 164 plots in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, California. Plots were matched with local records of recent fire history to determine burn status and year burned if applicable. These data support the following publication: van Mantgem, P.J., Caprio, A.C., Stephenson, N.L. and Das, A.J., 2021. Forest ReSurvey Data for Chaparral Vegetation in Masticated Fuel Treatments on the four Southern California National Forests (2011-2012)
Mechanical fuel treatments are a primary pre-fire strategy for potentially mitigating the threat of wildland fire, yet there is limited information on how they impact shrubland ecosystems. This publication contains data related to vegetation structure and composition in mechanically masticated chaparral communities used to assess the impact of these fuel treatments on shrubland vegetation and to dPost-fire conifer regeneration observations for National Forest land in California (2009 - 2017)
This data consists of presence/absence observations for post-fire conifer regeneration. The data also includes estimates of plot-level topography (slope, aspect), relativized differenced normalized burn ratio (RdNBR), post-fire climate, live basal area, and seed rain. These data support the following publication:Ecosystem water balance and ecological drought patterns under historical and future climate conditions for the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) Landscape
These data were compiled for research pertaining to the effects of stand density treatments on growth rates in semi-arid, ponderosa pine forests. Also, these data examined how the planned restoration treatments in the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI), the largest forest restoration project being implemented in the United States, would alter landscape-scale patterns of forest growth and dData on cone production in pinyon pine in the Southwestern USA from 2003-2016
Data were collected on pinyon pine cone production using the cone scar method (Redmond et al 2016 Forest Ecology and Management) from 2003-2016 among sites in the Southwest USA. Long-term weather data (Vapor Pressure Deficits and monsoonality) were associated with cone scar data to assess weather-correlates of cone production.Long term cone production of white spruce throughout boreal forests in North America
Data were compiled on the seed production of white spruce in order to assess the long-term trends in seed production over the past 60 years in North American boreal forests. Data on cone production was merged with annual weather, teleconnection indices such as ENSO, and historical fires in boreal forests.Stand density and climate data in the Taylor Woods study area (Fort Valley Experimental Forest) on the Colorado Plateau in Northern Arizona, 1961-2011
These data were compiled for research pertaining to the effects of stand density on growth rates in semi-arid forests. Increasing heat and aridity in coming decades is expected to negatively impact tree growth and threaten forest sustainability in dry areas. Maintaining low stand density has the potential to mitigate the negative effects of increasingly severe droughts by minimizing competitive in - Publications
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS forest and mountain research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS forest and mountain publications is available from the button below.
Filter Total Items: 69Influence of riparian thinning on trophic pathways supporting stream food webs in forested watersheds
Resource managers seek to thin second-growth riparian forests to address multiple stream and riparian management objectives, including enhancing aquatic productivity via light-mediated trophic pathways in watersheds of the Pacific Northwest (USA). However, such increases in aquatic productivity depend on complex food web dynamics that link riparian forests and streams. To evaluate how riparian forAuthorsDavid A. Roon, Jason B. Dunham, J. Ryan Bellmore, Deanna H. Olson, Bret C. HarveyRiparian buffers provide refugia during secondary forest succession
AimSecondary forests regenerating from human disturbance are increasingly becoming a predominant forest type in many regions, and they play a significant role in forest community dynamics. Understanding the factors that underlie the variation in species responses during secondary succession is important for understanding community assembly and biodiversity monitoring and management. Because specieAuthorsMichelle E. Thompson, Brian J. Halstead, Maureen A. DonnellyClimate change risks to global forest health: Emergence of unexpected events of elevated tree mortality worldwide
Recent observations of elevated tree mortality following climate extremes, like heat and drought, raise concerns about climate change risks to global forest health. We currently lack both sufficient data and understanding to identify whether these observations represent a global trend towards increasing tree mortality. Here, we document events of sudden and unexpected elevated tree mortality folloAuthorsHenrik Hartmann, Ana Bastos, Adrian Das, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, William M Hammond, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta, Nate G. McDowell, Jennifer S. Powers, Thomas A. M. Pugh, Katinka X. Ruthrof, Craig D. AllenLong-term effects of prescribed fire on large tree growth in mixed conifer forests at Lassen Volcanic National Park, California
Prescribed fire in dry coniferous forests of the western U.S. is used to reduce fire hazards. How large, old trees respond to these treatments is an important management consideration. Growth is a key indicator of residual tree condition, which can be predictive of mortality and response to future disturbance. Using a combination of long-term plot records and dendrochronological samples, we analyzAuthorsZachary Wenderott, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Micah Charles Wright, Calvin A. Farris, Rosemary L. SherriffRiparian forest productivity decline initiated by streamflow diversion then amplified by atmospheric drought 40 years later
Riparian trees and their annual growth rings can be used to reconstruct drought histories related to streamflow. Because the death of individual trees reduces competition for survivors, however, tree-ring chronologies based only on surviving trees may underestimate drought impacts. This problem can be addressed by calculating productivity at the stand scale to account for tree mortality and establAuthorsDerek M. Schook, J. M. Friedman, Jamie D. Hoover, Steven E. Rice, Richard D. Thaxton, David J. CooperFrom flowering to foliage: Accelerometers track tree sway to provide high-resolution insights into tree phenology
Trees are bioindicators of global climate change and regional urbanization, but available monitoring tools are ineffective for fine-scale observation of many species. Using six accelerometers mounted on two urban ash trees (Fraxinus americana), we looked at high-frequency tree vibrations, or change in periodicity of tree sway as a proxy for mass changes, to infer seasonal patterns of flowering andAuthorsDeidre M. Jaeger, A. M. C. Looze, M. S. Raleigh, Brian W. Miller, J. M. Friedman, C. A. WessmanMechanisms of forest resilience
Ecosystems are dynamic systems with complex responses to environmental variation. In response to pervasive stressors of changing climate and disturbance regimes, many ecosystems are realigning rapidly across spatial scales, in many cases moving outside of their observed historical range of variation into alternative ecological states. In some cases, these new states are transitory and represent suAuthorsDonald A. Falk, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Jon Keeley, Rachel M Gregg, Christopher H. Guiterman, Alan J. Tepley, Derek J N Young, Laura A. E. MarshallPathways of productivity and influences on top consumers in forested streams
Forested stream ecosystems involve complex physical and biotic pathways that can influence fish in numerous ways. Consequently, the responses of fish communities to disturbance can be difficult to understand. In this study, we employed a food web model that links biotic (e.g., physiology, predator–prey interactions) and abiotic (e.g., temperature, sunlight) attributes to address fish responses toAuthorsJoseph R. Benjamin, Jason B. Dunham, Sherri L Johnson, Linda Ashkenas, Brooke E Penaluna, Robert E Bilby, Douglas S. Bateman, David W. Leer, James R BellmoreSoil moisture response to seasonal drought conditions and post-thinning forest structure
Prolonged drought conditions in semi-arid forests can lead to widespread vegetation stress and mortality. However, the distribution of these effects is not spatially uniform. We measured soil water potential at high spatial and temporal resolution using 112 sensors distributed across a ponderosa pine forest in northern Arizona, USA, during two abnormally dry years with below-average total precipitAuthorsAdam Belmonte, Temuulen T. Sankey, Joel Biedermann, John B. Bradford, Thomas KolbEmpirically validated drought vulnerability mapping in the mixed conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada
Severe droughts are predicted to become more frequent in the future, and the consequences of such droughts on forests can be dramatic, resulting in massive tree mortality, rapid change in forest structure and composition, and substantially increased risk of catastrophic fire. Forest managers have tools at their disposal to try to mitigate these effects but are often faced with limited resources, fAuthorsAdrian Das, Michèle R Slaton, Jeffrey Mallory, Gregory P. Asner, Roberta E. Martin, Paul HardwickCrowding, climate, and the case for social distancing among trees
In an emerging era of megadisturbance, bolstering forest resilience to wildfire, insects, and drought has become a central objective in many western forests. Climate has received considerable attention as a driver of these disturbances, but few studies have examined the complexities of climate–vegetation–disturbance interactions. Current strategies for creating resilient forests often rely on retrAuthorsTucker J. Furniss, Adrian Das, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Nathan L. Stephenson, James A. LutzThe importance of forests in bumble bee biology and conservation
Declines of many bumble bee species have raised concerns because of their importance as pollinators and potential harbingers of declines among other insect taxa. At present, bumble bee conservation is predominantly focused on midsummer flower restoration in open habitats. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that forests may play an important role in bumble bee life history. Compared withAuthorsJohn Michael Mola, Jeremy Hemberger, Jade Kochanski, Leif L. Richardson, Ian Pearse