Ecosystems We Study: Mountains Active
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
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.
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.
Seasonal precipitation and soil moisture relationships across forests and woodlands in the southwestern United States
Valleys of fire: Historical fire regimes of forest-grassland ecotones across the montane landscape of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, USA
Freezing temperatures restrict woody plant recruitment and restoration efforts in abandoned montane pastures
Adaptive monitoring in action: Reconsidering design-based estimators reveals underestimation of whitebark pine disease prevalence in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Seed production patterns of surviving Sierra Nevada conifers show minimal change following drought
Forest responses to last-millennium hydroclimate variability are governed by spatial variations in ecosystem sensitivity
Forest management under megadrought: Urgent actions needed at finer-scale and higher intensity
Effective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees
Effects of postfire climate and seed availability on postfire conifer regeneration
Forest restoration and fuels reduction: Convergent or divergent?
Whitebark pine in the national parks of the Pacific states: An assessment of population vulnerability
The snag’s the limit: Habitat selection modeling for the western purple martin in a managed forest landscape
- 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: 18No results found. - 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: 14No Result Found - 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: 69Seasonal precipitation and soil moisture relationships across forests and woodlands in the southwestern United States
Precipitation [P: mm] controls forest and woodland dynamics in the southwestern United States (SWUS) by altering soil moisture [θ: mm3 mm−3] availability, but the influence of P on θ is complex, varying across space and time. We evaluated seasonal P and θ relationships at shallow (0‐20 cm) and intermediate (50 cm) soil depths for 9 semiarid forest and woodland sites (56 total years), which comprisAuthorsC.R. Koehn, M.D. Petrie, John B. Bradford, M.E. Litvak, S. StrachanValleys of fire: Historical fire regimes of forest-grassland ecotones across the montane landscape of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, USA
ContextMontane grasslands and forest-grassland ecotones are unique and dynamic components of many landscapes, but the processes that regulate their dynamics are difficult to observe over ecologically relevant time spans.ObjectivesWe aimed to demonstrate the efficacy of using grassland-forest ecotone trees to reconstruct spatial and temporal properties of the historical fire regime in a complex lanAuthorsJ. J. Dewar, Donald A. Falk, T. W. Swetnam, C. H. Baisan, Craig D. Allen, R. R. Parmenter, Ellis MargolisFreezing temperatures restrict woody plant recruitment and restoration efforts in abandoned montane pastures
Tropical montane forests are being lost at an alarming rate but harbor some of the globe’s most unique biodiversity. The Hawaiian archipelago is a prime example of the importance of high elevation forests to species conservation and persistence as they serve as the last refugia for Hawaiian birds. Yet these forests have been converted to invasive dominated pastures, and efforts to restore them havAuthorsEvan M Rehm, Stephanie G. Yelenik, Carla M. D'AntonioAdaptive monitoring in action: Reconsidering design-based estimators reveals underestimation of whitebark pine disease prevalence in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Identifying and understanding status and trends in ecological indicators motivates continual monitoring over decades. Many programs rely on probability surveys and their companion design-based estimators for status assessments (e.g. Horvitz–Thompson). Design-based estimators do not easily extend to trend estimation nor situations with observation errors. Field-based monitoring efforts inevitably hAuthorsErin Shanahan, Wilson Wright, Kathryn IrvineSeed production patterns of surviving Sierra Nevada conifers show minimal change following drought
Reproduction is a key component of ecological resilience in forest ecosystems, so understanding how seed production is influenced by extreme drought is key to understanding forest recovery trajectories. If trees respond to mortality-inducing drought by preferentially allocating resources for reproduction, the recovery of the stand to pre-drought conditions may be enhanced accordingly. We used a 20AuthorsMicah C. Wright, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Nathan L. Stephenson, Adrian Das, Jon KeeleyForest responses to last-millennium hydroclimate variability are governed by spatial variations in ecosystem sensitivity
Forecasts of future forest change are governed by ecosystem sensitivity to climate change, but ecosystem model projections are under-constrained by data at multidecadal and longer timescales. Here, we quantify ecosystem sensitivity to centennial-scale hydroclimate variability, by comparing dendroclimatic and pollen-inferred reconstructions of drought, forest composition and biomass for the last miAuthorsChristine R. Rollinson, Andria Dawson, Ann M. Raiho, John W. Williams, Michael C. Dietze, Thomas Hickler, Stephen T. Jackson, Jason S. McLachlan, David J.P. Moore, Benjamin Poulter, Tristan Quaife, Jorg Steinkamp, Mathias TrachselForest management under megadrought: Urgent actions needed at finer-scale and higher intensity
Drought and warming increasingly are causing widespread tree die-offs and extreme wildfires. Forest managers are struggling to improve anticipatory forest management practices given more frequent, extensive, and severe wildfire and tree die-off events triggered by “hotter drought”—drought under warmer than historical conditions. Of even greater concern is the increasing probability of multi-year dAuthorsJason P. Field, David D. Breshears, John B. Bradford, Darin J. Law, Xiaohui Feng, Craig D. AllenEffective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees
Fady & Bozzano highlight some challenges to a proposed Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) indicator of genetic diversity based on effective population size, Ne (Fady and Bozzano, 2020; Hoban et al., 2020). We appreciate the thoughtful debate and concur that genetic diversity indicators must be reliable and scalable. We fully agree that “genetic diversity should be better considered in the CBAuthorsSean M. Hoban, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Sally Aitken, Laura D. Bertola, Martin F Breed, Michael W. Bruford, W. Chris Funk, Catherine E. Grueber, Myriam Heuertz, Paul A. Hohenlohe, Margaret Hunter, Rodolfo Jaffé, Margarida Lopes Fernandes, Joachim Mergeay, Farideh Moharrek, David O’Brien, Gernot Segelbacher, Cristiano Vernesi, Lisette Waits, Linda LaikreEffects of postfire climate and seed availability on postfire conifer regeneration
Large, severe fires are becoming more frequent in many forest types across the western United States and have resulted in tree mortality across tens of thousands of hectares. Conifer regeneration in these areas is limited because seeds must travel long distances to reach the interior of large burned patches and establishment is jeopardized by increasingly hot and dry conditions. To better inform pAuthorsJoseph A E Stewart, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Derek J N Young, Kristen L. Shive, Haiganoush K. Preisler, Adrian Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Jon Keeley, Hugh D. Safford, Micah C. Wright, Kevin R Welch, James H. ThorneForest restoration and fuels reduction: Convergent or divergent?
For over 20 years, forest fuel reduction has been the dominant management action in western US forests. These same actions have also been associated with the restoration of highly altered frequent-fire forests. Perhaps the vital element in the compatibility of these treatments is that both need to incorporate the salient characteristics that frequent fire produced—variability in vegetation structuAuthorsScott L. Stephens, Mike A. Battaglia, Derek J. Churchill, Brandon M. Collins, Michelle Coppoletta, Chad M. Hoffman, Jamie M. Lydersen, Malcolm P. North, Russell A. Parsons, Scott M. Ritter, Jens StevensWhitebark pine in the national parks of the Pacific states: An assessment of population vulnerability
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a long-lived tree found in high-elevation forests of western North America that is declining due to the non-native white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) and climate-driven outbreaks of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB). The National Park Service established a monitoring program for whitebark pine in seven parks, including Sequoia & KinAuthorsErik S Jules, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Benjamin G Iberle, Jonathan C B Nesmith, Regina M RochefortThe snag’s the limit: Habitat selection modeling for the western purple martin in a managed forest landscape
The western purple martin (Progne subis arboricola), an avian insectivore, is a species of conservation concern throughout the Pacific Northwest. Compared to the well-studied eastern subspecies (Progne subis subis), little is known of the life history and biology of the western subspecies. Availability of breeding habitat is believed to be a major limiting factor for western purple martins in foreAuthorsLorelle M. Sherman, Joan Hagar