A dynamic species modeling approach to assess climate change impacts on California tree species

Global climate change during the 21st century is anticipated to have consequences on potential niche viability for woody plant species. Previous research on modeling bioclimatic envelopes has allowed us to predict where to find species assemblages under future climate scenarios and hence predict loss or gain of specific habitats. However, species may not identically respond to climate change. This could result in species disassembling and disagreement between predicted potential niches and realized niches. Therefore, it is critical to examine potential niche shifts at the species level. We used a spatially explicit demographic model to predict shifts in tree species of the northern Sierra Nevada mountains in the context of competition with neighboring plant functional types as well as disturbance (i.e. fire) under various climate change scenarios. Additionally, we incorporated a dispersal model to account for intermediary dispersal strategies. In particular, we were interested in modeling Pinus species found in the "checkerboard" region of the northern Sierra Nevada. These populations are of novel interest due to their disparate management strategies (private vs. public landownership). Our findings have important implications for the assessment of the impact of climate change on these high elevation Montane species.