Snow and Forest in the Western US - Does ecophysiology matter? 1089369
Abstract
In the mountains of winter-wet, summer dry Mediterranean type environments (MTE), snow serves as a dynamic storage of plant accessible moisture and consequently supports forest water use, productivity and resilience to disturbances such as fire and disease. With a warming climate and changing precipitation regimes, snowpack storage is diminishing and becoming increasingly variable from year-to-year. What is the implication of this changing dynamic storage for forests and forest water use in MTE's of the Western US? In this talk, we review current conceptual models of how changing snowpacks are altering forests, their water use and their vulnerability to disturbance whilst highlighting key uncertainties. These conceptual models emphasize the need for better integration of new findings from snow hydrology with ecosystem ecophysiology. To illustrate, we use results from an eco-hydrologic model, RHESSys, applied to focus sites that are a part of the Critical Zone Observatory network. We quantify how heterogeneity in snow process can interact with forest ecophysiology to strongly influence forest water use, productivity and vulnerability to disturbance. We conclude by discussing the importance of the co-production of knowledge, using both models and measurements from the often disparate snow hydrology and forest ecophysiology disciplines.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022AGUFM.H16F..05T