The Seedlot Selection Tool and Climate-Smart Restoration Tool are web-based tools designed to match seedlots with planting sites assuming that seedlots are adapted to the past climates in which they evolved, primarily with respect to temperature and aridity. The tools map the climatic match of seedlots with the past or projected climates of planting sites. The challenge is that future climates are a moving target, which means that seedlots must be adapted to the near-term climates as well as the climates of the mid- to late-21st century. Because climate projections are uncertain, the prudent approach is to aim for the warmest climate that may be expected while ensuring that seedlots moved from warmer to colder locales are not moved so far that they risk cold damage. Uncertainty in climate projections may be mitigated by ensuring genetic diversity through mixing seed sources and having collections from many parents per seed source. Three examples illustrate how to effectively use the web tools: (1) choosing seedlots targeting different future climates for a mid-elevation Douglas-fir site in the Washington Cascades, (2) finding current and future seed sources for restoration of big sagebrush after fires in the Great Basin and Snake River Plain, and (3) planning to ensure that a Douglas-fir seed inventory includes seedlots suitable for future climates in western Oregon and Washington.
Analysis of a 10 year reciprocal transplant study was performed to determine the influence of seed-source and local planting site climates on the bole taper of 8995 Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) trees. Trees were planted at 9 sites across Oregon and Washington, with 120 known families taken from 12 seed-source regions across California, Oregon, and Washington. Diameter at breast height (DBH) ranged from 0.1 to 22.9 cm, with tree ages ranging from 2 year-old seedlings to 12 year-old trees. Changes in Gini coefficients (ΔG) of diameters along tree boles, as a surrogate for changes in taper, were modeled as a function of age, site climate, and seed-source climate (Wang et al., in PLoS One 11, 2016) using universal response functions (URF) (Wang et al., in Ecol Appl 20:153–163, 2010). Lower Gini coefficients come from less tapered boles, i.e., more cylindrically shaped boles. There was significant influence on taper from five site climate variables: mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), beginning of frost-free period (bFFP), difference between minimum and maximum monthly temperatures (TD), and summer heat-moisture index (SHM). These results suggest that cooler years with more precipitation, early springs, large TD and hot dry summers reduce tree taper. There was significant influence on taper from three seed-source climate variables: percent precipitation as snow (PAS), Hargrave’s climate moisture deficit (CMD), and TD. These results suggest dry regions with large ranges in monthly temperatures and low snowfall will produce seed-sources with lower Gini coefficients. Projections under future climates using an ensemble model show areas where G estimates are currently highest showed increases in G, while areas with the lowest G estimates decreased. Most of the Douglas-fir region shows declines in Gini coefficients under high emissions scenarios. These predicted changes in taper have direct implications for wood volume and carbon mass estimates of trees under future climates.
Experimental forests and ranges (EFRs) are a network of long-term, dedicated research sites that have been established nationwide by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS), and include several collaborating research sites managed by other federal and state land management agencies (Adams et al. 2008, Lugo et al. 2006). Most were originally established to investigate the environmental effects of forest management practices, but, over time, many have become venues for long-term environmental monitoring and for investigations of fundamental ecological processes in these forests and the streams that drain them. Both federal and state water quality regulatory agencies potentially could use the research results produced at EFRs to provide a scientific basis for setting and enforcing regulations to protect the quality of the nation’s water resources. Although some state regulatory agencies have drawn upon EFR research results, this scientific resource has not been systematically used by the regulatory community despite its widespread recognition as a reliable source of relevant, peer-reviewed, scientific findings by the research and land management communities. This synthesis is a step toward facilitating use of science from EFRs by water quality regulatory agencies by informing them of existing research and monitoring that have been done at EFRs and by identifying what future investigations at EFRs could fill important regulatory science needs. The focus of this report is a question that is nationally important to water quality regulatory agencies: What are biological responses to stream nutrients?
Streams and rivers are a rich repository of minute traces of genetic material from all organisms that live in or near the water, from the tiniest microbes to fish, mammals, and trees. This environmental DNA (eDNA) can tell a detailed story about the life within and around the waterbody.
Brooke Penaluna and Richard Cronn, scientists with USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, have spent the past several years studying the potential uses of eDNA as a tool for understanding what’s living in Pacific Northwest streams. Through eDNA analysis, they have identified more than 900 taxa living in Fall Creek in western Oregon. And they were able to identify distinctions within species, giving a more nuanced picture of what’s inhabiting Northwest waters. Penaluna also found that the distribution of coastal cutthroat trout in 60 streams in Oregon and Washington was more extensive than previously thought.
Their methods show promise as a survey tool for public and private natural resource managers who are tasked with protecting endangered fish and other species, as well as monitoring the introduction of aquatic invasive species. The current survey method, in use since the 1960s, is electrofishing, which is more labor-intensive, can only be done in wadable water, and is potentially hazardous to stream life.
More work needs to be done to make eDNA analysis an efficient and costeffective tool in the field, but the possibilities are nearly endless.
Chapters 2 through 19 of this report describe existing research results and monitoring datasets from individual experimental forests and ranges (EFRs) of potential use to water quality regulatory agencies. Research addressing the focus question of biological responses to stream nutrients differs among the reviewed EFRs. For example, all of the reviewed EFRs have studies that might be useful for the reference waterbody approach for developing nutrient criteria, while only some of those EFRs have results that would be applicable to the stressor-response modeling approach. In addition, the EFRs reviewed in this synthesis had science or monitoring products of broader interest to regulatory agencies that go beyond the focus question. Important but unfilled research needs of regulatory agencies were identified, and these could be addressed by future research studies at individual EFRs. Research networks, composed of multiple EFRs, have the potential to be used for addressing science needs of regulatory agencies at multiregional or national scales.
The Olympic Experimental State Forest (OESF) covers more than 110 000 ha on the western Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington. The forest consists of state trust lands that are administered by Washington Department of Natural Resources (WADNR). The OESF is a working forest, managed to produce commercial timber sustainably and to provide ecological values, such as biodiversity and long-term site productivity. The OESF has an additional mandate, unlike other state trust lands in western Washington, to experiment with innovative land management practices and to put the research results into practice for continuous improvement of forest management. The long-term vision for the OESF is “of a commercial forest in which ecological health is maintained through innovative integration of forest production activities and conservation” (WADNR 1997). The focus of the OESF is environmental monitoring and applied research to reduce key uncertainties in natural resource management. It also facilitates scientific projects at OESF by external researchers on a variety of environmental topics. Because the OESF consists of numerous parcels of state-owned land interspersed with private, federal, and tribal lands (fig. 12.1), this synthesis also includes research and data from neighboring lands that are within the same drainage basins as the OESF parcels.
This chapter is a review and synthesis of research conducted at Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) on stream nutrients and biological responses. It is intended to inform national and regional water quality regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, about existing results of relevant scientific studies that are available at LEF, and to identify future field and synthetic research of potential use to regulatory agencies that might be conducted at LEF.
This chapter synthesizes environmental monitoring and studies performed at Sagehen Experimental Forest (SHEF) that are relevant to water quality regulatory agencies and suggests research needs of importance to regulators that might be met at SHEF.
This chapter is a review and synthesis of research conducted at Fraser Experimental Forest (FEF) on stream chemical nutrients, contributing factors, and biological responses to them. It is intended to inform national and regional water quality regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), about existing results of relevant scientific studies that are available at FEF, and to identify future field and synthetic research of potential use to regulatory agencies that might be conducted at FEF.
Along with altering fire regimes; climate change has the potential to increase stream temperatures in many freshwater systems in the western United States.
Mission
We increase understanding of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems and their linkages
Our Value
We provide knowledge of agents and pathways of change in terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems to managers, policy and decision makers, regulators, and the public. Our work explores key biological, physical, and social aspects of forest ecosystems and supports science-management partnerships vital to meeting society’s goals for forest goods and services.
Our Focus
Improve knowledge of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecology and their linkages
Develop integrated management alternatives to provide desired goods and services
Create and refine models, databases, and tools to evaluate management alternatives
Our Expertise
Biological Conservation
Botany
Ecological Modeling
Fish Biology
Forest Science
Freshwater Biology
Genomics & Nucleic Acids
Molecular Biology Methods
Molecular Ecology
Soil Analysis
Wildlife Management
How We Work
We support and encourage collaborations among program scientists and staff, irrespective of team boundaries, and with scientists in other programs to leverage the talent needed to answer the increasingly integrated questions. We promote integration of skills to answer the broad-based questions society is asking about interrelationships and processes.
Engineered log jams and rock barbs extending from streambanks were installed to enhance instream habitat for Chinook salmon and steelhead in the Entiat River watershed; Washington. Scientists found more Chinook salmon using pools and the microhabitats created by the restoration structures compared to sites without restoration structures.
Mission
We increase understanding of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems and their linkages
Our Value
We provide knowledge of agents and pathways of change in terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems to managers, policy and decision makers, regulators, and the public. Our work explores key biological, physical, and social aspects of forest ecosystems and supports science-management partnerships vital to meeting society’s goals for forest goods and services.
Our Focus
Improve knowledge of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecology and their linkages
Develop integrated management alternatives to provide desired goods and services
Create and refine models, databases, and tools to evaluate management alternatives
Our Expertise
Biological Conservation
Botany
Ecological Modeling
Fish Biology
Forest Science
Freshwater Biology
Genomics & Nucleic Acids
Molecular Biology Methods
Molecular Ecology
Soil Analysis
Wildlife Management
How We Work
We support and encourage collaborations among program scientists and staff, irrespective of team boundaries, and with scientists in other programs to leverage the talent needed to answer the increasingly integrated questions. We promote integration of skills to answer the broad-based questions society is asking about interrelationships and processes.
Warmer winters resulting from climate change will lead to higher streamflows in southeast Alaska. Some studies suggest that the higher flows will result in more salmon egg mortality as the eggs are scoured from the streambed. However; the geomorphic features of a stream largely determine the response of the streambed to high flows.
Mission
We increase understanding of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems and their linkages
Our Value
We provide knowledge of agents and pathways of change in terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems to managers, policy and decision makers, regulators, and the public. Our work explores key biological, physical, and social aspects of forest ecosystems and supports science-management partnerships vital to meeting society’s goals for forest goods and services.
Our Focus
Improve knowledge of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecology and their linkages
Develop integrated management alternatives to provide desired goods and services
Create and refine models, databases, and tools to evaluate management alternatives
Our Expertise
Biological Conservation
Botany
Ecological Modeling
Fish Biology
Forest Science
Freshwater Biology
Genomics & Nucleic Acids
Molecular Biology Methods
Molecular Ecology
Soil Analysis
Wildlife Management
How We Work
We support and encourage collaborations among program scientists and staff, irrespective of team boundaries, and with scientists in other programs to leverage the talent needed to answer the increasingly integrated questions. We promote integration of skills to answer the broad-based questions society is asking about interrelationships and processes.
Volcanoes are broadly distributed around the earth; with more than 1;500 currently active and dozens erupting at any point in time. After eruptions; natural; agricultural; and social systems are often profoundly disrupted and may remain so for centuries. The formal study of volcano ecology began in 1883 with the eruption of Krakatau (Indonesia).
Mission
We increase understanding of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems and their linkages
Our Value
We provide knowledge of agents and pathways of change in terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecosystems to managers, policy and decision makers, regulators, and the public. Our work explores key biological, physical, and social aspects of forest ecosystems and supports science-management partnerships vital to meeting society’s goals for forest goods and services.
Our Focus
Improve knowledge of terrestrial, aquatic, and riparian ecology and their linkages
Develop integrated management alternatives to provide desired goods and services
Create and refine models, databases, and tools to evaluate management alternatives
Our Expertise
Biological Conservation
Botany
Ecological Modeling
Fish Biology
Forest Science
Freshwater Biology
Genomics & Nucleic Acids
Molecular Biology Methods
Molecular Ecology
Soil Analysis
Wildlife Management
How We Work
We support and encourage collaborations among program scientists and staff, irrespective of team boundaries, and with scientists in other programs to leverage the talent needed to answer the increasingly integrated questions. We promote integration of skills to answer the broad-based questions society is asking about interrelationships and processes.
