ESA to feature wide range of UW-Madison pre...(odel reveals that year-to-year variabili...)
odel reveals that year-to-year variability in precipitation supports greater frequency and intensity of wildfires.
High interannual climate variability can change vegetation patterns, favoring the expansion of grass cover at the expense of tree cover and, within forested areas, the expansion of deciduous forest at the expense of evergreen forests. These results offer insight into future global and regional ecosystem distributions and boundaries.
Contact: Michael Notaro, mnotaro@wisc.edu, (608) 261-1503
Presentation:
COS 18-1, Response of the mean global vegetation distribution to interannual climate variability (Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 8:00 a.m.)
To save fish, researchers look to trees
Native brook trout in streams on Wisconsin's Bayfield Peninsula have struggled for decades, mainly due to springtime floods of snowmelt that blanket their gravel spawning beds with sand and clay. Logging and denuded stream banks are often to blame when streams experience intense runoff. Yet, after being heavily logged in the late 1800s, this area along Lake Superior's south shore is mostly reforested. So, why is the problem continuing?
Drainage from farm fields and roads are partly to blame, but forest ecologists Jordan Muss and David Mladenoff think another answer may lie in the treetops. Though historically dominated by spruce, pine and other evergreens, the peninsula's forests today are mostly composed of deciduous trees. So, the pair hypothesized, when evergreens were abundant, perhaps their leafed branches in winter held more snow, allowing it to evaporate from the canopy rather than accumulate below. Two winters of data collection under a variety of the peninsula's forest types now support this: Snow pack drops by as much as 55 percent as canopy density increases.
The findings suggest that managing forests for more evergreen species could help curb runoff. The sc
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| Contact: Don Waller dmwaller@wisc.edu 608-263-2042 University of Wisconsin-Madison Source:Eurekalert |
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