As we progress further into the 21st century, challenges facing natural resource management will be superimposed upon the resource demands of an increasing human population and a rapidly changing global climate. Unintended consequences of human activities such as atmospheric pollutants, nutrient deposition, and climate change all contribute to stresses and strains upon natural systems that lie well outside of our experience or present understanding. For example, the magnitude of present-day climate change far surpasses any known changes in the climate record of the last 800,000 years. Such climate changes may well produce forest systems unlike any that currently exist. Some consequences will be readily observable, such as fire and insect outbreaks, whereas others, such as species migration or changes in population genetic diversity, may take decades to occur. Even our largest scale experiments, such as the Aspen FACE experiment operated at our Harshaw Research Farm between 1997 and 2009, fall far short of representing long-term, landscape-scale responses of complex ecosystems. We have addressed these issues by defining research goals and studies to scale up our stand level results from climate change experiments to larger land areas and to analyze the impacts of climate change on tree population genetics.

Research Goals

Synthesize and scale up results from the Aspen FACE (Free Air Carbon Dioxide and Ozone Enrichment - FACTS-II) Experiment.

Determine rates of canopy CO₂ exchange for northern forests.

Develop a better understanding of population genetic responses to climate change scenarios.

Selected Research

• Use results from Aspen FACE to constrain existing ecosystem productivity models.
• Develop new growth and competition models under elevated CO₂ and O₃ scenarios.
  • Northern Forest Ecosystem Experiment: Aspen Regeneration and Carbon Cycling
• Develop relationships between tree responses to CO₂ and O₃ and changes in climate patterns.
  • Foliar biochemical indicators of environmental change and their relationship with site productivity
• Reduce genotypic uncertainties in scaling up Aspen FACE results.
• Use eddy covariance techniques to quantify canopy CO₂ and H₂O exchange rates, and apply modeling and upscaling methods across a range of forest types and ages.
• Determine plant-insect interactions in CO₂- and O₃-enriched atmospheres.
  • Tracing the movement of an invasive insect using stable isotopes
  • Effects of Global Atmospheric Change on Forest Insects
• Assess the potential for native plant populations to adapt to large and rapid changes in climate and atmospheric CO₂.
  • The physiology, genetics, and distribution of ponderosa pine species vary with changes in elevation and environmental conditions
• Scale plant genetic responses to elevated atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ and O₃ by describing changes in the genetic diversity of populations.
  • Estimating fine root biomass with DNA fingerprints