Climate Change and United States Forests

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxii

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2. Seeking the Climate Change Signal

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Recent Changes in Climate and Forest Ecosystems

      • David L. Peterson, Kailey W. Marcinkowski

      Pages 3-11

   3. Projected Changes in Future Climate

      • Chelcy F. Miniat, David L. Peterson

      Pages 13-22

3. Effects of Climatic Variability and Change

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23

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   2. Forest Processes

      • Michael G. Ryan, James M. Vose, Paul J. Hanson, Louis R. Iverson, Chelcy F. Miniat, Charles H. Luce et al.

      Pages 25-54

   3. Disturbance Regimes and Stressors

      • Matthew P. Ayres, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Becky K. Kerns, Don McKenzie, Jeremy S. Littell, Lawrence E. Band et al.

      Pages 55-92

   4. Climate Change and Forest Values

      • David N. Wear, Linda A. Joyce, Brett J. Butler, Cassandra Johnson Gaither, David J. Nowak, Susan I. Stewart

      Pages 93-112

   5. Regional Highlights of Climate Change

      • David L. Peterson, Jane M. Wolken, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, Christian P. Giardina, Jeremy S. Littell, Linda A. Joyce et al.

      Pages 113-148

4. Responding to Climate Change

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 149-149

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   2. Managing Carbon

      • Kenneth E. Skog, Duncan C. McKinley, Richard A. Birdsey, Sarah J. Hines, Christopher W. Woodall, Elizabeth D. Reinhardt et al.

      Pages 151-182

   3. Adapting to Climate Change

      • Constance I. Millar, Christopher W. Swanston, David L. Peterson

      Pages 183-222

   4. Risk Assessment

      • Dennis S. Ojima, Louis R. Iverson, Brent L. Sohngen, James M. Vose, Christopher W. Woodall, Grant M. Domke et al.

      Pages 223-244

5. Scientific Issues and Priorities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 245-245

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   2. Research and Assessment in the Twenty-First Century

      • Toral Patel-Weynand, David L. Peterson, James M. Vose

      Pages 247-252

6. Back Matter

   Pages 253-261

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This volume offers a scientific assessment of the effects of climatic variability and change on forest resources in the United States. Derived from a report that provides technical input to the 2013 U.S. Global Change Research Program National Climate Assessment, the book serves as a framework for managing U.S. forest resources in the context of climate change. The authors focus on topics having the greatest potential to alter the structure and function of forest ecosystems, and therefore ecosystem services, by the end of the 21st century. Part I provides an environmental context for assessing the effects of climate change on forest resources, summarizing changes in environmental stressors, followed by state-of-science projections for future climatic conditions relevant to forest ecosystems. Part II offers a wide-ranging assessment of vulnerability of forest ecosystems and ecosystem services to climate change. The authors anticipate that altered disturbance regimes and stressors will have the biggest effects on forest ecosystems, causing long-term changes in forest conditions. Part III outlines responses to climate change, summarizing current status and trends in forest carbon, effects of carbon management, and carbon mitigation strategies. Adaptation strategies and a proposed framework for risk assessment, including case studies, provide a structured approach for projecting and responding to future changes in resource conditions and ecosystem services. Part IV describes how sustainable forest management, which guides activities on most public and private lands in the United States, can provide an overarching structure for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

• Climate change adaptation
• Climate change effects
• Climate change mitigation
• Ecological disturbance
• Forest ecosystems
• climate change
• landscape/regional and urban planning

From the book reviews:

Selected by Choice magazine as an "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2014

“This edited volume, which explores the impacts of climate change on US forests, consists of ten chapters, each written by a capable team of specialists. … The work synthesizes an impressive amount of research, and will serve well as a go-to resource, with extensive reference lists to direct interested readers back to the relevant primary literature. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners; two-year technical program students.” (A. Richardson, Choice, Vol. 51 (11), August, 2014)

• Pacific Northwest Research Station, U. S. Forest Service, Seattle, USA

  David L. Peterson

• Southern Research Station, U. S. Forest Service, Raleigh, USA

  James M. Vose

• Research and Development, U. S. Forest Service, Arlington, USA

  Toral Patel-Weynand

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