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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Evaluating Climate And Environmental Drivers Of Tree Species’ Growth Within The Northern Forest, Rebecca Stern
Evaluating Climate And Environmental Drivers Of Tree Species’ Growth Within The Northern Forest, Rebecca Stern
Graduate College Dissertations and Theses
Northeastern forests are in a period of immense change. While forests are inherently dynamic ecosystems, a range of environmental challenges may cause unique and uncertain transformations within forests moving forward. How trees in northern forests respond to these environmental and anthropogenic changes remains uncertain; reductions and increases in the growth of various species and shifts in current species’ ranges may take place.
I analyzed associations between tree growth (assessed using xylem increment cores) and a range of site, climate, and pollution deposition variables for seven major tree species in Vermont. First, I looked at red oak (Quercus rubra L.), a …
Quantifying Tree Response To Alterations In Pollution Deposition And Climate Change In The Northeastern Us, Alexandra M. Kosiba
Quantifying Tree Response To Alterations In Pollution Deposition And Climate Change In The Northeastern Us, Alexandra M. Kosiba
Graduate College Dissertations and Theses
Understanding tree physiological responses to climate change is critical for quantifying forest carbon, predicting species' range change, and forecasting growth trajectories. Continued increases in temperature could push trees into conditions to which they are ill adapted -- such as decreased depth of winter snow cover, altered water regimes, and a lengthened effective growing season. A complicating factor is that in the northeastern United States, climate change is occurring on a backdrop of acid deposition and land-use change. In this dissertation, I used three studies to investigate the spatiotemporal nuances of resultant tree and sapling physiology to environmental change.
First, I …