A drought-induced shift in a forest/woodland ecotone: Rapid response to variation in climate
- Jemez Mountains Field Station, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
Ecotones are expected to shift relatively rapidly in response to changes in climate, but most studies relating climate change to ecotone shifts have evaluated time-scales of centuries or much longer. We used field observations, historic records, and GIS analyses of aerial photographs at several points in time between 1935 and 1991 to evaluate changes in the ecotone between ponderosa pine forest and pinon-juniper woodland on the Pajarito Plateau in northern New Mexico. A severe, regional drought occurred during this period in the 1950`s. High mortality of ponderosa pine and pinon trees occurred on relatively dry landscape positions during the drought, concurrent with associated outbreaks of bark beetles. Consequently, the ecotone between ponderosa pine forests and pinon-juniper woodlands shifted upslope by as much as 2 km, and mixed pinon-juniper woodlands were converted to overstories of only juniper at many sites. The 1950`s drought may have also reduced herbaceous ground cover in these ecotone areas, contributing to current high erosion-rates. The results demonstrate that changes in ecotones can occur rapidly over large areas and provide an analogue for the types of changes expected in many semiarid regions in response to climate warming.
- OSTI ID:
- 95737
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9507129-; ISSN 0012-9623; TRN: 95:004728-0002
- Journal Information:
- Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Vol. 76, Issue 2; Conference: 80. anniversary of the transdisciplinary nature of ecology, Snowbird, UT (United States), 30 Jul - 3 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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