The results of the study, published in the industry publication Global Change Biology earlier in November, demonstrate that the effects of drought and larger fires driven by climate change will not be spread equally across forests in the Western United States over the next three decades.
A study that included Oregon State University calculated the carbon effects of several forest events: logging, reforestation, and fire among them. Beverly Law at OSU is the lead author of the study and a guest on Jefferson Public Radio.
A team of scientists — led by Beverly Law, a professor in the College of Forestry at OSU; Tara Hudiburg, an assistant professor in U of I’s Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences in the College of Natural Resources; and U of I postdoctoral researcher Jeffrey Kent — analyzed how different forest management strategies in Oregon altered the annual net amount of carbon stored in the state’s forests and net carbon emissions entering the atmosphere.
“From a regional perspective, the differences in projected future changes are minor when you look at how much each projection says climate will change for the business-as-usual scenario,” said Yueyang Jiang, lead author and a postdoctoral scientist at OSU. “The climate projections were created using different downscaling methods, but the projected changes in climate among them are similar at the regional scale.”
The article was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Warm spring reduced carbon cycle impact of the 2012 US summer drought
"It takes decades to centuries for carbon to accumulate in what I call the forest carbon bank." - Dr. Bev Law