WELLKIND Forestry
Supporting Studies and Articles
Climate Change is Fueling Unprecedented Wildlife Declines
D'Ammassa, A. (2020, September 12). “'Hundreds of thousands, if not millions': New Mexico sees massive migratory bird deaths.” Las Cruces Sun News.
Gutierez, I. (2020, February 3). “California's role fighting the global biodiversity crisis.” National Resource Defense Council.
Read hereLeidy, R., and Moyle, P. (2021). “Keeping up with the status of freshwater fishes: A California (USA) perspective.” Conservation Science and Practice, 3(8), e474.
Read hereNational Audubon Society. (2014). Audubon’s birds and climate change report: A primer for practitioners. National Audubon Society, New York.
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First Protect, Then Plant
Moomaw, W., et al. (2019). “Intact forests in the United States: proforestation mitigates climate change and serves the greatest good.” Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 11.
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Forest Thinning is a Flawed Approach
Bradley, C.M., Hanson, C.T., & Della Sala, D.A. (2016). "Does increased forest protection correspond to higher fire severity in frequent-fire forests of the western United States?" Ecosphere, 7(10).
Read hereDellaSala, D., & Koopman M. (2018). "Thinning combined with biomass energy production impacts fire-adapted forests in western United States and may increase greenhouse gas emissions." Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene, 1, 491-498.
Read hereOdion, D., DellaSala, D., Hanson, C., Baker, W., Bond, M. (2014). "Effects of fire and commercial thinning on future habitat of the Northern spotted owl." The Open Ecology Journal, 7, 37-51.
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Global Tree Die-Off is Occurring
Berwyn, B. (2020, April 25.) “‘We need to hear these poor trees scream’: Unchecked global warming means big trouble for forests.” Inside Climate News.
Read hereBriggs, H. (2021, September 1.) “One in three trees face extinction in wild, says new report.” BBC News.
Read hereMcNellis, B.E. (2021). “Tree mortality in western U.S. forests forecasted using forest inventory and Random Forest classification.” Ecosphere, 12(3): eo3419.
Read hereStanke, H. et al. (2021). “Over half of western United States' most abundant tree species in decline.” Nature Communications, 12 (451).
Read hereU.S. Forest Service: Office of Sustainability and Climate. (2017, December.) “Drought and tree mortality in the Pacific Southwest region.” Fact sheet.
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Global Warming is Real and Proven
Lindsey, R. (2020, November 5.) How do we know the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is caused by humans? Climate.gov.
Read herePowell, J. (2019.) “Scientists reach 100% consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming.” Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society, 37(4):183-184.
Read hereRosen, J. (2021, April 19.) “The science of climate change explained: Facts, evidence and Proof.” The New York Times.
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Plants and Trees are Struggling to Return after Fires
Gee, A. (2021, March 10). “Is this the end of forests as we've known them?” The Guardian.
Read hereParks, S., et al. (2019). “Living on the edge: Trailing edge forests at risk of fire-facilitated conversion to non-forest.” Ecosphere, 10(3), e02651.
Read hereStevens-Rumann, C. (2018). “Evidence for declining forest resilience to wildfires under climate change.” Ecology Letters, 21, 243-252.
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Record-Breaking Droughts are Occurring
Asner, G.P., Brodrick, P.G., Anderson, C.B., Vaughn, N., Knapp, D.E., & Martin, R.E. (2016). "Progressive forest canopy water loss during the 2012–2015 California drought." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(2), E249-E255.
Read hereGriffin, D., & Anchukaitis, K.J. (2014). "How unusual is the 2012-2014 California drought?" Geophysical Research Letters, 41, 9017-9023.
Read hereDeaton, J., and Flin, B. (2021, July 1). “Running out of water: how climate change fuels a crisis in the US west.” The Guardian.
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Soil Health is Critical for Biodiversity
Gouden, M.L., & Bales, R.C. (2019). "California forest die-off linked to multi-year deep soil drying in 2012–2015 drought." Nature Geoscience, 12, 632-637.
Read hereHumphrey, V., et al. (2021). “Soil moisture–atmosphere feedback dominates land carbon uptake variability.” Nature 592, 65-69.
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The Ozone Hole is Expanding and UV Radiation is Damaging Plants
Benca, J.P., Duijnstee, I.A., & Looy, C.V. (2018). "UV-B–induced forest sterility: Implications of ozone shield failure in Earth's largest extinction." Science Advances, 4(2).
Read hereJulkunen-Tiitto, R. et al. (2005). “Growth and defense in deciduous trees and shrubs under UV-B.” Environmental Pollution 137(3), 404-414.
Read hereStrahan, S.E., & Douglass, A.R. (2018). Decline in Antarctic ozone depletion and lower stratospheric chlorine determined from aura microwave limb sounder observations. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(1), 382–390. Read here
Today’s Fires are Hotter and Faster than Ever
Smith, H., et al. (2021, August 19). “California faces unprecedented dangers as record heat, dryness combine with fierce winds.” The Los Angeles Times.
Read hereSweeney, D. (2020, September 29). “Glass Fire burned 1 acre every 5 seconds in California. How fast can wildfires grow? The Sacramento Bee.
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Trees = Water
Cerasoli, S., et al. (2021). “Cloud cooling effects of afforestation and reforestation at midlatitudes." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(13).
Read hereEllison, D., et al. (2017). “Trees, forests and water: Cool insights for a hot world.” Global Environmental Change, 43 (March 2017), 51-61.
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Trees Fight Climate Change
European Environment Agency (EEA). (2012). Trees help tackle climate change. European Environment Agency.
Read hereKindy, D. (2021, August 23). "Planting Trees Encourages Cloud Formation—and Efficiently Cools the Planet." Smithsonian Magazine.
Read hereValentini, R., Matteucci, G., Dolman, A., Schulze, E.-D., Rebmann, C., Moors, E., Granier, A., Gross, P., Jensen, N., Pilegaard, K., Lindroth, A., Grelle, A., Bernhofer, C., Grünwald, T., Aubinet, M., Ceulemans, R., Kowalski, A., Vesala, T., Rannik . . . Jarvis, P. (2000). "Respiration as the main determinant of carbon balance in European forests." Nature, 404, 861–865.
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We Can Help Native Plants to Adapt to Climate Change: E.G. Assisted Migration
Guglielmi, G. (2019, January 21) “Protecting Monarch Butterflies' Winter Home Could Mean Moving Hundreds of Trees.” Nature News.
Read hereHewitt, A. (2016, February 8). “Native plants fall behind as climate change transforms California.” University of California.
Read hereLazarus, Eli D., and McGill, Brian J. (2014, Aug. 27) “Pushing the Pace of Tree Species Migration.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science.
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