• Dovciak, Martin
  SUNY ESF
  

Substantial warming of the world’s climate in recent decades is likely to affect the ecology of the Northern Forest where mountain forests occur along steep elevational climatic gradients. The overarching goal of the study was to improve biodiversity conservation and protected area management in the Northern Forest by providing information on the character and ecological mechanisms of ongoing changes in the region’s mountain forests. We collected vegetation, climatic, and soil data on long-term plots on Whiteface Mtn. and on new plots across the Northern Forest, and we determined that while (a) climate envelopes have shifted substantially upslope, (b) tree species distributions and growth have not yet clearly responded to warming, although they responded to improving precipitation chemistry and exhibited successional dynamics by reinvading areas that were historically logged. However, climate warming is projected to be of sufficient magnitude to cause many mountains in the region to lose climate characteristic of spruce-fir zone by 2100. Red spruce showed continuing recovery with its increasing growth over time and gradual colonization of lower elevations. Adapting forest management and biodiversity conservation to changing environmental conditions and forest composition will pose challenges as tree species showed individualistic responses rather than synchronous upslope migration patterns.